NEWP - Rare original cast bronze Lusitania Medal, PCGS MS64

Rexford

Just over one hundred years ago, on May 7th, 1915, in fine clear weather not far off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, the Cunard liner RMS Lusitania was struck by a torpedo. Of the nearly 2,000 passengers on board, 1,201 men, women and children were killed, including 128 American citizens. In what was perhaps Germany's greatest strategic and moral failure of WWI, a U-boat commander had ordered the passenger ship to be fired upon without first attempting to alert the crew and passengers. The reasoning for this is dispersed among theories that the ship was smuggling ammunition, that providing prior warning would have put the submarine in danger of being attacked, and because the Commander did not want to let the ship reach British ports.

In the wake of the ship's destruction, this contemporary satirical medal by German artist Karl Goetz would almost single-handedly launch a major shift of public opinion against Germany's actions, and directly influenced the United States declaration of war on Germany nearly two years later. It is highly important both as a milestone in the history of the first World War, and as one in the evolution of nationalistic propaganda.

The obverse of the piece displays the Lusitania slipping beneath the waves of the Celtic sea stern first (opposite to what actually occurred) and with obvious war contraband on her deck: a cannon, war planes, armaments, and vehicles, which (as certified by United States government officials after inspection) the Lusitania did not carry. The bow is depicted as being ram-shaped, a reference to the configuration of warships of the period. Above, the admonishment "Keine Bann Ware!" ("No Contraband Goods!") is inscribed, echoing the declaration from the German government that no one was to be permitted to transport ammunition or weapons to Great Britain. Below in the exergue, likewise in German, "The liner Lusitania sunk by a German submarine May 7th, 1915." This is Goetz' second obverse for the medal. The first version bore the incorrect date of "5. MAI," an error he later attributed to a flawed newspaper account of the wreck, and which, purposeful or not, was the main cause of the controversy that was to follow. On the reverse, the figure of Death sits at the New York booking office of the Cunard Line (the steamship company that owned the Lusitania) and sells tickets to passengers who flock to the booth to get their tickets before boarding. It is interesting that only men are depicted buying tickets; there were plenty of women and children on board the ship, but Goetz seems to have conveniently neglected to include showing them. To the left, one man reads a newspaper that threatens of U-boat danger or "U Boo[t] Gefah[r]", his fingers covering the T and R. Standing next to him is a top-hatted and bearded figure, a representation of the German Ambassador to the USA, Count Johann-Heinrich von Bernstorff, raising a warning finger. The significance of this reference is that on May 1st, 1915, the day Lusitania sailed from New York, a German-sponsored announcement appeared next to the Cunard advertisement in all New York papers reminding passengers that Germany was at war with Britain and its allies and that the war zone included the waters around the British Isles, and that vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, were liable to destruction in British waters. Above is the text "Geschaft uber Alles”, or "Business above all," and below are the initials K.G. for Karl Goetz.

Several months after the sinking of the Lusitania, in August of 1915, Goetz produced his first version of the Lusitania medal. He did so of his own accord, casting the pieces privately at home and without governmental support. His declared intent in creating the medal was to embarrass the Cunard Steamship Company and the British government for allowing a passenger ship to cross hostile waters despite previous warnings from Germany, and to mock the Allied obsession with ‘business’ and the supposed impartiality of the USA. In his view, there was great irresponsibility on the part of Great Britain and the Cunard Line in allowing the return of the liner from New York to Liverpool at a time of intense U-boat activity. Moreover, unrestricted submarine warfare was, since February 1915, Germany's formally announced countermeasure to the British naval blockade of Germany. Soon after the medals began production, an example of these pieces was picked up by the British Foreign Office as German propaganda, with the original incorrectly noted date of "5. MAI 1915". Seeing this, as well as the faulty depiction of the sinking of the ship, the medal was taken as proof that the attack was premeditated and intended for May 5th, with the medal being thought to have been produced before the actual attack took place (to make sense of the incorrect date). In retaliation, some 300,000 British cast-iron copies of Goetz’s medallion (original examples are cast bronze) were produced on the instructions of Captain Reginald Hall RN, Director of Naval Intelligence, and were widely sold as evidence of the German atrocities, with the view that Germany "seeks apparently to propound the theory that if a murderer warns his victim of his intention, the guilt of the crime will rest with the victim, not with the murderer." Copies would also be produced in America, France, Sweden, and Japan over time.

The widespread distribution of the British copies, with accompanying propagandist literature, undoubtedly prolonged the effect of the original sinking in influencing neutral opinion against Germany. The sinking of the Lusitania came to be regarded by the Allies as a crime demonstrating the degree of ‘frightfulness’ Germany was prepared to perpetuate in her pursuit of victory, placing a damaging strain on US-German relations and provoked, if not the decisive turning point in the then neutral USA’s attitude to the war, at least a powerful emotional commitment to the Allied cause. Washington’s protests resulted in German abandonment of unrestricted submarine warfare in September 1915, although almost two years would pass before America was to the war. It would ultimately be Germany’s decision to renew unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 that was the key factor in America joining on the Allied side.

After witnessing the backfire of criticism caused by the production of the medal, Goetz attempted to rectify the situation by re-issuing it with the corrected date of "7. MAI" (this is the type I have), but the damage was already done and the medal had lost its popularity in Germany. On January 18, 1917, Baron von Speidel of the War Office of the Kingdom of Bavaria wrote a memo to the I, II, and III Army Corps telling them that the "further manufacture and sale of the Lusitania medal... is forbidden and any available pieces are to be confiscated." There is no record of how many were actually confiscated, but in comparison to the 300,000 copies produced by Britain, the original medals were only produced in small quantities and can be considered very rare. Mintage figures for most of Goetz's pieces were lost during the bombing raids on Munich during the war, but in personal correspondence with the German Embassy in London via the State Department of Bavaria, Goetz is said to have noted that only 430 of the Lusitania pieces had been cast (Kienast, 1967). It's unclear if this amount includes both versions of his medal or just the original incorrectly dated medal, but the second type with the corrected date seems to be the rarer of the two. Simpson (1972) states that only 41 of the "7. MAI 1915" medal were made, but accounts differ. I found another source that states that around 200 of each type were produced, which sounds more accurate. My example is graded PCGS MS64 (finest known). 56.5mm. Kienast-156.

Namvet69

I like it. Death at the window is a nice touch. Peace Roy

coffeyce

@Rexford said:
Just over one hundred years ago, on May 7th, 1915, in fine clear weather not far off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, the Cunard liner RMS Lusitania was struck by a torpedo. Of the nearly 2,000 passengers on board, 1,201 men, women and children were killed, including 128 American citizens. In what was perhaps Germany's greatest strategic and moral failure of WWI, a U-boat commander had ordered the passenger ship to be fired upon without first attempting to alert the crew and passengers. The reasoning for this is dispersed among theories that the ship was smuggling ammunition, that providing prior warning would have put the submarine in danger of being attacked, and because the Commander did not want to let the ship reach British ports.

In the wake of the ship's destruction, this contemporary satirical medal by German artist Karl Goetz would almost single-handedly launch a major shift of public opinion against Germany's actions, and directly influenced the United States declaration of war on Germany nearly two years later. It is highly important both as a milestone in the history of the first World War, and as one in the evolution of nationalistic propaganda.

The obverse of the piece displays the Lusitania slipping beneath the waves of the Celtic sea stern first (opposite to what actually occurred) and with obvious war contraband on her deck: a cannon, war planes, armaments, and vehicles, which (as certified by United States government officials after inspection) the Lusitania did not carry. The bow is depicted as being ram-shaped, a reference to the configuration of warships of the period. Above, the admonishment "Keine Bann Ware!" ("No Contraband Goods!") is inscribed, echoing the declaration from the German government that no one was to be permitted to transport ammunition or weapons to Great Britain. Below in the exergue, likewise in German, "The liner Lusitania sunk by a German submarine May 7th, 1915." This is Goetz' second obverse for the medal. The first version bore the incorrect date of "5. MAI," an error he later attributed to a flawed newspaper account of the wreck, and which, purposeful or not, was the main cause of the controversy that was to follow. On the reverse, the figure of Death sits at the New York booking office of the Cunard Line (the steamship company that owned the Lusitania) and sells tickets to passengers who flock to the booth to get their tickets before boarding. It is interesting that only men are depicted buying tickets; there were plenty of women and children on board the ship, but Goetz seems to have conveniently neglected to include showing them. To the left, one man reads a newspaper that threatens of U-boat danger or "U Boo[t] Gefah[r]", his fingers covering the T and R. Standing next to him is a top-hatted and bearded figure, a representation of the German Ambassador to the USA, Count Johann-Heinrich von Bernstorff, raising a warning finger. The significance of this reference is that on May 1st, 1915, the day Lusitania sailed from New York, a German-sponsored announcement appeared next to the Cunard advertisement in all New York papers reminding passengers that Germany was at war with Britain and its allies and that the war zone included the waters around the British Isles, and that vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, were liable to destruction in British waters. Above is the text "Geschaft uber Alles”, or "Business above all," and below are the initials K.G. for Karl Goetz.

Several months after the sinking of the Lusitania, in August of 1915, Goetz produced his first version of the Lusitania medal. He did so of his own accord, casting the pieces privately at home and without governmental support. His declared intent in creating the medal was to embarrass the Cunard Steamship Company and the British government for allowing a passenger ship to cross hostile waters despite previous warnings from Germany, and to mock the Allied obsession with ‘business’ and the supposed impartiality of the USA. In his view, there was great irresponsibility on the part of Great Britain and the Cunard Line in allowing the return of the liner from New York to Liverpool at a time of intense U-boat activity. Moreover, unrestricted submarine warfare was, since February 1915, Germany's formally announced countermeasure to the British naval blockade of Germany. Soon after the medals began production, an example of these pieces was picked up by the British Foreign Office as German propaganda, with the original incorrectly noted date of "5. MAI 1915". Seeing this, as well as the faulty depiction of the sinking of the ship, the medal was taken as proof that the attack was premeditated and intended for May 5th, with the medal being thought to have been produced before the actual attack took place (to make sense of the incorrect date). In retaliation, some 300,000 British cast-iron copies of Goetz’s medallion (original examples are cast bronze) were produced on the instructions of Captain Reginald Hall RN, Director of Naval Intelligence, and were widely sold as evidence of the German atrocities, with the view that Germany "seeks apparently to propound the theory that if a murderer warns his victim of his intention, the guilt of the crime will rest with the victim, not with the murderer." Copies would also be produced in America, France, Sweden, and Japan over time.

The widespread distribution of the British copies, with accompanying propagandist literature, undoubtedly prolonged the effect of the original sinking in influencing neutral opinion against Germany. The sinking of the Lusitania came to be regarded by the Allies as a crime demonstrating the degree of ‘frightfulness’ Germany was prepared to perpetuate in her pursuit of victory, placing a damaging strain on US-German relations and provoked, if not the decisive turning point in the then neutral USA’s attitude to the war, at least a powerful emotional commitment to the Allied cause. Washington’s protests resulted in German abandonment of unrestricted submarine warfare in September 1915, although almost two years would pass before America was to the war. It would ultimately be Germany’s decision to renew unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 that was the key factor in America joining on the Allied side.

After witnessing the backfire of criticism caused by the production of the medal, Goetz attempted to rectify the situation by re-issuing it with the corrected date of "7. MAI" (this is the type I have), but the damage was already done and the medal had lost its popularity in Germany. On January 18, 1917, Baron von Speidel of the War Office of the Kingdom of Bavaria wrote a memo to the I, II, and III Army Corps telling them that the "further manufacture and sale of the Lusitania medal... is forbidden and any available pieces are to be confiscated." There is no record of how many were actually confiscated, but in comparison to the 300,000 copies produced by Britain, the original medals were only produced in small quantities and can be considered very rare. Mintage figures for most of Goetz's pieces were lost during the bombing raids on Munich during the war, but in personal correspondence with the German Embassy in London via the State Department of Bavaria, Goetz is said to have noted that only 430 of the Lusitania pieces had been cast (Kienast, 1967). It's unclear if this amount includes both versions of his medal or just the original incorrectly dated medal, but the second type with the corrected date seems to be the rarer of the two. Simpson (1972) states that only 41 of the "7. MAI 1915" medal were made, but accounts differ. I found another source that states that around 200 of each type were produced, which sounds more accurate. My example is graded PCGS MS64 (finest known). 56.5mm. Kienast-156.

very nice write up. I have never heard this story. thanks.

Chris

thisistheshow

Thank you for that great write-up. And congrats on owning such a nice example of a very important piece of history.

WildIdea

Congratulations on the new addition, its a wonderful piece. The write up is excellent and I have a strong appetite for any information I can read about Goetz and the time period these pieces where created. In his house no less. Fantastic.

Justacommeman

I throughly enjoyed that read. Great medal

m

Justacommeman

I’ve always felt this Lusitania medal was cool as well. It’s so art period correct

m