Large Goetz Medal - The Three Counts of Spee

Zohar · November 2, 2011 11:07AM

Commemorative medal by Goetz, World War I depicting Admiral Count Heinrich von Spee, His Death and of his two sons, Battle of the Falkland Islands, 1914.

Diameter: 102.6mm. Kienast 146. I found this interesting original article from 1918 by the New York Times highlighting this medal among others as having an "Appeal to the Passions" as War Propaganda. 1918 NY Times Article

Obv. Count Maximilian Spee, sons Heinrich and Otto, 10-line tribute, Off the Falkland Islands on the High Seas lie three German Heroes, three Counts Spee.
Rev. Eagle with laurels over South Atlantic. E200-300 Sunk in battle off the Falklands were S.M.S. Scharnhorst, commanded by Admiral von Spee; Gneisenau and Nurnberg, served by his sons, 6 December, 1914. Heinrich von Spee commanded the German squadron on the Scharnhorst , his sons Maximilian and Otto were Lieutenants on the Gneisenau and Nürnberg respectively

To give you a sense of the large size of this medal, see it aside a 60mm shooting medal I have.

TwoKopeiki · November 2, 2011 11:23PM

That thing is huge!

Nice pick-up, Z.

lordmarcovan · November 2, 2011 11:59PM

So 'tis a vertiable manhole cover, then? Wow.

A handsome one, at that.

What's in the water, directly below the eagle's talons? An oddly stylized wave, breaking?

Or is it the fingertips of a drowning man who's going under for the last time?

I initially made that latter comparison facetiously, but it was the first thing that popped into my head. And since the medal IS about drowning, when you get right down to it, maybe it is just that? Seems like Goetz would've given us a hand hand sticking up out of the water to clue us in, if that were the case, but then again, maybe he wanted to be more subtle about it.