102850 | GERMANY & RUSSIA. Carnival cast bronze Medal.

102850  |  GERMANY & RUSSIA. Carnival cast bronze Medal. Dated 1919. "Fasching"—on the carnival that should not be celebrated (58mm, 68.49 g, 12h). By K. Goetz in München.

 

IM OSTEN DIE NEUE GEFAHR (a new danger in the East), facing bearded serpentine demonic head, with serpent-entwined bombs to left and right, and banner reading BOLSCHIWISMUS (Bolshevism) below // FASCHING, Germany (represented by the German eagle's head facing right) under the influence of agitators: her beak is padlocked, her talons are being plucked out with pliers by a British soldier, while a French and Chinese soldier look on; to upper left, German workers are forced to work ever harder in order to fulfil reparations; above, German citizens falsely dance in revelry under a pseudo liberty tree, surmounted by a phrygian cap. Edge: Casting pit as made, otherwise plain.

 

Kienast 223. Choice Mint State. Warm brown surfaces. Following Germany's defeat in World War I, Goetz feared that his country would be on a path of internal upheaval similar to that of Russia to the east. There, the ruling elites were driven brutally from power and, in the case of the czar and his family, to their deaths. As Wilhelm II was forced to flee, ending the over-700-year-rule of the House of Wittelsbach in the German realms, the situation seemed as though it could happen in Germany as well. It would turn out that Bolshevism wouldn't come there, but national socialism, the rise of Hitler just over a decade later, would prove the demonic figure presented on this medal all too true.

 

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Upload: 1 August 2024.