Lot 1685

Description

Germany, Die Wacht Am Rhein (The Watch on the Rhine) satirical medal, 1920, in bronze (36mm), by K.G (Karl Goetz) (Kienast 262), obverse, a French colonial soldier head to right, reverse, the Lorelei sits naked and tied to a tree in the form of an erect penis with a French helmet on top and the Lorelei's broken lyre nearby and watching from above is the Eye of God, around the outside is the legend, 'Die Schwarze Schande' (The Black Shame). Uncirculated and very scarce.

The medal was created as a protest by Karl Goetze against the black colonial French troops sent to occupy the Rhine, which in Goetze's eyes was a tactic used by the French to humiliate the Germans.