Germany's Good Friday, "Crucifixion" Medal by Karl Goetz

[Al Kowsky]

I've had a more than a casual interest in the medals of Karl Goetz. At one time I had a large collection of Goetz medals, was a good friend of the late Gunter Kienast, who authored the two iconic books on the medals of Karl Goetz, and was an acknowledged contributor to his second book. Many collectors scorn the medals of Karl Goetz because some of his creations were overtly racist, he made many medals for the Third Reich, and as so many Germans did, he turned a blind eye to the Nazi holocaust as it was happening. I think it's a great injustice to dismiss an entire body of work, over 800 medals, of a great medalist for these reasons, but I can also understand the feelings of collectors who shy away from his medals. One of the very rare Goetz medals that eluded me while I was collecting his medals was Opus 224, Germany's Good Friday, or as Goetz called it "Germany's Crucifixion". CNG E-Auction 529 offered a choice example of this medal that I won after a feverish bidding war. 

GERMANY, Weimar Republic, 1919. Medal by Karl Goetz, Opus 224. Cast AE: 90 mm, 196.10 gm, 12 h. Obverse: DEVTSCHLANDS KARFREITAG (Germany's Good Friday); Germania stands with her hands bound behind her back, and is restrained by balls and chains; to her left a social democrat offers her a sponge soaked in vinegar, an independent holds a sign reading SCHULD (guilt), and a communist is tearing off her loin cloth. In the background a large crowd is moving to the right with a man holding a flag that reads GENERAL STREIK (general strike), 1919 below Germania. Reverse: The "Big Four" around a globe: Lloyd George and Clemenceau are depicted as "the soldiers casting lots for the tunic", Woodrow Wilson is sitting in a chair holding a compass while prime minister Orlando of Italy stands behind him. Both Wilson and Orlando are staring fearfully in the sky as a hand writes BOLSHEVI(SM) in flaming letters. K.G behind chair. Ex PS Collection of Medals of the Great War, CNG E-Auction 529, lot 932; Ex Westfalische Auktionsgesellschaft 76, lot 890, September 7, 2016. Photo courtesy of CNG / Coin Archives. 

Gunter W. Kienast, author of The Medals of Karl Goetz, wrote of this medal "It will be seen that Goetz was not a "behind the scenes" power of post-World War I Germany and the Weimar Republic. He expressed the sentiments of many Germans as a reporter and spokesman, but this was all. He as not a shaper of mythology. The strongest voice in this respect came with Opus 224, "Germany's day of Crucifixion." The events and aftermath of WW I were chronicled by Goetz, from the German point of view, in his unique satirical style. The best of these medals were made of cast bronze and stylistically resemble medals made by the great Renaissance masters like Pisanello and Matteo de Pasti, who obviously influenced Goetz. Opus 224 expresses the humiliation and anger of the German people after losing the war. Germania is depicted like Jesus Christ, being sacrificed by different political groups in her own country. The Entente Powers are depicted as dividing the spoils of the German defeat. The reverse of this medal also contains a prophetic warning to the world, "Bolshevism", the Soviet Marxist-Leninist regime that was evolving in Russia at the same time WW I was underway. By accepting the Treaty of Versailles, Germany lost Alsace-Loraine, nearly all of West Prussia, and the Memel Territory. The coal and iron mines immediately became French territory, with an option for Germany to buy them back at a later date. Germany lost Upper Silesia, which was to have a plebiscite in 1921, and Eupen Malmedy was annexed to Belgium. The Conference of Paris, in January of 1921, set reparation payments in the amount of 269 billion gold-marks to be paid in 42 annual installments. In effect, the Treaty of Versailles led to the bankruptcy and collapse of the Weimar Republic, and opened the door to the Nazi movement led by Adolf Hitler.

Website members are welcome to post their medals of Karl Goetz or share any thoughts on this thread ☺️.

[CPK]

It's a masterfully engraved piece, that's for sure!

The imagery, viewed from our perspective, is a bit over the top, but I can see how it would resonate with the defeated and humiliated Germany after WWI.

[AETHER]

Educated people see this from numismatics point of view as well as history how it was presented at the period and region. Such pieces, and it should go without saying, are used to study and learn history, an in no way should influence today's people's view or otherwise. 

Aside from that, it's a stunning display of art and antiquity.

This is all my opinion and should also go without saying.

 

 

[Hrefn]

I have read that a million Gauls perished during Julius Caesar’s expansionist wars, but a piece of Caesar’s political propaganda holds a proud place in my collection.

 

I would never consider acquiring anything of Oliver Cromwell’s, however.  

I freely acknowledge that logic can play no role in this type of decision.  Karl Goetz made some powerful and outstanding medals;  whether his association with the dark side of human history debars all his work from one’s collection is more visceral than rational.  That is not to say it is illogical.  I own some coins of the Mongols.   Such ownership does not mean I support their policy toward conquered cities who refused to open the gates.  

A multiple dinar of Al Mustasim, last Caliph in Baghdad, thanks to the Mongols in AD 1258.  There wasn’t much left of Baghdad, either.  

A Mongol dinar

 

In the end, all coins and medals are, simultaneously, independent and unemotional witnesses of their epoch’s mores and culture, AND objects which can prompt complex emotional responses in us, the viewers.   We don’t often think about it, but Rome was a slave state.  The fact is remote enough from us in the present, that even the tenderest conscience would be untroubled by owning a aureus of Hadrian.  A medal of Stalin’s championing the Holodomor (if such a thing exists) would be much more problematic for me.   I would support its being in a museum, but I wouldn’t want to own it myself.  

A coin lamenting the Holodomor, or the Holocaust, is perfectly acceptable to me.  Not my picture, though I do own an example of the coin.

There is not enough whitewash to cover all of history.  A commitment to truth forbids us from obscuring it.  But the desire not to personally associate with some of the surviving objects of cruel and evil times is most comprehensible.  

 

 

 

[Al Kowsky]

2 hours ago, AETHER said:

Educated people see this from numismatics point of view as well as history how it was presented at the period and region. Such pieces, and it should go without saying, are used to study and learn history, an in no way should influence today's people's view or otherwise. 

Aside from that, it's a stunning display of art and antiquity.

This is all my opinion and should also go without saying.

 

 

AETHER, Thanks for looking at this medal objectively. Too many people vilify the loser of a war without understanding the historical facts. I learned the hardships & horrors the Germans faced firsthand from my father who was born in Bochum, Germany in 1909. My father was the only member of his family who was able to immigrate to the U.S. in 1930 because there were no jobs, not enough food, & most Germans were living in extreme poverty. He managed to find a job in a German restaurant in Rochester, NY, & as soon as he could, he started shipping food & essentials back to his family in Bochum. Sometimes people can't "bury the hatchet" regardless of the facts.

[AETHER]

@Al Kowsky I can relate, my parents fled communism to the US.  We are not responsible for the politics of our past, only our current. Cheers.

[Al Kowsky]

On 1/7/2023 at 11:07 AM, CPK said:

It's a masterfully engraved piece, that's for sure!

The imagery, viewed from our perspective, is a bit over the top, but I can see how it would resonate with the defeated and humiliated Germany after WWI.

CPK, The imagery on the medal may seem "over the top" unless you see it from the German point of view 😉. One thing I learned from my Army duty in Viet Nam is, no one wins a war, there are only losers.

[Al Kowsky]

1 hour ago, Hrefn said:

I have read that a million Gauls perished during Julius Caesar’s expansionist wars, but a piece of Caesar’s political propaganda holds a proud place in my collection.

 

I would never consider acquiring anything of Oliver Cromwell’s, however.  

I freely acknowledge that logic can play no role in this type of decision.  Karl Goetz made some powerful and outstanding medals;  whether his association with the dark side of human history debars all his work from one’s collection is more visceral than rational.  That is not to say it is illogical.  I own some coins of the Mongols.   Such ownership does not mean I support their policy toward conquered cities who refused to open the gates.  

A multiple dinar of Al Mustasim, last Caliph in Baghdad, thanks to the Mongols in AD 1258.  There wasn’t much left of Baghdad, either.  

A Mongol dinar

 

In the end, all coins and medals are, simultaneously, independent and unemotional witnesses of their epoch’s mores and culture, AND objects which can prompt complex emotional responses in us, the viewers.   We don’t often think about it, but Rome was a slave state.  The fact is remote enough from us in the present, that even the tenderest conscience would be untroubled by owning a aureus of Hadrian.  A medal of Stalin’s championing the Holodomor (if such a thing exists) would be much more problematic for me.   I would support its being in a museum, but I wouldn’t want to own it myself.  

A coin lamenting the Holodomor, or the Holocaust, is perfectly acceptable to me.  Not my picture, though I do own an example of the coin.

There is not enough whitewash to cover all of history.  A commitment to truth forbids us from obscuring it.  But the desire not to personally associate with some of the surviving objects of cruel and evil times is most comprehensible.  

 

 

 

Hrefn, I share your point of view & sentiments entirely 🤔.

[robinjojo]

The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 was a "victors'" punitive treaty that led to Germany's hyper inflation in the early to mid 1920s.  That consequence, along with the ensuing global depression, a weak central Weimar government, an equally weak, eviscerated international body (League of Nations), along with simmering German resentment against the Allies, helped set the stage for Hitler's rise and the tragedy World War II. 

The Allies recognized that punitive measures do not work, so enter the Marshal Plan following World War II. which reconstructed a worn-torn Europe, and the United Nations was created.  

Edited January 16, 2023 by robinjojo

[DonnaML]

4 hours ago, Al Kowsky said:

Too many people vilify the loser of a war without understanding the historical facts. 

You're talking about World War I, correct? If so, I agree with you, considering that my maternal grandfather fought for Germany in that war for four years, as did my grandmother's four brothers. Not that that did any of them any good when the Nazis came along, of course.

I've read Karl Goetz's post-1945 "I was not a Nazi" essay -- a classic exercise in apologetics that actually made me less favorably inclined towards him than I was before! But it is true that he never joined the Party, even though he obviously cooperated with and propagandized for the regime. In any event, I wouldn't buy any of his post-1933 medals. (Just like I wouldn't buy any coins issued under that regime, even without swastikas.)  And some of his 1920s medals are quite vile, like the famously racist portrayal of African French soldiers.  But I would have no problem owning some of his World War I medals. We all have to make choices about where to draw the line. For example,  the metaphor of "Germany as crucified Christ" after World War I, represented in the medal posted here, is a bit too close to home for me. Remember who was traditionally blamed for the actual crucifixion, and who specifically bore the brunt of the blame for Germany's defeat, in the form of the Dolchstosslegende -- a conspiracy theory that was already spreading widely before the war ended. Not to mention that the features of the "Communist" would have read a certain way in Germany at the time. 

Edited January 16, 2023 by DonnaML