The Medals of Karl Goetz

Set Description
Karl Goetz (?-1950) was a German medalist based in Munich. Very little is known of the man himself. Most of what we know came from an autobiography written years after his death by Gunter Kienast. This was devoted mostly to his work so there is still little knowledge of his personal life. During his career he produced over 750 medals. Many of these are beautiful pieces of art. However, he is most known and judged for satirical pieces created during WWI.

My first knowledge of Goetz was due to my collection of Zeppelin medals and coinage. I had a growing collection of zeppelin pieces and came across one by Goetz. You could say that this led me down the rabbit hole.

Goetz’s preferred method of medal production was by casting and typically in a very large diameter. He began by creating a wax model using a process known as “artistic casting” which used sand castings that could only be used 1 time. He did all the finishing himself which was very labor intensive and time consuming. This is why larger cast medals are scarce. Many of his pieces were struck in reduced sizes in bronze, silver and sometimes gold at a later date.

Goetz was not a fan of the treaty of Versailles or our President Woodrow Wilson. These are frequent targets of his political jabs. One of my favorite pieces is the “Bismark Mausoleum”. He used this medal to display his annoyance at the current administration in destroying what he felt Bismarck accomplished. Goetz was already advocating for revenge when the treaty of Versailles had just stripped them of their military capabilities.

Goetz attributed the quote on the reverse of the “Bismark Mausoleum” medal to Bismark although it doesn’t appear that he ever said this. Later, the allies used this medal as “proof” that Germany was already plotting revenge.

In my opinion many of these are equivalent to political cartoons of the era. Many of his medals are judged as being offensive now but we should keep an open mind to how people felt at the time, on both sides of the war. Goetz was a patriot that in many cases was creating art that he hoped would motivate his countrymen.

As Goetz’s material was becoming more popular and unauthorized strikings were being created, a friend of his suggested that he make a mark on the edge would easily identify authentic pieces from re-strikes. Apparently, Goetz liked this idea but did so inconsistently. Only a handful of the pieces I own are marked. All are stamped either K. Goetz or just GoeTz on the edge.

The medal portraying the sinking of the Lusitania is probably the most recognizable of all Goetz medals. The originals were cast 58mm pieces. The obverse shows the Lusitania sinking with the inscription “The Liner Lusitania sunk by a German submarine on May 7th, 1915”. Above inscription “No Contraband”. The original pieces had the incorrect date of the sinking as May 5, 1915, when in fact it sank on May 7th. The allies used this as propaganda, implying that Germany had the attach pre-planned, and Goetz had a medal ready for production. The truth is that Goetz got the date from an incorrect newspaper article. Great Britain and others, including the United States used this as propaganda for many years. You can commonly find iron pieces in a nice box with paperwork. These are all British made propaganda items. There is a later US made piece where the skeleton has a “pumpkin” shaped head.

I recently read “Dead Wake”, the story of the sinking of the Lusitania. The week before sailing from New York American newspapers ran a report that the Lusitania was a target for German U-boats. Most of the passengers were aware of this but they assumed that with all the safety measures the Lusitania was completely safe. In a cost cutting measure, the Cunard cruise line ordered the captain of the Lusitania to only run 3 of his 4 engines, cutting the maximum speed by 25%. British warships were supposed to escort all commercial vessels coming into port, but this didn’t happened. It was deemed to be too dangerous for the warships to be on the channel. Commercial vessels had been advised to take an alternate route to avoid know U-boat traffic. This message never made it to the captain of the Lusitania.

There are a lot of both legitimate and illegitimate restrikes. They are typically very easy to identify if you have handled any authentic pieces.

The medal that is typically referred to as the “Black Shame” medal is another recognizable piece and found offensive to most viewers. Protesting the sending of black colonial French troops to occupy the Rhine territory. Reverse legend: The Black Shame. Later versions were altered to show the woman tied to a post. After the war the French government tried to sue Goetz over this medal and several with similar themes. His defense that he was simply bringing to light potential war crimes was affective. Modern copies are abundant on eBay.

WWI was a very financially successful time for Goetz. He continued to fill orders from around the world for decades afterwards for these medals.

Starting in 1923 his work was mostly not satirical in nature. In the WWII era Goetz was requested to create medals for the Nazi regime. Rumor is that he messed up both so severely that he wasn’t asked to create any more.

Collecting Goetz medals. The WWI propaganda medals are the most popular. The WWI air strikes destroyed all of Goetz’s records so actual quantities produced are unknown for every piece. The large cast pieces are the scarcest. Later on, he created dies for many of these pieces to create silver and gold pieces in reduced sizes. He did this for business reasons. The cost to produce these medals was greatly reduced, making his work obtainable for a larger group of collectors. That said, I have only seen a handful of gold versions offered.

Died on September 8th, 1950. Paralyzed on one side of his body but still working till the end. His last finished medals were produced in 1949 although it is generally considered fact that his son, Guido, continued to fill orders for some time afterward.

Conclusion: Even if you find the satirical pieces too cartoonish and/or offensive for your liking, Karl Goetz produced hundreds of other medals. Many of these are artistic and would have been considered patriotic at the time.

Set Goals
I don't really have a goal other than to collect the medals that I like.