The Other Side of the Medal

Surprisingly interesting exhibition at the British Museum looking at commutative medals made in Germany in World War I.

Yes it sounds dull doesn’t it but I found a fantastic collection of early German expressionist art! Whereas in England the anger at the war seemed to come out through the poetry in German they made medals.

There was a heavy use of death images and whole section at the end talking about the history of the German use of the Dance of Death and how it was picked up in the war. There was Death selling tickets to the passengers on the Lusitania, Death manipulating Zeppelins, despondent soldiers being led to death, Death pumping blood from a battle field etc.In some of the images Death was a metaphor for the allied armies but in other it was just death!

My favourite piece was a medal showing Zeppelin’s over Tower Bridge. This never happened but evidently it was rumoured to have done in Germany.

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