Ludwig Gies, "Warmongering", 1915, Cast bronze, 49.0mm, 30.1g. edge-stamped C.Poellath Schrobenhausen, RRR.

Museum examples located in Hamburg, London, Munich, New York, Stuttgart, and Vienna. This is one of three available for private collection.

It is not surprising that "Warmongering" was banned by the German High Command. Driven by primitive emotions, fired by State propaganda, the mass of bellicose people gather around the severed head of an enemy soldier whose carictured features in turn are intended to appeal to their lower instincts. The clenched gaunlet is raised as a sign of retaliation and aggressive rage; the gesture is echoed by some of the crowd.

A wonderful and rare example of Munich schooler medallic art.

Great medal. I'm interested in the population statistics. Medal collecting (as I understand it) is an outgrowth of coin collecting by the upper class in the Middle Ages and the rise of the medal as an art form in response to the interest in ancient coins, coin cabinets, etc. I assume the residual effects of the Middle Ages and the hobby of kings extended into the early 20th Century. Assuming that is a general description of the environment for the market for art medals, what might lead to such a small estimate for the population of your medal? Were it silver or gold, I could see that many would not have survived the economic hardship that followed WWI. But bronze? Were the production numbers really that low? Were the effects of the second world war so extreme that art did not survive? Or might we be seeing the effects of a lack of documentation?

By the way, that's a great medal.

Hi Bill, Gies was an artist and not a commercial artist like Goetz. Individual pieces were created in order to compete in art competitions of the time.

I'm on the road right now but once I'm back to my library at home this weekend I'll put together a decent response to your questions....