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Ludwig Gies "Angriff"


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Angriff800.jpg

 

Ludwig Gies, 1914, Cast Bronze, broad oval, uniface 74.5mm, 65.7g., Edge-punch: C.Poellath Schrobenhausen. Ernsting WVZ64.RRRR

 

Six Examples exist, three in museums at Brussels, London, and Paris and three examples in private collections (including this example).

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Gies was a pacifist and he used archaic allegory to represent war events and weapons.

 

I believe that Gies is using his horse-drawn cart packed with medieval warriors with pikes as an allegory to the first use of the German A7V tank.

 

A7VTank.jpg

 

If I am correct then this undated medal may have been made later than 1914/15 as Ernsting has placed it and rather closer to 1918 with the first deployment of the German tank. It is also possible that he may have been thinking of the British tanks first deployed in 1916. The British tank, however, did not require a 16/17 man crew to run it like the A7V

 

I just realized that I had posted this medal here previously when I first acquired it...sorry about that. We are, however, discussing the subject matter further this time around. :D

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Another possibility as to what the medal represents, the movement of the German troops by train, that would have the added advantage that the date given by Emsting, 1814/15 would be correct. The horses would indicate the locomotive & the speed with which the troops could be deployed to the theatre of operation, the cart would then be the freight wagon.

 

Picture from Wikipedia "German soldiers on the way to the front in 1914. A message on the freight car spells out "Trip to Paris"; early in the war all sides expected the conflict to be a short one."

German_soldiers_in_a_railroad_car_on_the_way_to_the_front_during_early_World_War_I%2C_taken_in_1914._Taken_from_greatwar.nl_site.jpg

Or perhaps this was his inspiration, German troops pictured in the locomotive bunker.

ger-troops-train.jpg

Picture from http://www.historypl...roops-train.htm

83.41.92%20German%20and%20Austrian%20soldiers%20riding%20on%20tender%20(1)%20compressed.jpg

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Thanks Constanius, yes, it could be a train too. Either of our examples help us get to the point of how Gies handled the topic of war in his art.

 

I have another medal that exhibits a more telling analogy...two fish sitting in the ocean, face to face and spitting water at one another with medieval piked warriors on the back of each. More obvious than this one.

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