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World War I Propaganda. In 1914, the Germans struck an interesting propaganda medal designed by Artur Loewental. The medal was a tribute to general Alexander von Kluck, in anticipation of him capturing Paris in 1914. However, the German advance on Paris failed thanks to the successful counterattack of the Allies on the Marne. Lowental’s image of the “Fury of War,” with torches in both hands, riding towards Paris, captivated other artists. It was later parodied by the French artist, Edmund Dulac (1882-1953), who designed a medal to commemorate the “turn of the tide,” in which a skeletal female figure sits astride a skeletal horse facing right, and holding a burnt-out torch in either hand. The inscription reads “1917 NACH HAUSE." The German design was also used in Allied war propaganda emphasizing German atrocities during WWI: the burning of Louvain in 1914 during the “rape of Belgium”; the sinking of the British ocean liner in 1915; the execution of a British nurse, Edith Cavell, for helping several allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium in 1915; the execution of a British mariner, Captain Charles Fryatt in 1916; and the remembering victims of the European cities bombed by German zeppelins between 1914-1918.

Medal

Copper. 1914, but about 1918. Unsigned. Remembering German atrocities of the World War I.

Size

35 mm

Artist

Unknown.

Obverse

A Fury of War, personified by a naked woman on a horse, riding to left, with a torch in her left hand, and Paris in flames under the hooves; at left, NACH / PARIS in two lines, and at right, 1914.

Reverse

In the field, between two separation marks, LOUVAIN / THE LUSITANIA / EDITH CAVELL / CAPT. FRYATT / THE ZEPPELIN / VICTIMS in six parallel lines; in a curve around, from lower left THE PRUSSIAN IS CRUEL BY BIRTH CIVILIZATION WILL MAKE HIM FEROCIOUS – GOETHE - .

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