It seems that in the last European war prisoner medals were issued privately only. The extensive search for such medals carried on by the author in numismatic literature and dealers’ catalogues as well as through interviewing of collectors and dealers, yielded only four items. Three are of German origin, only one is French. None of these medals has aroused as yet the attention or curiosity of numismatists in general or of collectors of medals in particular.
German Capture Medal by L. Gies
Because of its medallic representation a typically German “war medal” will be mentioned first. No specimen was available to this writer. None is found in the Museum of the American Numismatic Society in New York City. It is a unilateral bronze medal, measuring 64 millimeters in diameter, designed by the German artist. Ludwig Gies, whose initials L.G. appear on the obverse. It is one of the numerous “war medals” created by him in the beginning of the First World War. It depicts the act of capture. A German soldier is shown capturing and taking away a French, a Russian, an English, Belgian, Serbian, and a colonial native prisoner of war. A brief description, but no reproduction of this medal, is found in J. Schulman’s Catalogue LXV, of April 1916, p. 82, No. 809. It is pictured among the artist’s other war medals in Max Bernhart’s Die Muenchener Medaillenkunst der Gegenwart, Plate 15, No. 102, wherefrom the reproduction is made.
The medal reproduced here as No. 1, another German war prisoner medal, is a silver medal, of 37.67 grams, measuring forty-one millimeters in diameter. The obverse depicts the full figure of a German prisoner of war, dressed in his uniform, on which a sign PG (French: prisonnier de guerre) is visible. Standing on the shore of a river, being of course the Rhine, he holds his hands stretched out to express his fervent longing for his home country. Not only the mountains of the latter are visible on the opposite shore but also the home village with its little church in the foreground. The inscription in the left upper space of the medal, before the soldier’s eyes, reads: SEHNSUCHT (longing). The reverse bears the following inscription in a quadrangular space surrounded by ornaments: VOLKSBUND/ZUM SCHUTZE/DER DEUTSCHEN/KRIEGS u. ZIVIL/GEFANGENEN, meaning, “National Society for the Protection of German Military and Civil Prisoners of War.” On the rim of the medal name and place of the producing firm are visible: C. Poellat, Schrobenhausen. The designer’s name does not appear on the medal. No year is given. In accordance with the aims of the issuing society the medal was probably destined to promote interest in and support of the German prisoners of war in enemy land. No records or accounts of the activities of this society were available in this country. Nevertheless it is safe to assume the following. Sending of food parcels from Germany was possible only in the first years of war. But even later, in the period of grave food shortage, funds were still needed and actually raised for clothing, and particularly for books, which were continuously sent to prisoner camps in great quantities. A specimen of this medal is in the collection of Dr. Bruno Kisch, New York City.
No. 1
German Volksbund for Prisoners Medal
There is a French counterpart to this medal. A small medal, 26 millimeters in diameter, similar to No. 1 in its motives, but apparently more artistically designed, is known to have been struck in France. No specimen is available in this country. According to the brief description in J. Schulman’s Catalogue LXXIII it was designed by O. Yencesse and executed in a silvery white metal. The obverse shows a French soldier seated in an attitude of despondency. The inscription reads: POUR NOS—PRISONNIERS. that is: “For Our Prisoners.” On the reverse a dove is visible bearing in its bill an olive branch. Below is the date 1916. The motive of the issuance of this medal was patently fund raising.
No. 2 is a medal made of hard white metal, and struck for the German prisoners of war interned at Douglas, Isle of Man, to commemorate their detention there. Its diameter measures 46 millimeters. On the top there is a rectangular vertical loophole. The obverse shows the Douglas prison camp, in the foreground its barracks and huts, also an unfolded banner is visible; in the background a fortress at the left of the beholder, and a lighthouse at the right. Between the fortress and the lighthouse is the Manx triskelion or triquerta, occupying a prominent place in the upper center. The entire picture on the obverse is enclosed by a surrounding wreath of barbed wire. The reverse has a wreath of leaves with a panel in the middle. The inscription reads, in the upper segment: WELTKRIEG 1914-1915 (“World War 1914-1915”); in the lower: DOUGLAS ISLE OF MAN; in the middle: ERINNERUNG AN DIE KRIEGSHAFT (“In commemoration of war detention”). No artist’s name is given. Specimens of this medal are found in the museum of the American Numismatic Society, New York City, and in this writer’s collection. The first mentioned specimen is in an (original) plain wooden case with no ornament. Other wooden cases are known, on the cover of which an inlaid design is visible representing an open-jawed snake as the symbol of war. The words Weltkrieg 1914/15 are added on the case. This medal was pictured and briefly, though not exactly, described in The New York Times of August 26, 1916. In The Numismatist of March 1916, a reproduction with a few explanatory lines was also published, the medal having been exhibited at the January meeting of the New York Numismatic Club.
