---
title: Karl Goetz "Lusitania" medal (Germany, 1915)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/goetz-lusitania-medal-1915/
description: 'Both faces of a cast-iron medal: one shows the liner sinking under the legend "Keine Bannware" and a dated caption, the other shows a skeleton selling…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** German satirical medal showing a sinking passenger liner and Death selling tickets, made after the 1915 sinking that killed over 1,100 people. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Karl Goetz "Lusitania" medal (Germany, 1915)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/goetz-lusitania-medal-1915.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/goetz-lusitania-medal-1915.jpg)

# Karl Goetz "Lusitania" medal (Germany, 1915)

Both faces of a cast-iron medal: one shows the liner sinking under the legend "Keine Bannware" and a dated caption, the other shows a skeleton selling tickets at a "Cunard Line" window under "Geschäft über alles". The tell is Death pasted onto the ticket office, blaming the line by allegory rather than argument.

- **Date:** 1915
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Karl Goetz, Munich medallist (private satirical medal)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [German Empire](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=german-empire)
- **Medium:** [Object](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=object)
- **Issuer type:** [Individual](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=individual)
- **Regime:** [German Empire](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=german-empire)
- **Leader:** [Wilhelm II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=wilhelm-ii)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Economy and finance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=economy-finance)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [National Museum of Romanian History, Bucharest (Culturalia / Europeana)](https://culturalia.ro/entities/6e3f1a80-5626-4092-a951-29c167df6c4c/view), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** CC BY-SA 4.0 (museum photographs); medal made 1915, U.S. public domain Medal by Karl Goetz, 1915. Photographs: Muzeul Național de Istorie a României, Culturalia / Europeana, CC BY-SA 4.0. Two images joined; reduced in size.

## Text on the object

Original (German) · checked against a source transcription

```
[obverse] KEINE BANN WARE
DER GROSSDAMPFER
= LUSITANIA =
DURCH EIN DEUTSCHES
TAUCHBOOT VERSENKT
5. MAI 1915

[reverse] GESCHÄFT ÜBER ALLES
CUNA LINIE / CUNARD
FAHRKARTEN AUSGABE
U BOOT GEFAHR
K • G
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
[obverse] NO CONTRABAND
THE LARGE STEAMER
= LUSITANIA =
SUNK BY A GERMAN
SUBMARINE
5 MAY 1915

[reverse] BUSINESS ABOVE ALL
CUNARD LINE
TICKET OFFICE
U-BOAT DANGER
K • G
```

Cast lettering is worn and uses V for U in places (for example LVSITANIA); read from the images and checked against the museum catalogue description, which gives the reverse ticket-window text as "CUNA LINIE / CUNARD / FAHRKARTEN AUSGABE". K•G are the engraver's initials.

[← Vote Against Woman Suffrage](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/georgia-vote-against-woman-suffrage-1915/) [Ireland & Poland (recruiting appeal quoting the Rev. William P. Burke) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ireland-and-poland-1915/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)