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
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
- Made by
- Karl Goetz, Munich medallist (private satirical medal)
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- German Empire
- Medium
- Object
- Issuer type
- Individual
- Regime
- German Empire
- Leader
- Wilhelm II
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- War and the military, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War I
- Techniques
- Transfer
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- National Museum of Romanian History, Bucharest (Culturalia / Europeana), 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
[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
[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.
