--- title: Gold gab ich zur Wehr, Eisen nahm ich zur Ehr (I Gave Gold for Defence, I Took Iron for Honour) url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-gab-ich-zur-wehr-1916/ description: A kneeling woman in black silhouette, framed like a commemorative medal, holds out a gold chain under the rhyme 'I gave gold for defence, I took iron for… section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [![Gold gab ich zur Wehr, Eisen nahm ich zur Ehr (I Gave Gold for Defence, I Took Iron for Honour)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gold-gab-ich-zur-wehr-1916.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gold-gab-ich-zur-wehr-1916.jpg) # Gold gab ich zur Wehr, Eisen nahm ich zur Ehr (I Gave Gold for Defence, I Took Iron for Honour) A kneeling woman in black silhouette, framed like a commemorative medal, holds out a gold chain under the rhyme 'I gave gold for defence, I took iron for honour' and the instruction 'Bring your gold jewellery to the gold-purchase offices!' The rhyme reworks the 1813 Prussian slogan 'Gold gab ich für Eisen', lending the prestige of the Wars of Liberation to a 1916 collection drive. - **Date:** 1916 - **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi) - **Made by:** German gold-collection drive (Goldankaufsstellen); artist Julius Gipkens after a medal by Hermann Hosaeus - **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe) - **Country:** [German Empire](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=german-empire) - **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster) - **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state) - **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:** [Fundraise](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=fundraise) - **Themes:** [Economy and finance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=economy-finance), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front), [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military) - **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:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2004665894/), retrieved September 27, 2026 - **Rights:** Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931) Gipkens, Julius E. F., 1883-, artist; Rehse Archiv für Zeitgeschichte und Publizistik, DLC, former owner. 1916. Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-11609. ## Text on the object Original (German) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` GOLD GAB ICH ZUR WEHR EISEN NAHM ICH ZUR EHR BRINGT EUREN GOLDSCHMUCK DEN GOLDANKAUFSSTELLEN! GIPKENS nach Hosaeus [illegible — small printer's imprint, bottom left, likely 'Hollerbaum & Schmidt, Berlin'] ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` I GAVE GOLD FOR DEFENCE I TOOK IRON FOR HONOUR BRING YOUR GOLD JEWELLERY TO THE GOLD-PURCHASE OFFICES! GIPKENS after Hosaeus [illegible — small printer's imprint, likely 'Hollerbaum & Schmidt, Berlin'] ``` 'GIPKENS / nach Hosaeus' is the artist's credit printed bottom right, crediting the design to Hermann Hosaeus's medal. A purple round stamp/seal below the medallion (a library or archive mark) is not transcribed as it is not print text. Kodak color-bar/gray-scale calibration strips along the photograph's edges are archival scanning references, not part of the poster, and are omitted. [← India's Martyrs (Ghadar Party handbill, San Francisco, 1916)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ghadar-indias-martyrs-handbill-1916/) [Kriegsfürsorge für die türkischen Truppen in Galizien (War Welfare for the Turkish Troops in Galicia) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kriegsfuersorge-tuerkische-truppen-galizien-1916/) ## 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)