Author Topic: Emergency slaughter?!  (Read 2552 times)

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    Walther Eberbach.  1917. 

    ∙NOT — -SCHALCHTUNG —— !?∙ (misspelling for NOTSCHLACHTUNG = emergency slaughter!?).  Cast bronze, natural patina, 70.8 mm, 128.31 g.  Two edge-notches of uncertain meaning (E - ?).  Vorzüglich (extremely fine), patina slightly spotted.  Rare!

    Obverse: A stout butcher to right subdues a sow turned on her back, his right knee on her belly, his left hand holding her snout, his right hand with a slaughtering knife ready to strike, as he looks over his shoulder to his right; legend above figure within a border line delineating a wide margin inside rim; upper center margin a question mark; lower center margin, artist's monogram interlaced WE between year date 19 — 17. 

    Reverse: Undulating triple-lined border circling field, centered within which six line inscription DEN / SCHWEINEN・U / FRESSHELDEN / ∙・DES ∙∙ / WELTKRIEGES / ! (to the swine- and the glutton-heroes of the World War); below exclamation mark four linked sausages; above center artist's signature ・W EBERBACH∙.

    Cf: Weisser, Bernhard.  "Medallic Art in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War" in Phagan, P., and P. van Alfen, The Art of Devastation: Medals and Posters of the Great War.  2017, p. 122, (fig. 51).   Example in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Münzkabinett, see Münzkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Acc. 1920/414, Objekt-Nr: 18235087: http://ikmk.smb.museum/object?id=18235087; also illustrated in: Weisser, B., "Medailleure in Deutschland während des Ersten Weltkriegs," Teil 2: Breitkopf-Kosel bis Eberbach, MünzenRevue Heft 9, 2014, pp. 173 - 177. Cf: Lipp, Peter.  2018.  Heilbronn geprägt und gegossen: Stadtgeschichte auf Münzen und Medaillen vom Mittelalter bis heute, p. 193: no. 459.Both examples in the publications above display correct spelling of the title legend: NOTSCHLACHTUNG.  For an example with the misspelled title in the Landesmuseum Württemberg Münzkabinett see: https://bawue.museum-digital.de/index.php?t=objekt&oges=18538&cachesLoaded=true.

    As the present medal displays a misspelled title in contrast to those illustrated in Weisser and Lipp, I surmise that it and the example in the Landesmuseum Württemberg are early casts made before the mistake was noticed and the mold corrected.

    The medal reflects popular conception that self-serving farmers were undermining the war effort by slaughtering their pigs to supply the black market, justifying the killing by the need to conserve ever-scarcer fodder needed to maintain animals.  As many as five million swine had been slaughtered by government orders in the second year of the war ("der Schweinemord von 1915") as a potato conservation measure, thereby drastically depressing German pork production for the duration of the war, thus contributing substantially to widespread human malnutrition.  The mass slaughter was followed by an initial glut, then a scarcity with attendant price increases.  Official maximum prices fixed at the end of 1915 engendered a flourishing black market.
Emergency slaughter?!
« on: December 02, 2019, 10:54:42 AM »
 

Walther Eberbach.  1917. 

∙NOT — -SCHALCHTUNG —— !?∙ (misspelling for NOTSCHLACHTUNG = emergency slaughter!?).  Cast bronze, natural patina, 70.8 mm, 128.31 g.  Two edge-notches of uncertain meaning (E - ?).  Vorzüglich (extremely fine), patina slightly spotted.  Rare!

Obverse: A stout butcher to right subdues a sow turned on her back, his right knee on her belly, his left hand holding her snout, his right hand with a slaughtering knife ready to strike, as he looks over his shoulder to his right; legend above figure within a border line delineating a wide margin inside rim; upper center margin a question mark; lower center margin, artist's monogram interlaced WE between year date 19 — 17. 

Reverse: Undulating triple-lined border circling field, centered within which six line inscription DEN / SCHWEINEN・U / FRESSHELDEN / ∙・DES ∙∙ / WELTKRIEGES / ! (to the swine- and the glutton-heroes of the World War); below exclamation mark four linked sausages; above center artist's signature ・W EBERBACH∙.

Cf: Weisser, Bernhard.  "Medallic Art in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War" in Phagan, P., and P. van Alfen, The Art of Devastation: Medals and Posters of the Great War.  2017, p. 122, (fig. 51).   Example in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Münzkabinett, see Münzkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Acc. 1920/414, Objekt-Nr: 18235087: http://ikmk.smb.museum/object?id=18235087; also illustrated in: Weisser, B., "Medailleure in Deutschland während des Ersten Weltkriegs," Teil 2: Breitkopf-Kosel bis Eberbach, MünzenRevue Heft 9, 2014, pp. 173 - 177. Cf: Lipp, Peter.  2018.  Heilbronn geprägt und gegossen: Stadtgeschichte auf Münzen und Medaillen vom Mittelalter bis heute, p. 193: no. 459.Both examples in the publications above display correct spelling of the title legend: NOTSCHLACHTUNG.  For an example with the misspelled title in the Landesmuseum Württemberg Münzkabinett see: https://bawue.museum-digital.de/index.php?t=objekt&oges=18538&cachesLoaded=true.

As the present medal displays a misspelled title in contrast to those illustrated in Weisser and Lipp, I surmise that it and the example in the Landesmuseum Württemberg are early casts made before the mistake was noticed and the mold corrected.

The medal reflects popular conception that self-serving farmers were undermining the war effort by slaughtering their pigs to supply the black market, justifying the killing by the need to conserve ever-scarcer fodder needed to maintain animals.  As many as five million swine had been slaughtered by government orders in the second year of the war ("der Schweinemord von 1915") as a potato conservation measure, thereby drastically depressing German pork production for the duration of the war, thus contributing substantially to widespread human malnutrition.  The mass slaughter was followed by an initial glut, then a scarcity with attendant price increases.  Official maximum prices fixed at the end of 1915 engendered a flourishing black market.
« Last Edit: December 03, 2019, 10:02:44 PM by Haarmann »