Hello,
I'm still smiling even though the auction ended last Fall.  With teeth-gnashing and fortitude I fought through some very spirited bidding at the VIA-Numismatik auction in Vienna, Austria and thus, acquired five new Ludwig Gies pieces.  This collection has been housed in Vienna since it was built in the 1950's.  A beautiful collection of original works with little, if any, evidence of previous handling. 

The premier piece of this material is a 'Lusitania' (WVZ 134) mis-dated to 1914.  It is unique with the only other known piece destroyed in war.  The remaining pieces are a Unique WVZ 71 'On to the Battle'; a Unique WVZ 103 'I Bemoan a German Hero'; a WVZ 111 'Russian Bear'; and a WVZ 159 'German Auxiliary Service'.

I will add these along with their images to the Gies WWI Forum as soon as I get a chance. 

Hello Henry,

I am sorry, I had expressed myself incorrectly. The medal I have is a later copy of a Götz medal made in 1991 by the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory on behalf of a book publisher from Berlin.
 

I wanna say hello to everyone here.
Found this forum during a research on a porcelain version (Meissen!) of a medal from Karl Goetz.
Actually, coins are my passion but also medals! A little bit of Goetz, but also Medals from Medalists from Saxony (Kitzkatz, Hörnlein and Barduleck)

best regards
Mario

Still looking for this medal. If anyone knows of one for sale, please let me know.

John

Franz Guntermann.  1916.  FÜR❀FÖRDERUNG❀DES❀FLACHSBAUES❀ (for advancement of flax cultivation).  Cast iron, blackened, 80 mm, 147.15 g.  Vorzüglich (extremely fine).  Rare.

Obverse: Young woman, barefoot, in bonnet and full-length smock, bending to left gathers a bundle of flax stalks; hight relief image; gradually rising rim. 

Reverse: Title legend in broad raised border; year date 19 - 16 center field divided by single vertical stalk flax; artist's signature F. GUNTERMANN along lower left border edge.

Despite its modest subject among war medals, this is a masterfully sculpted, handsomely designed piece referencing the constraints of Germany's wartime economy. 

Following Italy's alliance with the Triple Entente in 1915, raw cotton imports to the German textile industry ceased, and the country attempted, never entirely successfully, to make up shortages by increasing production of hemp and flax.  With most able-bodied men at the front, much agricultural work fell to women.  Based on the medal's legend, one assumes it to have been an award, but I have thus far been unable to discover either criteria for its bestowal or any published references to the medal itself.