Watch List notes:

GERMANY. Weimar Republic. The Watch on the Rhine/Black Shame Cast Bronze Medal, 1920. UNCIRCULATED.

Kienast-262. By K. Goetz. Diameter: 58mm; Weight: 67.15 gms. Obverse: Helmeted head of French colonial African soldier right, with exaggerated racial features; Reverse: Nude woman on knees left, head lowered and with arms tied behind her back and around colossal phallus surmounted by French helmet; plow to left, with handles terminating in serpents; radiant Eye of Providence above. Edge: Plain. One of Goetz's most controversial (and explicit) medals from his satirical series, this piece alludes to the rape of German women by French colonial occupying soldiers.

Following Germany's defeat in World War I, French and British troops occupied portions of Germany to ensure that reparations would be repaid. In some areas such as the Rhineland, France utilized colonial troops from North Africa for patrolling and occupying—possibly serving as an act of further humiliation—making the local Germans be subject to those who were, in turn, subject to a colonial power. Within Germany, however, sentiments became overtly racialized, with anti-African propaganda found everywhere in the print media, and with caricatures and stereotypes endlessly employed. This biased and unfounded campaign even found its way into numismatics, with many medals featuring iconography that reveals these feelings. At the forefront was the belief that African troops, racially portrayed as oversexed and primal, were ravaging German women. Though this campaign subsided in the early 1930's, it certainly wasn't the first appearance of this form of racism, and certainly wouldn't be the last.

Estimate: $150 - $300