GREAT BRITAIN. British copy of a German medal commemorating the sinking of the Lusitania

This is a 1915 replica of a German medal designed by Karl Goetz. The design was replicated and distributed by the British to demonstrate the brutality of the sinking of the passenger ship, RMS Lusitania. Around 300,000 British copies were made, many of these financed and sold by Gordon Selfridge, the department store owner.

The medal came in a commemorative box and with an explanation criticising the German attack:

This medal has been struck in German with the object of keeping alive in German hearts the recollection of the glorious achievement of the German Navy in deliberately destroying an unarmed passenger ship, together with 1,198 non-combatants, men, women and children

 

 

In this way, German propaganda was seized upon by the British to suggest that the sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania was premeditated. In fact, this medal can alternatively be read as Goetz's critique of the passenger ship company placing profit above the safety of its passengers by disregarding warnings in newspapers of German U-boat attacks.