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Verdun, the World Bloodpump

Verdun, the World Bloodpump

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Walther Eberbach

This medal by Walter Eberbach provides grotesque commentary on the major World War I battle of Verdun, fought from February to December 1916. On the obverse it shows a human skeleton amid a desolate landscape bearing down on a pump that gushes liquid. The skeleton’s sword stabs the barren landscape. The skeleton’s malign determination is underscored by its gruesome grimace. The inscription above the skeleton (Verdun, the World Blood Pump, 1916) alludes to a statement made by General Erich von Falkenhayn, the strategist of the Verdun offensive, who declared that he intended not simply to defeat but to “bleed to death” the French forces. The obverse savagely interprets Falkenhayn’s words by addressing its message to the French general in charge of the Verdun campaign and his country’s supporters, whose names are ominously situated amidst oozing droplets of blood.
Artist
Walther Eberbach
(German, 1866 - 1944)
Title
Verdun, the World Bloodpump
Date
designed 1916
Medium
Iron
Dimensions
diam: 69 mm overall
Credit
Gift of Dr. Andrew Laurie Stangel
Accession No.
2010.32.4
Classification
Medals
Geography
Germany

Related

2010, gifted by Dr. Andrew Laurie Stangel (Manchester, NH) to the Chazen Museum of Art

  • Stangel, Andrew. "Götterdämmerung! The Course of German History in the Twentieth Century" (descriptive exhibition commentary) New Hampshire: Andrew Stangel, 1997. Not published. no. 29
  • Stangel, Andrew. "The Long German Century 1890-1990." Andrew Stangel, 2019. Not published. p. 29
  • George L. Mosse Program in History. "1914: Then Came Armageddon" [digital exhibition]. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Libraries, 2023. https://exhibits.library.wisc.edu/wwi/.

  • Götterdämmerung! The Course of German History in the Twentieth Century: New Hampshire College, 12/6/1997–1/29/1998

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