Tyskland Senking av Lusitania, Karl Goetz, britisk kopi, 58 mm, jern, 0/01

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The Sinking of the Lusitania, 1915 – Medal by Karl Goetz

RMS Lusitania (Royal Mail Ship) was a British passenger liner built in Scotland and named after the Roman province of Lusitania, corresponding largely to present-day Portugal. When she embarked on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York in 1907, she was the largest passenger ship in the world.

Following the Titanic disaster in 1912, Lusitania was equipped with sufficient lifeboat capacity for everyone on board. After the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, much of Britain’s transatlantic passenger service continued to operate. In February 1915, Germany declared the waters surrounding the British Isles a war zone, and warnings against travelling on British ships appeared in American newspapers. Lusitania was nevertheless considered relatively safe, as her high speed was thought to offer protection against submarines.

On 1 May 1915, Lusitania departed New York on her final voyage to Liverpool. Six days later, on 7 May, the German submarine U-20, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger, fired a torpedo that struck the liner off the coast of Ireland. A second explosion followed, and the 240-metre-long vessel sank in just 18 minutes. Of the 1,962 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,198 lost their lives.

The sinking caused international outrage, particularly in the United States, where it contributed to a growing shift in public opinion against Germany. Although the United States did not enter the war until April 1917, the loss of Lusitaniabecame one of the most widely remembered events of the conflict.

This medal was designed by the German medallist Karl Goetz. One side depicts the sinking Lusitania, while the other shows Death, represented as a skeleton, selling tickets to passengers at the Cunard Line booking office. Above the scene appears the inscription GESCHÄFT ÜBER ALLES – “Business Above All Else” – reflecting Goetz’s criticism of the commercial interests involved in continuing passenger services through a declared war zone.