Ludwig Gies devoted a series of ten medals to the refugees from East Prussia, the women, the children and old people who were suffering, mourning, and fleeing from the advancing Russian troops. Gies never intended to reference military strategic aspects like so many pathetic “victory” works of other German medallists. Rather, Gies was more concerned with showing the civilian consequences brought on by the war effort.
Gies emphasizes the medal images in this series by curving the field forward (convex) or inward (concave); the silhouette-like contours of the figures before the otherwise empty background underline the isolation of the little groups which, in turn, express dull despair; dejection, and acquiescence in their fate.
Every gun, shell, sandbag, cartridge box, horseshoe, belt buckle, and boot nail carried a price tag. The German government, in the guise of the War Ministry, paid out these costs in the form of war contracts. By 1918, direct war-related expenses stood at more than 10 times the total federal budget on the eve of the war. These total outlays totaled nearly 150 billion marks over the course of the war.
Unlike the French and British, the Germans found themselves excluded from foreign financial markets after their failed attempt to float a major loan on Wall Street in 1914. The only alternative was domestic borrowing with the most publicized being Kriegsanleihe, the selling of war bonds. Nine times during the war, once every six months, the Reichstag authorized additional war credits, which were then issued in the form of public bonds.
The German government planned to present the defeated enemy with the entire bill at the conclusion of the war. With Germany losing the war, the consequences were direct and obvious.
