Description

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Large circular gilt bronze medal with loop for ribbon suspension; the face with a head and shoulders portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm I in full military uniform facing right, inscribed ‘WILHELM DER GROSSE DEUTSCHER KAISER’ (Wilhelm the Great German Emperor) and ‘KOENIG VON PREUSSEN’ (King of Prussia); the reverse inscribed ‘ZUM ANDENKEN AN DER HUNDERSTEN GEBURTSTAG DES GROSSEN KAISERS WILHELM I 1797 – 22 MAERZ – 1897’ (In commemoration of the hundredth birthday of the great Kaiser Wilhelm I 1797 – 22 March – 1897) above a cushion bearing the Prussian (Hohenzollern) crown and orb imposed on a sword, a laurel branch to the left, an oak branch to the right; age-toned; on original ribbon.

The medal was awarded on 22 March 1897, the hundredth birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm I, to all military on active service and to the veterans of the wars of 1864, 1866 and 1870. It was made from Danish, Austrian and French cannon captured in those wars, designed by the artist Walter Schott (1861-1938) and produced by the Berlin medallists Firma L. Ostermann, founded in 1812 by Gottfried Bernhard Loos (1774-1843). Kaiser Wilhelm I (1797-1888) became King of Prussia in 1861 and Emperor of a united Germany on 18 January 1871. His reign was most notable for the unification of Germany under the guidance of Otto von Bismarck and its rapid industrial and economic progress.