WW1 British Propaganda “Culture” Iron Cross

A cross pattée, crudely cast in iron in the form of a German Iron Cross, with a small supension ring at the tip of the upper vertical arm text: 'FOR' (upper vertical arm) & ' KULTUR' (horizontal arms).

A British First World War anti-German propaganda medal exploiting the German Army's excesses, committed in Belgian and French towns and cities on or near the Western Front, between August and October 1914. Jones and Howell (in 'Popular Arts of the First World War') describe this item as one of a series of 'joke Iron Crosses made in Britain bearing the names of Belgian towns bombarded by the Germans'. The legend 'FOR KULTUR' is a scornful pun on 'the Kaiser's claim to be spreading culture'.

Code: 731