Ha, it's quite comedic! "Stop stealing all of our fish you stupid spear man." Although I don't know why the man has wings.
EDIT: It's not a fishing contest at all, it is a medieval jousting contest on the Danube which still goes on to this day. Teams face each other to try and push the other team into the water. The spears have rubber ends on which are prodded into the opponent's shoulder to try and wobble him off the boat!
That is a lovely medal, and the toning is really beautiful!
The bird must be the Ulm sparrow, a symbol of the city. The winged man must certainly be the "Tailor of Ulm", who in the early 19th century tried to build and demonstrate a hang glider. Not with much success though, he ended up in the Danube river, from where he was rescued by fishermen.
What a strange theme for a medal. I had so many questions when I first saw the images, but the replies answered all but one. Why was the "Tailor of Ulm" wearing a baseball cap?
ANA ID: 3203813 - CONECA ID: N-5637 Clean a coin that may be worth collecting? Please DON'T! When in doubt, leave it dirty!!
Quote: Why was the "Tailor of Ulm" wearing a baseball cap?
Didn't notice that at first, but yes he is.
I found this German postcard from 1908, showing the tailor in action. Here he seems to have some sort of cap, so maybe there was an idea in the public's mind that he was wearing that.
Courtesy of Wikimedia, public domain.
There are some pictures on the Wikipedia page (more on the German page), but it is hard to tell from them if he was wearing some sort of head protection.
Pretty interesting stuff, thanks for all the replies. It's fun what history you can find from just a medal. I tried finding this exact bridge on google. I found a good website about the bridges of Ulm, but couldn't find this exact one. Maybe it was demolished and a more modern one replaced it.
The bridge opened in 1912 was blown up by the German Army in April 1945, just before the Americans entered the city. It was replaced in 1950 by the Gänstorbrücke (which is described in the link you provided).
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Posted 10/09/2022 5:30 pm
