Germany

2020

Commemorative coin

The 50th anniversary of Willy Brandt’s Kniefall von Warschau

Official Journal of the European Union

The design shows Brandt, who was the chancellor of Germany at that time, keeling before the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw in a gesture of humility. Yhe Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 is evoked by the composition’s powerful imagery. Traced in extremely fine relief, the design pictures compelling symbols: a seven-branched menorah, the ghetto victims, as well as the genuflection. The inner part of the coin also features the artist’s initials (top), the mint mark of the respective mint (‘A’, ‘D’, ‘F’, ‘G’ or ‘J’), the year, ‘2020’ (centre left), Germany’s issuing country code, ‘D’ (bottom right), and the lettering ‘50 JAHRE KNIEFALL VON WARSCHAU’. The coin’s outer ring depicts the 12 stars of the European flag.

Additional information

The uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto of captured Jews against their deportation to extermination camps began on 19 April 1943. The insurgents, who were completely inadequately armed, fought bitter battles for four weeks in the ghetto for the German occupying forces, which claimed a total of 12,000 victims. A further 30,000 people were shot after the fighting and 7,000 were transported to death camps. Chancellor Willy Brandt laid a wreath at the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial on 7 December 1970, immediately before the signing of the Warsaw Treaty. He then sank to his knees. This gesture of humility, the plea for forgiveness for the German crimes of the Second World War, made history as Warsaw's kneeling. Bodo Broschat depicts this scene on the coin; on the left, a seven-armed candlestick flanked by two lions is visible, a symbol of Judaism.

Edge lettering

Designer