Cast silver medal, undated, around 1700

Cast silver medal, undated, around 1700, unsigned, in the style of the medallion maker Christoph Wermuth. In a heathland scenery a fox is fleeing from a wolf in sheep’s clothing, above the wolf O VVLPES / QVID FVGIS / ME / QVIS SVM / VIDESNE (Fox, why are you fleeing from me? Do you not see, who I am?) in five lines; above the fox: NOVI TE / FVGIO TE / QVIA ES / NEQVAM / IN CVTE (I know you, and I flee from you, as you are a no-good, even in this skin!) in five lines//WER DA / TRAVET EINEM / WOLF AVF GRVNER HEID / EINEN IVDEN / BEY SEINEN EID / EINEN BOESEN PFAFFEN / VND RABULISTEN BEY / IHREN GEWISSEN / DER WIRD VON / ALLEN VIREN / BESCHISSEN (Who trusts a wolf on the green heath, a Jew’s oath, a wicked cleric’s and a hair-splitting quibbler’s conscience, he will be cheated by all four of them) in 11 lines. 42,02 mm; 31,56 g. Friedenberg S. 12 f.; Kirschner 6; Wohlfahrt 55 043.


Very rare. Later cast, very fine

Ex der Auktion Kricheldorf 29, Stuttgart 1987, no. 1195.

The medal denounces credulity, but also shows antisemitic tendencies. Unfortunately the dictum breathes the spirit of Martin Luther who in his tract,Von den Juden und iren Lügen‘ serves traditional anti-Jewish sentiments: „Trau keinem Wolf auf wilder Heiden // Auch keinem Juden auf seine Eiden // Glaub keinem Papst auf sein Gewissen // Wirst sonst von allen Drein beschissen. (Do not trust a wolf on wild heathland and a Jew’s oaths. Do not believe in a pope’s conscience, otherwise you will be cheat by all three). Luther’s famous saying was taken up by Elvira Bauer, a nursery school teacher, who had fallen victim to the Nationalsocialistic racist mania; in 1936 she published a children’s book with the title,Trau keinem Fuchs auf grüner Heid und keinem Jud bei seinem Eid! Ein Bilderbuch für Groß und Klein’; its objective was to implant the Nazi’s hatred of Jews in the German people.