Totentanz Series: Death Seated on Globe Obverse

Eberbach condemns the former British monarch, Edward VII (reigned 1901–1910), for acts that led ultimately to the war. The rela-tionship between Edward VII and the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, who was Edward’s nephew, was famously tense, in part because of the way in which Wilhelm treated his mother, Edward’s sister, Victoria, the German Empress. Queen Alexandra, Edward’s wife, originally from Denmark, also despised Wilhelm and Prussians generally after their conquest of parts of Denmark. In return, however, Wilhelm had little love for the English, apart from that for his grandmother, Queen Victoria of England (reigned 1837–1901). It was at the funeral for Edward VII, on May 20, 1910, that the largest and last gathering of Europe’s monarchs occurred before the war, the end of which would see many of them either deposed or dead.

Death seated cross-legged on globe, looking down upon Europe in flames, star in middle; within curve at top: DIE·LETZTE· — GROSSMACHT (“the last great power”)