St Edmund's

Coining an idea

A few months ago, I was given a coin.

It was a gift from the parent of a German student, who remembered from a previous conversation that I had an interest in such things.

It was a commemorative coin in honour of the extraordinary German diplomat Otto Von Bismarck who was perhaps more responsible than any other for the unification of Germany into a single state in 1871.

I have spent most of my life studying German history. I especially remember reading Germania by Tacitus in Latin class when I was a teenager. I studied German unification for A-level and at university spent a fascinating term learning about the Weimar Republic: its economic woes and its cultural achievements.

Over the Christmas holiday, I decided that I needed a hobby other than supporting Manchester City (which frankly has become less enjoyable recently).

And I remembered the Bismarck coin.

It has inspired me to start collecting coins from pre-unification Germany. Quietly, I have been accumulating coins called Stubers, Kreuzers and Thalers, the oldest so far is dated 1768. And this has given me a perspective on pre-unification Germany that I previously lacked.

I have learned about the Ludwigs, Kings of Bavaria, Friedrich August III, the last King of Saxony and other power figures in the German states. I have learned about regional cultural and economic variations and am even picking up a few new German words like Conventionskreuzer, Groschen, Scheidemunze and Wappen.

Coin by coin, piece by piece I am putting together the jigsaw of pre-unification German history in my mind. Most importantly, I am learning and by a method that enables me to touch history directly, in addition to absorbing information from books.

So my thanks to Johannes (my Bismarck benefactor) for getting me started on a new project and helping me to think differently.