The Prussian v Austria War Medal 1866, Made From Captured Cannon

Bronze cross patt?e alis?e, a laurel wreath between the arms, with ribbed loop for ribbon suspension; the face with a circular central medallion bearing the cipher ?WR? for King Wilhelm I, circumscribed ?PREUSSENS SIEGREICHEM HEERE? (Prussia?s victorious armies), the Prussian crown on the upper arm of the cross, the left, right and lower arms inscribed ?GOTT WAR MIT UNS. IHM SEI DIE EHRE? (God was with us. To Him be the glory); the reverse with a circular central medallion bearing the crowned Prussian royal eagle perched on a cannon, the upper, left, right and lower arms inscribed ?TREUEN?, KRIE-?, ?GERN?, ?1866? respectively; some slight age oxidisation and wear to gilding; on replaced correct ribbon. The medal was instituted by King Wilhelm I on 20 September 1866 following the victorious war against Austria and its German allies. The medal was cast from the bronze of captured Austrian cannon. The Austro-Prussian War or Seven Weeks' War (also known as the Unification War, Prussian?German War, German Civil War, War of 1866, as well as Brothers War or Fraternal War, and in Germany as German War) was a war fought in 1866 between the German Confederation ("Deutscher Bund") under the leadership of the Austrian Empire ("Kaisertum ?sterreich") and its German allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia with its German allies and Italy on the other, that resulted in Prussian dominance over the German states. In the Italian unification process, this is called the Third Independence War.

The major result of the war was a shift in power among the German states away from Austrian and towards Prussian hegemony, and impetus towards the unification of all of the northern German states in a Kleindeutsches Reich that excluded the German Austria. It saw the abolition of the German Confederation and its partial replacement by a North German Confederation ("Norddeutscher Bund") that excluded Austria and the other South German states. The war also resulted in the Italian annexation of the Austrian province of Venetia.

Code: 19934