Historic set of three pattern bronze participation medals for the canceled Garmisch 1940 Winter Olympics. The medals, each measuring 70 mm in diameter, are of varying thickness and weight—100 gm, 112 gm, and 128 gm—with each medal featuring the same front design: male and female figures holding a large flag against an outline of distant mountains, with upper and lower raised text: “V. Olympische Winterspiele, 1940, Garmisch Partenkirchen.” The bottom rims of the two lighter medals are etched with the name of the designer, “H[ans]. Schwegerle,” and the reverse of both feature raised Olympics rings and text: “Dem Teilnehmer [To the Participant]” and “Dem Richter Und Helfer [To the Judge and Helper].” The reverse of the heavier medal, which was cast by Karl Herzne of Munich in 1939, is plain.
Schwegerle was a German sculptor (1882-1950) whose work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the Amsterdam 1928 Summer Olympics. The catalog ‘Hans Schwegerle-Medaillen und Plaketten,’ published by Wolfgang Hasselman in 2000, which presents all of Schwegerle’s medals and plaques from 1906 to 1950, lists the two lighter medals as Nos. 399 and 400.
The 1940 Winter Olympics were originally to be hosted in Sapporo, Japan, but Japanese organizers withdrew in 1938 because of the Second Sino-Japanese War. They were rescheduled to St. Moritz, Switzerland, but again withdrawn over disagreements between the organizers and the International Olympic Committee. Finally, they were awarded to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, host of the previous Winter Games, as they had the existing facilities and infrastructure to organize the Games on very short notice. On September 1, 1940, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, an event that initiated the European theater of World War II. As a result, the Vth Winter Olympiad was postponed until it was hosted in St. Moritz eight years later.
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