11 August is Constitution Day! The Weimar Republic celebrates?

National holidays help forge a sense of collective identity. As well as marking the Kaiser’s birthday, the German Empire also celebrated the Day of Sedan on 2 September to commemorate the victory in 1870 over France. These dates had lost their relevance in 1919, and so the young German Republic had to pick a new public holiday. Medals and coins reflect the events of their time, as Michael Kunzel (a numismatist at the Deutsches Historisches Museum) illustrates through the example of the Weimar Republic.