Why
would a lithophane of
U.S. President Teddy
Roosevelt be found in a German military stein? The short answer
is that Roosevelt visited Germany on an unofficial diplomatic mission
in 1910 in order to try to establish a firm relationship between the
U.S. and Germany. He appeared with Kaiser Wilhelm II
reviewing German Imperial troops at Döberitz near Berlin in May
1910. Kaiser Wilhelm II had already been trying to build a
relationship in 1902 with Roosevelt during Roosevelt's presidency from
1901 to 1909 and this 1910 meeting was the culmination of that effort.
Even though there were historically strong family ties between England
and Germany, the British and German relationship had been growing
tense. There was also a natural relationship between the two
leaders because Roosevelt had traveled with his parents as a youngster
to Europe and had stayed for 5 months in Germany and learned to speak
German and French and later studied German among other subjects at
Harvard.
This stein is undoubtedly a souvenir of the meeting of the German and
U.S. leaders and fairly rare as it is the only example that we know of
with this Roosevelt lithophane. It was probably made by Ernst
Bohne Söhne as similar examples were described in the Bohne catalog as
Schrapnell (shrapnel), but usually called "Artillery Shell". It
is seen in the "Encyclopedia of Character Steins" by Dr. Eugene Manusov
as ECS #333. The pewter fittings are marked "N.B.M." and
identified in Chris Wheeler's "Stein Marks" as the mark of pewterer
Nathan Bauernfreund of Munich who operated in this time frame.
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