The German government has decided to mint a €2 commemorative coin entitled “50th anniversary of the Warsaw genuflection”, to be issued on 8 October 2020. The coin will honour the 50th anniversary of the moment on 7 December 1970 when Willy Brandt knelt before the monument to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The national (picture) side was designed by Berlin-based artist Bodo Broschat. It depicts the then Federal Chancellor of West Germany kneeling before the monument to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Making moving reference to the Ghetto Uprising of 1943, the picture side features highly intricate relief work and bold symbols: a menorah, the ghetto victims and the kneeling Federal Chancellor – a moment of which, in his memoirs, Willy Brandt later wrote, “As I stood on the edge of Germany’s historical abyss, feeling the burden of millions of murders, I did what people do when words fail”. (Willy Brandt, Memoirs, Frankfurt am Main 1989).

The European side corresponds to the common reverse side of the regular issue €2 coin in circulation since 2007, which depicts a map of Europe without national borders.

The technical parameters of the €2 collectors’ coin are the same as those of any regular issue €2 coin. As on standard German €2 coins, the edge of the commemorative issue bears the inscription “EINIGKEIT UND RECHT UND FREIHEIT” (unity, justice and freedom) and a stylised federal eagle.

The envisaged minting volume to be brought into circulation is 30 million coins. The coin will be valid as legal tender throughout the euro area.

The mint condition coins will be brought into circulation at their face value (€2), and will be available from the issue date at the Deutsche Bundesbank’s branches while stocks last.