Honderdjarig bestaan van het Franse Gymnasium te Berlijn 1789 1789

This medal by Daniel Friedrich Loos commemorates the centennial of the French Gymnasium in Berlin in 1789. Established for the children of Huguenot refugees, the school embodied the fraught intersections of religious freedom, national identity, and cultural assimilation in 18th-century Europe. The medal's imagery speaks volumes about the complex negotiations of identity. On one side, we see a profile of Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia, who oversaw a kingdom where French language and culture were both embraced and viewed with suspicion. The reverse depicts allegorical figures alongside symbols of learning and progress. The French Gymnasium was founded in the wake of the Edict of Potsdam in 1685, in which the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm offered refuge to Huguenots. He said "France must become depopulated, so that other states may be improved." But what does it mean to integrate into a society that both welcomes you and seeks to exploit your displacement? This medal serves as a poignant reminder of the ways in which institutions can shape, reflect, and sometimes complicate individual experiences of belonging.