---
title: Attenti! il serpente tedesco è preso! (Attention! The German serpent is caught!)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/attenti-veleno-1919/
description: A hand clenches the neck of a serpent whose coils are patterned with Iron Crosses, blood dripping from its fangs, over the text 'Attention!
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Dehumanizing animal metaphor for Germans: a serpent marked with Iron Crosses, blood dripping from its fangs, gripped by a hand. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Attenti! il serpente tedesco è preso! (Attention! The German serpent is caught!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/attenti-veleno-1919.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/attenti-veleno-1919.jpg)

# Attenti! il serpente tedesco è preso! (Attention! The German serpent is caught!)

A hand clenches the neck of a serpent whose coils are patterned with Iron Crosses, blood dripping from its fangs, over the text 'Attention! The German serpent is caught! Now we must pull out its venom teeth!' The tell is a whole nation collapsed into one animal (dehumanising label) and an enemy military decoration pasted onto the creature's body so the emblem carries the stigma.

- **Date:** 1919
- **Period:** [Interwar](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=interwar)
- **Made by:** Sponsor not named on the sheet; printed by F.lli Geroldi, Brescia, Kingdom of Italy; artist attributed by LOC to Samuil Samosud
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Kingdom of Italy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=kingdom-of-italy)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [Orlando Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=orlando-government)
- **Leader:** [Vittorio Emanuele Orlando](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=vittorio-emanuele-orlando)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2004666211/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1919; LOC: no known restrictions on publication) F.lli Geroldi, Brescia, 1919. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-12065.

## Text on the object

Original (Italian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
attenti!
il serpente
tedesco
è preso!

bisogna ora
strappargli
i denti del
veleno!

F.lli GEROLDI - Brescia

[artist's signature, illegible]
[small star-shaped emblem with a numeral, lower right]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Attention!
The German serpent
is caught!

Now we must
tear out its
venom teeth!

Geroldi Brothers - Brescia
```

Lower-case lettering is as printed. The wavy signature at lower right and the numeral inside the small star emblem are not reliably legible.

[← Americans All! Victory Liberty Loan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/americans-all-1919/) [Students burning Japanese goods, Tsinghua School →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/burn-japanese-goods-tsinghua-1919/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)
- [Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/) (1814 · Name-calling)