Content note: Wartime French satirical front page that uses the slur 'Boches' for German journalists and lampoons censorship and the dailies' war reporting. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Le Canard enchaîné, no. 1, 10 September 1915: "Pour faire un Journal en 1915"
Front page of the first issue of a Paris satirical paper. The centre cartoon, "Pour faire un Journal en 1915", shows figures with a big brush, a pot of white and (bottom strip) "Chez Madame Anastasie", the traditional personification of the censor, mocking blanked columns and "nouvelles implacablement vraies". The right-hand column, "Qu'en dites-vous ?", calls German journalists "Boches" in an item urging French papers to copy German press propaganda.
- Date
- September 10, 1915
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Le Canard enchaîné (founded by Maurice Maréchal; front page illustrated by Henri-Paul Gassier), Paris
- Country
- France
- Medium
- Newspaper pages
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Poincare Government
- Leader
- Raymond Poincare
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Event
- World War I
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (file page; the image derives from a Marseille tourism-site photograph of the issue, not from the holding library), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain: published 1915 (pre-1931); artist Gassier d. 1953 (Commons PD-art/PD-old-auto-1923)
Le Canard enchaîné no. 1, 10 September 1915, illustration by Henri-Paul Gassier (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
Text on the object
N° 1. - 1re Année Le Numéro 10 Centimes Vendredi 10 Septembre 1915 Le Canard Enchaîné JOURNAL HUMORISTIQUE Paraissant provisoirement les 10, 20 et 30 de chaque mois Rédigé par MARÉCHAL - Illustré par H.-P. GASSIER 129, Faubourg du Temple - PARIS Coin ! Coin ! Coin ! Le Canard Enchaîné a décidé de rompre délibérément avec toutes les traditions journalistiques établies jusqu'à ce jour. [...] En second lieu, le Canard Enchaîné prend l'engagement d'honneur de ne céder, en aucun cas, à la déplorable manie du jour. C'est assez dire qu'il s'engage à ne publier, sous aucun prétexte, [illegible] article stratégique, diplomatique ou économique, quel qu'il soit. [...] Enfin, le Canard Enchaîné prendra la liberté grande de n'insérer, après minutieuse vérification, que des nouvelles rigoureusement inexactes. Chacun sait, en effet, que la presse française, sans exception, ne communique à ses lecteurs, depuis le début de la guerre, que des nouvelles implacablement vraies. Eh bien, le public en a assez ! Le public veut des nouvelles fausses... pour changer. Il en aura. [...] [illegible] avec la très célèbre Agence Wolff qui lui transmettra, chaque semaine, de Berlin, par fil spécial barbelé, toutes les fausses nouvelles du monde entier. [...] Pour faire un Journal EN 1915 [cartoon captions, partly read] à bas les anciennes formules... plus d'encriers, plus de plumes... / Puis des feuilles de papier d'une blancheur [illegible] / il faut d'abord un journaliste... / un grand pinceau, un grand pot de [BLANC DE ZINC] / et ainsi équipé, vous vous mettez à l'ouvrage. [bottom strip] Puis, fier du devoir accompli, vous [illegible] / Chez Madame Anastasie / CABINET NOIR / [illegible] Qu'en dites-vous ? Les journalistes Boches ont tenu récemment à Berlin un congrès, dit de l'Union impériale de la Presse allemande, au cours duquel fut discutée la si importante question de l'information étrangère. [...] Très pratiques, ces Boches, décidément. [...] Mobilisons [nos journalistes] ! Ils seront, de par le monde, de merveilleux agents de propagande. Ils seront les missionnaires de la Pensée française. [...] Gustave Hervé, pour ne citer que lui, [illegible] moins de trente-huit articles intitulés alternativement « l'Énigme bulgare » et « l'Épine bulgare ». [...]
No. 1 - 1st Year Price 10 centimes Friday 10 September 1915 The Chained Duck HUMOROUS JOURNAL Appearing provisionally on the 10th, 20th and 30th of each month Written by MARÉCHAL - Illustrated by H.-P. GASSIER 129, Faubourg du Temple - PARIS Quack! Quack! Quack! The Canard Enchaîné has decided to break deliberately with all the journalistic traditions established to this day. [...] Secondly, the Canard Enchaîné gives its word of honour never, in any case, to yield to the deplorable mania of the day. That is to say that it undertakes not to publish, under any pretext, [illegible] strategic, diplomatic or economic article, of whatever kind. [...] Finally, the Canard Enchaîné will take the great liberty of printing, after careful verification, only rigorously inaccurate news. Everyone knows, indeed, that the French press, without exception, has communicated to its readers, since the beginning of the war, only relentlessly true news. Well, the public has had enough! The public wants false news... for a change. It will have it. [...] [illegible] with the very famous Wolff Agency, which will transmit to it every week, from Berlin, by special barbed wire, all the false news of the whole world. [...] To make a newspaper IN 1915 [cartoon captions, partly read] Down with the old formulas... no more inkwells, no more pens... / Then sheets of paper of a whiteness [illegible] / first you need a journalist... / a big brush, a big pot of [ZINC WHITE] / and thus equipped, you set to work. [bottom strip] Then, proud of the duty accomplished, you [illegible] / At Madame Anastasie's / BLACK CABINET / [illegible] What do you say? The Boche journalists recently held a congress in Berlin, called the Imperial Union of the German Press, during which the very important question of foreign information was discussed. [...] Very practical, these Boches, decidedly. [...] Let us mobilise [our journalists]! They will be, throughout the world, marvellous agents of propaganda. They will be the missionaries of French Thought. [...] Gustave Hervé, to name only him, [illegible] no fewer than thirty-eight articles titled alternately 'The Bulgarian Enigma' and 'The Bulgarian Thorn'. [...]
Read from a low-resolution image (776 x 1135 source); [...] marks skipped passages and [illegible] unreadable words, and the cartoon captions and bottom strip are only partly read. Translation is literal, machine-made, and not checked by a fluent reader.
