Content note: Caricature of Mussolini wearing a skull pendant, with gallows in the background. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Eulenspiegel cover, July 1928: 'Caesar Mussolini' by Charles Girod
Magazine cover caricature of Mussolini as a squat figure in a black cape with arms crossed and a skull hanging on his chest, standing on a rise lined with gallows, against a red ground. The printed line gives him a Caesar boast with a pun on the Red Sea: 'Caesar led his legions as far as the Red Sea; I will make a red sea out of the whole world!' The tell: a foreign leader is labelled with a Roman title, a skull and gallows, and a quoted boast with no source given.
- Date
- July 1928
- Period
- Interwar
- Made by
- Eulenspiegel (Berlin satirical illustrated magazine); cover drawing by Charles Girod; published in the Weimar Republic
- Country
- Weimar Germany
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Weimar Republic
- Leader
- Hermann Muller
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (scan via a blog repost; original in Eulenspiegel, Berlin, July 1928), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (US): published Berlin July 1928, before 1 Jan 1931; artist d. 1945
Charles Girod, Eulenspiegel (Berlin), July 1928; via Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
[top edge, partly cropped:] BERLIN, JULI 1928 PREIS 30 PFENNIG [illegible] EULENSPIEGEL ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SCHER[Z, IRO]NIE UND TIEFERE BEDEUTUNG CAESAR MUSSOLINI: [C]aesar führte seine Legionen bis ans Rote Meer — Ich aber werde aus der ganzen Welt ein rotes Meer machen! [lower right, cut off:] Zeichnung: CHARLES [G...]
[top edge, partly cropped:] BERLIN, JULY 1928 PRICE 30 PFENNIG [illegible] EULENSPIEGEL PERIODICAL FOR JEST, IRONY AND DEEPER MEANING CAESAR MUSSOLINI: Caesar led his legions as far as the Red Sea — but I will make a red sea out of the whole world! [lower right, cut off:] Drawing: CHARLES [G...]
The upload is cropped at the left and right edges and the subtitle is partly hidden by the figure's head; the bracketed letters are supplied from the sense. Translation is a machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.
