---
title: 'Serbische Küche: Besser ''ne Laus im Topf als gar kein Fleisch (Serbian Cuisine: Better a Louse in the Pot Than No Meat at All)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/serbische-kueche-postcard-1914/
description: A comic postcard shows two caricatured Serbian soldiers in fur caps, one with a sabre, crouched over a cooking pot on a tripod above a fire, under the…
section: Collection
---

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

**Content note:** Ethnic caricature of Serbs as lice-ridden and short of food (German comic postcard, 1914). This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Serbische Küche: Besser 'ne Laus im Topf als gar kein Fleisch (Serbian Cuisine: Better a Louse in the Pot Than No Meat at All)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/serbische-kueche-postcard-1914.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/serbische-kueche-postcard-1914.jpg)

# Serbische Küche: Besser 'ne Laus im Topf als gar kein Fleisch (Serbian Cuisine: Better a Louse in the Pot Than No Meat at All)

A comic postcard shows two caricatured Serbian soldiers in fur caps, one with a sabre, crouched over a cooking pot on a tripod above a fire, under the title 'Serbian Cuisine' and a rhyme that a louse in the pot beats no meat at all. The joke attaches vermin and squalor to Serbs as a group, a loaded label delivered as humour.

## Text on the object

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

```
Serbische Küche
Besser 'ne Laus im Topf
als garkein Fleisch

[imprint at foot of picture:] W.S.B. Schröder [illegible]
```

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

```
Serbian Cuisine
Better a louse in the pot
than no meat at all

[imprint at foot of picture:] W.S.B. Schröder [illegible]
```

The imprint line is tiny and the characters after 'Schröder' are not legible at 258 px width.

[← Сербскій національный гимнъ: В пользу раненых и больных воинов (Serbian National Hymn: In Aid of Wounded and Sick Soldiers)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/serbian-anthem-charity-postcard-russia-1914/) [Unser Kaiser an sein Volk (Our Emperor to His People) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/unser-kaiser-an-sein-volk-1914/)

## 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/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [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/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 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/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
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- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · 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/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)