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
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.
- Date
- 1914
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- W.S.B. Schröder, Berlin (commercial postcard publisher; imprint partly legible; Commons gives Wilhelm S. Schröder, Berlin)
- Country
- German Empire
- Medium
- Postcard
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- German Empire
- Leader
- Wilhelm II
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Reassure
- Event
- World War I
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Leader
- Wilhelm II
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (German postcard of 1914-18, published before 1931; Commons: PD-1923)
W.S.B. Schröder, Berlin, 1914; via Wikimedia Commons (source cited there: ww1-propaganda-cards.com).
Text on the object
Serbische Küche Besser 'ne Laus im Topf als garkein Fleisch [imprint at foot of picture:] W.S.B. Schröder [illegible]
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.
