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Magdalena Zakowska
The Bear and His Protégés: Life in the Balkan
Kettle According to the German-Language
Caricatures of the Belle Épogue
In this article I will analyze the main iconographic and narrative ideas used by
German and Swiss caricaturists to depict and describe! the events taking place on
the Balkan Peninsula from the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) until World War
I. I will especially focus on the events in which Russia took part.’ I will follow
three stages of press discourse: battle-oriented, morality-oriented, and hygiene¬
oriented? as I have called them.
I chose caricatures from the German empire and Switzerland firstly because nei¬
ther of these countries were directly involved in a conflict with Russia or the Balkan
countries during that time, and, therefore, they had no political reason to build any
negative discourse in the mass media about these regions. During the Russo-Turkish
War of 1877 and 1878, both Germany and Switzerland were neutral. Switzerland
was only indirectly engaged in the events in the Balkan Peninsula, establishing
Red Cross branches during the war and launching a stabilization military mission
after the Serbian-Bulgarian War in 1886 (Hungerbiihler 1886: 5). Germany’s rela¬
tionship with the Balkan nations was more comprehensive. From the 1890s until
World War I, this country established close economic and, later, political ties with
the Ottoman Empire and became, after 1905, the main trading partner of Serbia
(Dedijer 1984: 230).
Secondly, both German and Swiss citizens were more or less acquainted with
Russian and Balkan problems and even could personally encounter citizens of Rus¬
sia and the Balkan nations. During the nineteenth century, Germany and Swit¬
zerland gave shelter to many Russian exiles as well as educational opportunities to
numerous Russian and Balkan students, and, in Switzerland, to women in general.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Swiss universities became a magnet for
! I will take into consideration both the iconographical and descriptive (title, subtitle, caption) part of
each caricature, treating them as complementary.
? During this time Russia was strongly involved in the events taking place on the Balkan Peninsula.
It was at war with Turkey (the Bulgarian War, 1877-1878), it enthroned and dethroned Bulgarian
prince Alexander of Battenberg (1879-1886), it established close economic and political coopera¬
tion with Serbia (from 1903), and it supported movements for the independence of the Slavonic na¬
tions under the Turkish (Macedonia, Kosovo) and Austro-Hungarian (Slovenia, Dalmatia, Croatia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slavonia) “yoke.”
3 These terms will be explained later in the text.