En svensk tiger


En svensk tiger was a slogan and an image that became part of a propaganda campaign in Sweden during World War II. Its goal was to prevent espionage by encouraging secrecy.

Explanation

In Swedish, the word ' can mean both the adjective "Swedish" and the noun "Swede" while ' can mean either the noun for the animal or the present tense of the verb , giving the poster the double meaning "a Swedish tiger" or "a Swede keeps silent". The phrase is comparable in use to "loose lips sink ships" in the United States and with "careless talk costs lives" and other similar wartime slogans in the United Kingdom.

Commission and use

The famous poster for the propaganda campaign was created by Bertil Almqvist in 1941, commissioned by the Swedish National Board of Information. The poster became the main slogan of the Vaksamhetskampanjen that was started in the same year to encourage secrecy about information that may have damaged Swedish national security.

Legal battle

Almqvist died in 1972 and in 2002 the copyright of the poster/logo was transferred to the . After eleven years of legal battle, the Swedish Armed Forces, who had been using the image without permission, paid SEK 700 000 in damages to the copyright owners in 2008.

In culture

In the grand-strategy game Hearts of Iron IV, the player can get an achievement called "En Svensk Tiger" by receiving a production license from Germany for the Tiger I or Tiger II tanks when playing as Sweden.
The Swedish Tiger is the title of the eleventh episode of the first series of Upstairs Downstairs.