This special collections item was loaned to the exhibition Dada South? Experimentation, Radicalism and Resistance curated by Kathryn Smith and Roger van Wyk, Iziko South Africa National Gallery, December 12, 2009–February 28, 2010. It is indexed here as part of Smith and Van Wyk’s revisiting of the Dada South? Archive of materials at A4 Arts Foundation.

Most of the visitors were intellectuals who accepted Dada’s daring ideas in advance. But one day, a colonel from the Reichswehr came to see the exhibit and was extremely indignant. I happened to be the only Dadaist present, and he said to me, "You are all criminals and you ought to be shot." I answered, "Go ahead, go ahead, we’ll enjoy it!"… It was the same officer who testified on April 12, 1921, in the libel action brought against Dada by the Reichswehr.
– Raoul Hausmann

The authorities were highly offended by the ceiling sculpture of the officer with a pig’s head; Grosz, Heartfield, and Schlichter were charged with an ‘affront to the armed forces of the Reich’ and Otto Burchard, with having invited them to exhibit in his gallery. The prosecuting authority demanded six weeks’ imprisonment for Grosz and Herzfelde (Heartfield’s real name). To compensate for the Armed Forces of the Reich, the printing and photographic plates used for the exhibit were confiscated and destroyed, and publication rights were withdrawn.
(Dachy 2006: 44–45)

Poster translations from above, left to right

Down with art!… Down with bourgeois spirituality!

Take Dada seriously, it’s worth it!; Dilettantes rise up against art!; Dada is on the side of the revolutionary proletariat

Unlock your head at last!…continued bottom right Open it up to the demands of our time!

Art Is Dead, Long live Tatlin's new mechanical art

I can live without food and drink but not without Dada (Marschall G. Grosz) I cannot either (John Heartfield) Me neither (Raoul Hausmann)

Dada for All

Courtesy of Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fϋr Moderne.