Germany’s Covert War In The Middle East: Espionage, Propaganda And Diplomacy In World War I PDF
Preview Germany’s Covert War In The Middle East: Espionage, Propaganda And Diplomacy In World War I
Curt Pru¨fer was one of Germany’s leading diplomats in the early twentiethcentury,servingtheKaiser’sgovernment,theWeimarRepublic andtheNazis.DuringWorldWarI,hewasstationedintheMiddleEast, wherehe attempted to orchestrate – by various means, both official and informal – OttomanparticipationinthewaronthesideoftheGermans. Kevin Morrow is a researcher and translator with a wide range of experience amongst historical archives. He previously worked on the research team for Scott Anderson’s Lawrence in Arabia (2013). “This is an exceptional work of editing. Kevin Morrow has produced a verygoodtranslationwithaflowingnarrativesupportedbyanamazing body of notes that will help readers – both academics and general readership – to understand the context. The diary of Curt Pru¨fer, long forgotten, will shed light on previously little-known events that took place in the Middle East during the war and will help to reassess the Germanroleintheregion.ThisdiaryprovesoncemorethattheMiddle Eastern front was not a sideshow.” – Roberto Mazza, Lecturer at the University of Limerick and author of Jerusalem from the Ottomans to the British (I.B.Tauris, 2013) and Jerusalem in World War I: the Palestine Diary of a European Consul (I.B.Tauris, 2015). “In this remarkable book, Kevin Morrow reveals a crucial source: the diaries of important early twentieth-century diplomatic actor Curt Pru¨fer. These illuminate the Ottoman preparations for the conquest of Egypt, the daily life in the desert and the relations between Turks and Germansduringthisperiod.Thebookoffersreadersalivelyandunique description of what happened on the Palestinian front, and includes valuable information on the period’s various nationalist movements, from Zionism to Arabism, and their relations with the Ottoman and German authorities. The detailed footnotes masterfully contextualize the entries and will enable readers to better understand the text. Germany’s Covert War in the Middle East fills a significant gap in the history of the Great War and is essential reading for anyone hoping to understandtheGermanandTurkishconcernsintheMiddleEastduring World War I, as well as the course of events on the Palestinian front.” – M. Talha C¸ic(cid:1)ek, Assistant Professor, Istanbul Medeniyet University GERMANY S ' COVERT WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST Espionage, Propaganda and Diplomacy in World War I Curt Pru¨fer Edited and Translated by Kevin Morrow Publishedin2018by I.B.Tauris&Co.Ltd London(cid:129)NewYork www.ibtauris.com Textcopyrightq2018TheHooverInstitution Englishtranslationcopyrightq2018KevinMorrow TherightofCurtPru¨fertobeidentifiedastheauthorofthisworkhasbeenasserted bytheestateoftheauthorinaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,oranypart thereof,maynotbereproduced,storedinorintroducedintoaretrievalsystem, ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying, recordingorotherwise,withoutthepriorwrittenpermissionofthepublisher. Everyattempthasbeenmadetogainpermissionfortheuseoftheimagesinthisbook. Anyomissionswillberectifiedinfutureeditions. Referencestowebsiteswerecorrectatthetimeofwriting. InternationalLibraryofTwentiethCenturyHistory110 ISBN:9781784531430 eISBN:9781786723185 ePDF:9781786733184 AfullCIPrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary AfullCIPrecordisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:available TypesetinGaramondThreebyOKSPrepressServices,Chennai,India PrintedandboundbyCPIGroup(UK)Ltd,Croydon,CR04YY To my parents: you made me everything that I am. To the Syrian refugees of ‘Anjar and al Mafraq: Godspeed and a swift homecoming. CONTENTS Acknowledgements and Notes on Sources viii Notes on Text, Transliteration and Terminology x Abbreviations xi Map xii List of Plates xiii Introduction 1 The Prewar Years 4 1. 1914 13 2. 1915 63 3. 1916 123 4. 1917 149 5. 1918 169 Epilogue 196 Appendix I 201 Appendix II 204 Notes 206 Bibliography 303 Index 318 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND NOTES ON SOURCES I used three original sources in writing this book: the correspondence pennedbyCurtPru¨ferandhiscolleagues,nowavailableintheGerman Foreign Office (Auswa¨rtige Amt, or AA) microfilm collection at the National Archives of the US near Washington, DC; the AA microfilm collection at the Politisches Archiv des Auswa¨rtigen Amtes (PAAA) in Berlin; and Pru¨fer’s diaries – written in often badly faded and occasionally illegible penciled script – housed at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution Archives. Great effort was spent trying to identify the people and places named in Pru¨fer’s writings. Many are seeing the light of day for the first time in a century. Others, unfortunately, must remain lost to history ... for now. Innumerable archivists at several institutions deserve mention for their assistance, like Lewis Holland at the National Archives of the US, Martin Kro¨ger at the PAAA and Carol Leadenham of the Hoover Institution Archives. Additional thanks must go to Curt Pru¨fer’s daughter-in-law, Trina Prufer, who kindly gave me access to Pru¨fer’s personal records. Several individuals rendered tremendous aid and encouragement during the writing of this book: Scott Anderson, who introduced me to Curt Pru¨fer and his world through my research performed for his book Lawrence in Arabia; Roberto Mazza, professor of Ottoman ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ANDNOTESONSOURCES ix history at the University of Limerick, who helped me launch this project; Lars Lu¨dicke, Hanna Sahawneh, Karen Michener and Ebru Yagız Willie, who corrected my German, Arabic and Turkish translations. Dana Ayers, Cindy Fogleman, Alana Johnson, Danny Miller, John Murdoch, Lauren Ross and Ebru Yagız Willie helped underwrite the cost of my research.
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