Germany’s Covert War In The Middle East: Espionage, Propaganda And Diplomacy In World War I

361 Pages·2018·9.299 MB·English

by  Curt Prüfer, Kevin Morrow

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
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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.