“Welch’ unbebautes und riesengroßes Feld”: Turkey as Colonial Space in German World War I Writings

The outbreak of World War I spawned a flood of pamphlets in which the Turco-German alliance was promoted and visions for a Germanization of Ottoman space were articulated. Academics and political commentators mapped this area in distinctly colonialist terms; journalists praised the potential of German intervention; but early accounts by German soldiers expressed disappointment regarding the apparent loss of cultural distinctness in the process of modernization. In these publications, Orientalist desire and projection reached a unique intensity as the military alliance and the realities of warfare were welcomed as catalysts for the realization of old ambitions and the implementation of colonialist designs.