Chapter 11 – Hans

Many details in this chapter, including some dialogue, are taken from Secrets of the Bosphorous , by, Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time of the events described (published 1918).

Some details described by Morgenthau include:

p. 64 – Wangenheim flattered Turkish pride and said to the Young Turks “Don’t you see why the English want you to keep out? It is because they fear you. Don’t you see that with the help of Germany, you have again become a great military power? No wonder England doesn’t want to fight you!”

p. 65 – “Wangenheim purchased the Ikdam , one of the largest Turkish newspapers, which immediately began to sing the praises of Germany and to abuse the Entente…Enver was advertised as the ‘hero’…Germany was pictured as Turkey’s friend; the Kaiser suddenly became ‘Hadji Wilhelm’, the great protector of Islam, and stories were even printed that he have become a convert to Muhammadanism. The Turkish populace was informed that the Muslims of India and of Egypt were about to revolt and throw off their English tyrants.”

p. 66 – “The Turkish man-on-the-street was taught to say Gott Strafe England , and all the time the motive-power of this infamous campaign was German money.” Morgenthau describes how Wangenheim “poisoned the minds” of Young Turks Enver, Talaat and Djemal, saying that “England had deliberately let the Turkish Navey go to decay.”

p. 67 – “I really think that the most powerful seat of authority at that time was a German merchant-ship, the General . It was moored in the Golden Horn, near the Galata Bridge, and a permanent stairway had been built, leading to its deck.” Morgenthau states that Admiral Souchan, who had brought the cruisers Goeben and Breslau through the Dardanelles and on to Constantinople presided over parties where much beer and champagne flowed. German naval officers slept on board. The German naval officers were “spoiling for a fight”.

p. 68 – German officers closed the Dardanelles Strait on 27 September 1914. The news came as a surprise to the Turkish Government at a Cabinet conference on this day, although they were the only ones with the legal right to take such a step.

p. 69 – German General Weber who was in charge of the Dardanelles fortifications ordered the Dardanelles closed, without consultation with the Turks, after British warships outside the Dardanelles refused to allow passage of a Turkish torpedo-boat that was manned by German officers. “Down went the mines and the nets; the lights in the lighthouses were extinguished’ signals were put up notifying all ships that there was ‘no thoroughfare’.”

p. 70 – “That month of September [1914] had been a disillusioning one for the Germans. The French had beaten back the invasion and had driven German armies to entrenchments along the Aisne. The Russians were sweeping triumphantly through Galacia.”

“In those days, Pallavincini, the Austrian Ambassador, was a discouraged, lamentable figure. He confided in me his fears for the future, telling me that the German programme of a short, decisive war had clearly failed and that it was now quite evident that  Germany could only win, if she could win at all, which was exceedingly doubtful, after a protracted struggle. I have described how Wangenheim, while preparing the Turkish Army and Navy for any eventualities, was simply holding Turkey in his hand, intending actively to use her forces only in case Germany failed to crush France and Russia in the first campaign. Now that the failure was manifest, Wangenheim was instructed to use the Turkish Empire as an active ally.”

p. 71-72 – Morganthau describes how Russian ships crowded the Bosphorus “began to look like a harbour which had been suddenly stricken by the plague”, with hundreds of ships at anchor, “so dense that a motor-boat had difficulty picking its way through the tangled forest.”

p. 105 – “Sitting in his office, puffing away at his big, black German cigar, he unfolded Germany’s scheme to arouse the whole fanatical Moslem world against the Christians. Germany had planned a real ‘holy war’ as one means of destroying English and French influence in the world. ‘Turkey herself is not the really important matter,’ said Wangenheim. ‘Her army is a small one, and we do not expect it to do very much. For the most part it will act on the defensive. But the big thing is the Moslem world. If we can stir the Mohammedans up against the English and Russians we can force them to make peace.’”

p. 105-108 – Morgenthau provides details how Hans von Wangenheim confessed that Germany used Turkey to incite the Muslims of the world. This was done with the Jihad or “holy war” proclaimed by the Sultain on 13 November 1914, including an official public version and a more extreme secret pamphlet that was “distributed stealthily in Mohammedan countries—India, Egypt, Morocco, Syria and many others—and it was significantly printed in Arabic, the language of the Koran…full of quotations from the Koran, and its style was frenzied in its appeal to racial and religious hatred. It described a detailed plan of operations for the assassination and extermination of all Christians—except for those of German nationality.” Extracts translated into English are provided.

p. 109-110 – “Even if British Mohammedans refused to rise, Wangenheim believed  that the mere threat of  such an uprising would  induce England to abandon Belgium  and France to their fate. The danger of spreading such incendiary literature among a wildly fanatical people is apparent.”