Weiberg, Thomas Sultan & Kaiser. Abdül Hamid II. und Wilhelm II. Orientpolitik zwischen Wunsch und Wirklichkeit

This book traces the tense encounter between Orient and Occident on the Bosporus around 1900 and the associated conflicts of interest. Recent events show that the topic is still of burning topicality after more than one hundred years. The book is supplemented by the political notes of Sultan Abdül Hamid II, which can be accessed via a QR code on the internet, were published in Switzerland in 1914 and are now available for the first time in their entirety in German translation.

"But who in the Occident knows our history? Who takes the trouble to know it?" So asked Sultan Abdül Hamid II (1842-1918) well over a hundred years ago, aiming primarily at the willingness of Europeans to engage more deeply with Ottomans or Turks. While most European monarchs and politicians saw Sultan Abdül Hamid II as the insane murderer who had numerous Armenian uprisings bloodily put down, Kaiser Wilhelm II deliberately sought the Sultan's acquaintance in order to step out of the (foreign) political shadow of the powerful Reich Chancellor von Bismarck. But Abdül Hamid II also hoped for advantages for the Ottoman Empire, which was under pressure from the major European powers, by aligning itself with Germany. Together, the two monarchs initiated a phase of close German-Ottoman relations that lasted about thirty years. In addition to an examination of Abdül Hamid II's personality, which was and still is controversial, the book focuses on Wilhelm II's Oriental policy and the glamorously staged state visits of the German imperial couple in 1889 and 1898. In addition, there are reports and assessments by numerous German politicians and diplomats who followed their emperor on the "path to the Orient", sometimes with great commitment, sometimes only reluctantly. Personal memoirs of Wilhelm II, the travel diary of Grand Duchess Elisabeth of Oldenburg and memoirs of Ottoman princesses also provide interesting insights into politics and court life in the period before 1914.