Emperor Wilhelm II's trip to Palestine

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From 11 October to 26 November 1898 undertook German Emperor Wilhelm II. His trip to Palestine , at the peak of it, the German Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem inaugurated.

As part of his trip to Palestine , the cities of Constantinople , Haifa , Jaffa , Jerusalem and Beirut , which were then part of the Ottoman Empire , were visited. The emperor supported the sultan's power in the unstable Ottoman Empire since the Balkan crisis , tried to strengthen Christianity politically , especially the Protestant Church, and encouraged the German Christian and Jewish settlers without wanting to stand up for them politically.

Memorial postcard from 1898

Historical context

Wilhelm II in parade uniform

At the end of the 19th century, when Wilhelm II took over the dignity of Emperor, the German Empire was in a state of upheaval. It made the transition from an agricultural to an industrial state . This economic structural change brought social changes with it. For example, the new large entrepreneurs displaced the old medium- sized businesses with their small retail stores and gained political relevance thanks to their great financial strength.

In addition, the number of industrial workers rose to the level of the number of workers in agriculture and forestry. The German Empire advanced to become one of the three major industrial nations (alongside the USA and Great Britain ), which led to population growth, which in turn promoted urbanization and the number of large cities from 1871 to 1910 by 58 percent. The state was unable to adequately balance the social contradictions that it triggered, especially between the working class and the bourgeoisie , and in order to compensate for internal political tensions it promoted imperialism to the outside world .

The expansion of the transport system, especially the expansion of the railway network, should not be underestimated for the economic rise of the German Reich . The economic upswing was carried by exports. In 1891 the export of goods reached the value of 7.3 billion marks () and rose to 17.8 billion ℳ by 1911. The German colonies hardly played a role here, as the overseas sales markets were mainly in Anglo-Saxon areas.

In 1914 there were around 5,000 European Christians living in Palestine, half of whom came from Germany. An economically important group was composed of Württemberg originating Temple Society . The German settlers had settled in Palestine for religious or national-Jewish motives and were under the protectorate of the German Empire. In addition to the Christians who immigrated from Europe, there was a long Christian tradition among the Palestinian Arabs.

prehistory

It was not the first time in the history of the Hohenzollern family that a member of the family had traveled to Palestine. Albrecht Achilles (1414–1486) and his brother Johann von Brandenburg (1406–1464) were still princes in the Holy Land in 1435 . For religious reasons, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. (1795–1861) became interested in the Holy Land and founded the Protestant diocese of Jerusalem there in 1841 , maintained by the Evangelical Church in Prussia and the Church of England , which inadvertently led to rivalries between the local religions. Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (1831–1888) traveled to Jerusalem in 1869 for the opening ceremony of the Suez Canal . Kaiser Wilhelm I had funds collected for the construction of a church in Jerusalem.

After the Protestant regional church in the older provinces of Prussia, as the church was called since 1875, at the instigation of Kaiser Wilhelm II, owner of the church regiment, terminated its participation in the diocese of Jerusalem on November 3, 1886 and finally received its part of the diocese's assets three years later In 1889, the emperor confirmed the establishment of the German Jerusalem Foundation , which received the reimbursed assets as foundation capital. The purpose of this foundation was to maintain and create evangelical church institutions and institutions in Jerusalem. The fact of the German settlement and the traditional relationship of the Hohenzollern to the Holy Land will have been decisive for his trip. The declared goal was the dedication of the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. He also wanted to travel to the Holy Land as a pilgrim , like his father once did, and to comply with the wish of his grandfather, whom he greatly admired, to set up a Protestant church in Jerusalem.

Sultan Abdülhamid II

On the occasion of the trip, the Turkish side was considering tearing down part of the city wall of Jerusalem, as the traffic was expected to increase, to which the emperor said: “This should be inhibited; I do not hope that such barbarism will actually be made. ”A section of the wall directly on the Jaffa Gate was broken through for his invasion. It was generally claimed that the emperor ordered the demolition.

The trip to Palestine gained political relevance through the visit of the emperor to the "red sultan" Abdülhamid II (so called because of the massacre of the Armenians in Constantinople) to confirm the good relations between the two countries. The French press claimed that with his protectorate the emperor wanted to eliminate the French tradition of protecting Catholics and their institutions in the Orient without differentiating between nationalities. On October 17, 1898, the newspaper Le Matin claimed that the emperor wanted to establish a naval base in Haifa and that this was the main purpose of the trip. But as can be seen from the emperor's remarks, he only knew where Haifa was a short time before his arrival. “Haifa, where is that?” (Quoted from ibid., P. 58) Originally the emperor was supposed to dock in Jaffa, but due to the late season it was recommended to land in Haifa, which the emperor agreed to. The background to this recommendation is the embarkation of Emperor Franz Joseph on the occasion of his trip to the Middle East in 1869, during which the ship almost capsized.

course

Constantinople around 1876

In the spring the journey of the imperial couple was prepared. Among other things, a delegation traveled to Palestine to check the planned route. The journey began on October 11th. The emperor and empress with their entourage first set off for Constantinople . Many pilgrims and two hundred official guests joined them. While the official entourage and the imperial couple made their way via Constantinople, the pilgrims traveled directly to Palestine.

Greetings

The reception that the Emperor and Empress received in Constantinople, Palestine and Syria was characterized by a very positive attitude. After a short stay in Constantinople, they traveled on with their entourage to Palestine.

Wilhelm II went ashore in Haifa on October 25, 1898

On October 25th, the Emperor and Empress arrived in Haifa with the yacht Hohenzollern . It was the first time in 670 years, if you do not count the journey of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph shortly before, that an Emperor of the German Nation set foot on the Holy Land. The Hohenstaufen Frederick II (1194-1250), who had undertaken a crusade to the Holy Land, was the last to land in Akko in 1228 . From Mount Carmel , Wilhelm II and his entourage looked down at Haifa and the German colony there. A Kaiser Wilhelm monument was later built at this point and the square in front of it was called Kaiser Wilhelm Platz. British soldiers dismantled the monument in 1918, but it was rebuilt in 1982 in the presence of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia and Alex Carmels .

Inscription on a temple society house in Haifa

On October 26, the emperor solemnly arrived at the German consulate in Haifa . The head of the German colony, the teacher Friedrich Lange (1840–1923), and the vice-consul Fritz Keller (1833–1913) welcomed him and the empress on behalf of the Templars . Lange expressed his thanks for the fact that the colony was under the German protectorate and received financial support, and expressed the hope that it would continue to receive support in the future, which the Kaiser happily affirmed.

The pastor Herman Baumeister (1867–1898) spoke a few words as a representative of the Catholics and Protestants residing in Tabgha on Lake Tiberias. Thereupon the emperor informed the pastor that he would grant protection to the “Catholic subjects” everywhere. Following the welcome ceremony in the garden of the German consulate, the Catholic hospice of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo and the Protestant school, which was also located in Haifa, were visited. After visiting Haifa, the journey continued to Jaffa. On the way, Atlit and Tantura were visited, and shortly before Caesarea Maritima one spent the night in a tent camp near Burj-el-Khail (today Burj Binjamina).

The journey continued on the morning of October 27th. Georg Sus (1853–1932), a member of the temple society, led the imperial court train on the newly built road to Jaffa. The emperor passed Kakun and Kafr Saba (today's Kfar Saba ) as well as the agricultural Templar colony of Sarona , which was north of Jaffa, in today's government district of Tel-Aviv . The emperor was warmly welcomed in Sarona. The German consul in Jaffa Edmund Schmidt (1855–1916) received the emperor and greeted him warmly on behalf of the entire colony. The emperor pointed out the hope that his friendly policy towards the Ottoman Empire would help the German settlements (at the time the colonies in Haifa, Jaffa, Rephaim near Jerusalem, Sarona and the Bir Salem estate ) to settle in the region there could develop well.

The Auerbach -Straße ( רחוב אוארבך, Rechov Auerbach ) with Ustinow's former Hôtel du Parc (left, now Beith Immanuel ,בית עמנואל) and Hardegg's former Hotel Jerusalem (right).

From the colony in Sarona the journey continued to Jaffa, where her travel agency Thomas Cook and Son Kaiser and Empress and her entourage in the Hôtel du Parc of the Protestant, Württemberg baron Plato von Ustinow ( Russian Платон Григорьевич Устинов , 1840-1918; grandfather Peter Ustinovs ) had housed. The rest of the entourage stayed at the Hotel Jerusalem (at that time Seestrasse 6, now Rechov Auerbach ;רחוב אוארבך) of the Templar Ernst Hardegg. In this way, Wilhelm II, summus episcopus of the Evangelical Regional Church of the older provinces of Prussia, kept the balance between Templars and Evangelicals during his visit.

The laying of the foundation stone for the Protestant Immanuelkirche , originally planned for October 28 , at which Wilhelm II as summus episcopus of the Old Prussian regional church and Auguste Victoria as patron of the Evangelical Church Building Association were expected, had to be canceled because of an intrigue by Templars from Jaffa and Sarona The firm with the building permit had not arrived at the Sublime Porte in time.

But Christian Matthäus Jung (1843–1909; Mayor Saronas), Friedrich Konrad Jakob Klenk (* 1832; Temple Ruler Jaffas) , Friedrich Lange (1840–1923; Temple Ruler Haifas) , Theodor Sandel (Mayor Rephaims) and Christian Hoffmann II as chairman of the Temple society visited the emperor that day. A memorandum was brought in describing the settlement of the Templars in Palestine, as well as an album with drawings by the German oriental painter Gustav Bauernfeind (1848–1904). The emperor expressed his wish to the colonists that they should “continue with their important task for the benefit of the inhabitants of this country with perseverance and success”. The imperial court train now left Jaffa for Jerusalem. On the way, at the Jewish agricultural school Mikveh Israel , the emperor met Theodor Herzl . At that time he said nothing about the future of the Jews in Palestine.

Sermon before clergy

Bethlehem around 1894

The Emperor was traveling on horseback and came over Ramle and Latrun to Bab el Wad . On the morning of October 29, the route passed via Abu Gosh to Jerusalem. The imperial couple rode on white horses in white suncoats ahead of the entourage into the city. The stay in Jerusalem lasted a week. The local host and representative of the Sultan was the Mutasarrıf of Jerusalem , Tevfik Hamdi (1856–1956), and his wife, Emine Naciye Tevfik (1875–1960), a painter who also recorded the emperor's visit to Jerusalem in the picture. The painting (140 × 220 cm) is owned by the Turkish Naval Museum (Deniz Müzesi) in Beşiktaş and was created from a photographic template.

That the Emperor of Jerusalem was disappointed became clear from a speech he gave in Bethlehem on a terrace in front of the Evangelical Christmas Church, which was inaugurated in 1893 . The audience of the speech consisted of Christian clergy from Palestine, Asia Minor and Egypt as well as representatives of the Lutheran Churches of Norway and Sweden , Swiss and German regional churches ( Friedrich Wilhelm Barkhausen , President of the Old Prussian Protestant High Church Council (EOK) ; Georg Behrmann , senior of the Hamburg Church Regional Church ; Braun , Württemberg OKR , Theodor Valentiner ), general superintendent of Old Prussian church provinces (e.g. Ernst Dryander ), as well as representatives of Protestant churches in Italy , Hungary , the Netherlands and the USA. The emperor criticized the resentment that prevailed between the Christians and led so far that Turkish soldiers even had to intervene in the churches to prevent excesses between the Christians.

He also criticized the Protestants' disagreement. This is a bad appearance in front of the Muslim population and gives an unworthy image of Christianity. Germany's intention must be to show the Mohammedans how the Christian religion is love. This should be achieved through educational and welfare institutions as well as through the culture of Christianity and not through debilitating speeches. The impoverished regional population is lacking these mentioned things, and the path leads through this to "awaken their respect and love for Christianity".

Rhetorical encouragement to the Templars

Jerusalem around 1900

When he returned to Jerusalem from Bethlehem, the emperor went to the local Templar colony of Rephaim and found more encouraging words for them than before for the spiritual audience in front of the Christmas church in Bethlehem. He said that he was pleased

“That you understood how to set a good example to your neighbors through your personal life, and that you showed how it must be done in order to gain respect for the German name in these countries. You have ... earned yourselves a good reputation here and abroad and have shown how to attack it, to make barren fields fertile again ... I hope that the friendly relations with the Ottoman Empire will continue to be so in the future, as well especially the friendship with His Majesty the Sultan and Me, will serve to facilitate your tasks. If any one of you needs my protection, then I am there ... and fortunately the German Reich is able to grant its relatives abroad lasting protection. "

These positive words of the emperor show that he was very interested in the prosperity of the colonies in Palestine. Addressing the settlers in the second person gives the impression of special closeness. He also praises her work because "... you have shown how to do it in order to gain respect for the German name in these countries". This sentence could be an allusion to the speech given earlier in Bethlehem.

Joyfully strengthened by the Emperor's words, the night's rest was disturbed on the following day by the singing of German settlers. They sang the German national anthem . But Robert Bosse (Prussian minister of culture and member of the imperial retinue) said that one should not give the settlers too many hopes. Bosse was aware that Wilhelm II would not take any “concrete steps” that would jeopardize relations with Sultan Abdülhamid II, even if the Kaiser tried to strengthen the position of the German settlers in Palestine.

Inauguration of the Church of the Redeemer

Wilhelm II and Auguste Viktoria in front of the Church of the Redeemer

Paul Ferdinand Groth (1859–1955) was in charge of building the Erlöserkirche from 1893 to 1898 . The emperor's wish was that a document along with three five-mark pieces, the portraits of Emperor Wilhelm I, Friedrich III. and Wilhelm II showed that Luther's 95 theses were to be placed in a copper box and sealed with a stone slab. The area on which the church was built was handed over to the Catholic " German Association of the Holy Land " by the Emperor , which had tried to buy it for a long time. But the terrain was sacred to the Muslims too, and so the association tried in vain. Only when the emperor intervened personally did the sultan himself buy the area for ℳ 100,000, which Wilhelm II raised.

On October 31, the main destination of the trip was the dedication of the Church of the Redeemer in front of visitors from all over the world. The visits that the emperor had planned in Jordan , he canceled because of the heat and the dusty roads; also because of news that reached him from Berlin, as the public announcement said. In his last days in Jerusalem he met the most important representatives of all local religions as well as the state institutions. He also visited Pastor Johann Ludwig Schneller's Syrian Orphanage , the Kaiserswerth girls' school " Talitha Kumi " as well as the German deaconess hospital and the Catholic hospice.

Rejection of Zionism

Theodor Herzl, 1904

A Zionist embassy under the leadership of Theodor Herzl arrived at the emperor's tent camp on November 2nd. Wilhelm II informed them that all those endeavors could count on his benevolent interest which aimed at increasing agriculture in Palestine to promote the welfare of the Turkish Empire while fully respecting the sovereignty of the Sultan.

Herzl had hoped to be able to pave the way for the Jewish state in Palestine with the help of the emperor . Even the emperor's uncle, Friedrich I. von Baden , had telegraphed Herzl to congratulate him on the success. But in the last line Wilhelm II emphasized the sultan's sovereignty. The good relations with the Turkish sultan were evidently more important to the emperor than the German settlers and possibly the hope of getting rid of left-wing Jews in Germany. The emperor may have initially toyed with the idea of ​​helping the Zionists in Palestine, but he took it off again during the trip to the Orient, perhaps when the sultan visited.

Visit of Damascus and triumphant return

A farewell service for the emperor took place on November 3rd in the Erlöserkirche. The next day the farm traveled back to Jaffa by train, from where the ship continued to Beirut . From there he visited Saladin's tomb on a visit to Damascus . Here Wilhelm gave a speech in front of a large crowd in which he referred to the friendship between Harun al-Rashid and Charlemagne by declaring that the German Kaiser would be the friend of all Mohammedans at all times. This Damascus speech was received with great gratitude by the Sultan, while it aroused amazement and suspicion in Europe. The Kaiser returned to Berlin on November 26th .

But the triumphant homecoming still got political:

"His sister Charlotte couldn't believe her eyes and ears when she learned of his intention to make a festive entry into Berlin as if he had won a war."

Popular works, children's books and a splendid edition spread the myth of the imperial pilgrimage as a fairy tale come true. In his subsequent speech he also tried to use the trip to the Orient by describing his uplifting feeling in front of the Brandenburg Provincial Parliament , which had seized him on the Mount of Olives , where the Redeemer fought the struggle of all struggles for humanity. Finally, Wilhelm remarked how nice it was in the German homeland and that it had to be everyone's job to maintain unity.

"That's why we want to endeavor that we Germans at least stick together, like a solid block."

Frank Wedekind expressed the critical voices in Simplicissimus' "Palestine notebook" with the poem In the Holy Land , in which he ironized the religious symbolism of the trip:

“You fill millions of Christians with pride;
how will Golgotha ​​boast from now on,
who once heard the last word from the cross
and now the first on your part. "

Conclusion

Obelisk in Haifa

The Chargé d'Affaires at the Embassy in Constantinople checked the results of the trip. Copies of this report have been sent to all foreign embassies on the instructions of the emperor, which Alex Carmel takes as the emperor's approval. The German settlers were identified as the beneficiaries of the trip, as they benefited above all from the roads and bridges, etc. specially built for the visit of the emperor. The leitmotif given for the trip was their religiosity, and their greatest achievement was the enthusiasm for the Germans that it sparked. Robert Bosse noted that some fellow travelers said that the German Reich would now "gain a firm foothold" in Palestine. However, the trip showed

“How cautiously our Kaiser avoided everything that could have served as a support for exaggerated political hopes or the mistrust of other nations. The foreign policy of the German Empire is still - thank God - on the path laid out by Prince Bismarck . It is an outspoken policy of peace, especially on the oriental question. "

The German Reich in Palestine does not intend to win German territories or centers, as in China, but is pleased with the peaceful work of the German settlers there. “Although Prussia and the German Empire generally treated colonization plans of their subjects in the Ottoman Empire with the greatest caution and restraint,” the emperor's relationship with the German settlers in Palestine was benevolent towards them, but his support in view of the relations with the Ottoman Empire reluctant. The Templars' hope that the emperor would primarily support the colonies politically was therefore not fulfilled. The dreams of the German colonists in Palestine finally burst when the emperor did not rush to their aid in the case of Fritz Unger (1876–1910), even though he had assured them of his protection several times on his journey to the Orient. The settler Unger was killed by angry Arabs in the presence of the German Vice Consul and representatives of the Turkish authorities, as a thief from their village had been shot in the vineyard the previous night.

The German Reich's political interest in Palestine flagged when the French were officially given the Holy Land because the German capital claimed the zone along the Baghdad Railway when Germany, France, England and Russia divided the Ottoman Empire into spheres of interest.

With the exception of the visit to Sultan Abdülhamid II, the trip was rather apolitical and had the character of a pilgrimage in the spirit of the ancestors. The Kaiser certainly had an interest in the German settlements, at least in a cultural sense, and less so in a political one. As the entire course shows, the religious motives predominated.

literature

  • Heinrich Niemöller (ed.): Up to Jerusalem. Commemorative book of the official festival journey for the dedication of the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem Published on behalf of the commissioned commission. Berlin 1899 ( digitized version )
  • Friedrich Zange : The Jerusalem trip of Kaiser Wilhelm II in the light of history. The address of Kaiser Wilhelm in the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem is included . Reuther & Reichard, Berlin 1899.
  • Necmettin Alkan: German world politics and the competition of powers for the Ottoman inheritance. German-Ottoman relations in the German press, 1890–1909. Lit, Münster 2003, ISBN 3-8258-7033-2 .
  • Alex Carmel, Ejal Jakob Eisler: The emperor travels to the Holy Land. Wilhelm II's trip to Palestine in 1898. An illustrated documentation. Kohlhammer, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-17-015920-8 .
  • Werner Conze: Germany, Prussia, German Empire, Austria 1789–1939. In: The Great Ploetz. The data encyclopedia of world history. Data, facts, connections. 32nd, revised edition. Herder, Freiburg 1998, pp. 837-898, 902-912.
  • Klaus Jaschinski, Julius Waldschmidt: The Emperor's Journey to the Orient 1898. trafo verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-89626-257-2 .
  • Jan Stefan Richter: Kaiser Wilhelm II's trip to the Orient in 1898 - A study of German foreign policy at the turn of the 20th century. (= Studies on the History of the Modern Age, Vol. 9). Publishing house Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-86064-621-4 .
  • John CG Röhl: Wilhelm II. The construction of the personal monarchy 1888–1900. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-48229-5 .
  • Ernst von Mirbach: The journey of the emperor and the empress to Palestine - three lectures held in Potsdam . Dogma, Bremen, 2013, ISBN 9783955802202 .

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm II of Germany in Jerusalem  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Andrea Pacini: Socio-Political and Community Dynamics of Arab Christians in Jordan, Israel, and the Autonomous Palestinian Territories . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1998, ISBN 0-19-829388-7 , pp. 282 f.
  2. Ejal Jakob Eisler (איל יעקב איזלר): The German contribution to the rise of Jaffa 1850-1914: On the history of Palestine in the 19th century. (= Treatises of the German Palestine Association, Vol. 22). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-447-03928-0 , p. 17.
  3. Alex Carmel (אלכס כרמל), Ejal Jakob Eisler (איל יעקב איזלר): The emperor travels to the Holy Land. Wilhelm II's trip to Palestine in 1898. An illustrated documentation . Kohlhammer, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-17-015920-8 , p. 51.
  4. Later came Bethlehem of Galilee (1906), Waldheim (1907) and Wilhelma (1902) added.
  5. Cf. Alex Carmel (אלכס כרמל): The settlements of the Württemberg Templars in Palestine (1868-1918). 1st edition. 1973, [התיישבות הגרמנים בארץ ישראל בשלהי השלטון הטורקי: בעיותיה המדיניות, המקומיות והבינלאומיות ", יר"ושלים: חמיול; German] (= Publications of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg: Series B, Research; Vol. 77). 3. Edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-17-016788-X , p. 161.
  6. Alex Carmel (אלכס כרמל): The settlements of the Württemberg Templars in Palestine (1868-1918). 1st edition. 1973, [התיישבות הגרמנים בארץ ישראל בשלהי השלטון הטורקי: בעיותיה המדיניות, המקומיות והבינלאומיות ", יר"ושלים: חמיול; German] (= Publications of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg: Series B, Research; Vol. 77). 3. Edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-17-016788-X , p. 161.
  7. Ejal Jakob Eisler (איל יעקב איזלר): The German contribution to the rise of Jaffa 1850-1914: On the history of Palestine in the 19th century. (= Treatises of the German Palestine Association; Vol. 22). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-447-03928-0 , p. 116.
  8. Ejal Jakob Eisler (איל יעקב איזלר): The German contribution to the rise of Jaffa 1850-1914: On the history of Palestine in the 19th century. (= Treatises of the German Palestine Association; Vol. 22). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-447-03928-0 , p. 81.
  9. www.denizmuzeleri.tsk.tr ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (on-line) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.denizmuzeleri.tsk.tr
  10. Cf. Frank Foerster: Mission in the Holy Land: The Jerusalems-Verein zu Berlin 1852-1945. (= Missiological research; [NS], vol. 25). Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, Gütersloh 1991, ISBN 3-579-00245-7 , p. 108.
  11. a b c d Frank Foerster: Mission in the Holy Land: The Jerusalem Association of Berlin 1852-1945. (= Missiological research; [NS], vol. 25). Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, Gütersloh 1991, ISBN 3-579-00245-7 , p. 120.
  12. ^ Wilhelm's strange crusade , article from October 8, 1998 by John CG Roehl on Zeit Online
  13. ↑ Visit of the Emperor in 1898
  14. ^ John Röhl: Wilhelm II. The construction of the personal monarchy 1888–1900 . Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-48229-5 , p. 1059.
  15. ^ John Röhl: Wilhelm II. The construction of the personal monarchy 1888–1900 . Beck Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-48229-5 , p. 1060.
  16. Frank Wedekind: In the Holy Land , satirical poem on the Palestinian journey of Wilhelm II., Published in Simplicissimus, 1898 No. 31 pseudonym ("Hieronymos"). However, the identity of the author soon became known, Wedekind fled to France and was sentenced to several months imprisonment on the Königstein (September 21, 1899 - February 3, 1900).
  17. Alex Carmel (אלכס כרמל), Ejal Jakob Eisler (איל יעקב איזלר): The emperor travels to the Holy Land. Wilhelm II's trip to Palestine in 1898. An illustrated documentation . Kohlhammer, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-17-015920-8 , p. 169.
  18. ʿAbd-ar-Raʿūf Sinnū (Abdel-Raouf Sinno, عبد الرؤوف سنّو): German interests in Syria and Palestine, 1841–1898: activities of religious institutions, economic and political influences. (Studies on the modern Islamic Orient, 3). Baalbek, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-922876-32-3 , p. 65.
  19. Cf. Frank Foerster: Mission in the Holy Land: The Jerusalems-Verein zu Berlin 1852-1945. (= Missiological research; [NS], vol. 25). Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, Gütersloh 1991, ISBN 3-579-00245-7 , p. 104 f and ʿAbd-ar-Raʿūf Sinnū (Abdel-Raouf Sinno, عبد الرؤوف سنّو): German interests in Syria and Palestine, 1841–1898 : Activities of religious institutions, economic and political influences. (= Studies on the modern Islamic Orient; Vol. 3). Baalbek, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-922876-32-3 , p. 65.