Archaeology and Monument Protection in War: The Collaboration Between the German Army and Researchers in the Ottoman Empire, 1914–1918

Stein, Oliver

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-78229-4_13

Oliver Stein⁶

Part of the book series: War, Culture and Society, 1750-1850 ((WCS))

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Abstract

Stein explores how conflict in the Middle East served as a catalyst for research on, and the protection of, cultural patrimony by transforming the work of German military archaeologists and art historians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The chapter examines how wartime mobilization offered German researchers access to parts of the allied Ottoman Empire which had previously been denied to them by the authorities, and how the military in turn afforded scholars infrastructural support through, most notably, the first systematic collection of aerial photographs of ancient sites by the German air force. Stein also examines how the work of these archaeologists in uniform was incorporated into post-war propaganda campaigns to rehabilitate Germany’s reputation as a preserver, rather than destroyer, of cultural heritage.

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Notes

1.
Diary entry, 2 Nov. 1916, in Gerhard Wiegand, ed., Halbmond im letzten Viertel. Briefe und Reisebericht aus der alten Türkei von Theodor und Marie Wiegand 1895–1918 (Munich, 1970), p. 202.
2.
Wiegand to his wife, 2 Dec. 1916, in Wiegand, Halbmond, p. 208.
3.
These figures included Major Benno Regely (1825–1888) and Walhter von Diest (1851–1932) or Lieutenant Colonel Bernhard Steffen (1844–1891). See Walther von Diest, Von Tilsit nach Angora. Forschungsreise zweier preußischer Stabsoffiziere im Frühjahr 1896 (Gotha, 1898).
4.
See Carl Watzinger, Theodor Wiegand. Ein deutscher Archäologe (1864–1936) (Munich, 1944), pp. 147–154. Nicola Crüsemann, “Ja! Wir werden das Licht des deutschen Genius auch dorthin tragen’. Der Beginn der Ausgrabungen in Assur im Spiegel preußisch-deutscher Orientpolitik unter Wilhelm II.’, in Joachim Marzahn and Beate Salje, eds., Wiedererstehendes Assur. 100 Jahre deutsche Ausgrabungen in Assur (Mainz, 2003), pp. 35–44.
5.
See Suzanne L. Marchand, Down from Olympus. Archaeology and Philhellenism in Germany (Princeton, NJ, 1996), p. 246.
6.
Employing archaeologists for covert missions was also a common practice among the British and Americans in both world wars. See Pyria Satia, Spies in Arabia. The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain’s Covert Empire in the Middle East (Oxford, 2008); Susan Heuck Allen, Classical Spies. American Archaeologists with the OSS in World War II Greece (Ann Arbor, MI, 2011).
7.
Veit Veltzke, Unter Wüstensöhnen. Die deutsche Expedition Klein im Ersten Weltkrieg (Berlin, 2014), p. 16.
8.
Walter Andrae, Lebenserinnerungen eines Ausgräbers (Stuttgart, 1988), p. 226; Franz von Papen, Der Wahrheit eine Gasse (Munich, 1952), p. 88.
9.
Städtisches Museum Bendorf/Rhein, ed., Auf den Spuren der Antike. Theodor Wiegand, ein deutscher Archäologe (Bendorf, 1985).
10.
See the correspondence between Hans von Ramsay and Theodor Wiegand, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Archiv, Berlin (DAI Berlin), Wiegand papers, box 8; see also Watzinger, Wiegand, p. 279.
11.
Wilhelm von Bode to Prussian War Minister Adolf Wild von Hohenborn, n.d. [June 1916], DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 23.
12.
Hans von Ramsay to Theodor Wiegand, 31 May 1916, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 8.
13.
Nicola Crüsemann, ‘Vom Zweistromland zum Kupfergraben: Vorgeschichte und Entstehungsjahre (1899–1918) der Vorderasiatischen Abteilung der Berliner Museen vor fach- und kulturpolitischen Hintergründen’, in Beiheft zum Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 2000, vol. 42 (Berlin, 2001), pp. 197–8.
14.
See letters of Prussian Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs August von Trott zu Solz to the Reich Chancellor, 1 May 1917, Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes Berlin (PAAA) Konstantinopel 429.
15.
For more on Ottoman antiquity laws between 1880 and 1906, see Margarita Diaz-Andreu, A World History of Nineteenth-Century Archaeology: Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Past (Oxford, 2007), pp. 113–18; Wendy M.K. Shaw, Possessors and Possessed: Museums, Archaeology and the Visualization of History in the Late Ottoman Empire (Berkeley, 2003), pp. 126–130.
16.
See the correspondence from the Secret Civil Cabinet to Reich Chancellor, 5 Apr. 1918, PAAA R 64441.
17.
Theodor Wiegand’s diary, 25 July 1917, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 23; Martin Schede to Theodor Wiegand, 4 July 1918, ibid., box 8.
18.
Friedrich Frhr. Kreß von Kressenstein, Mit den Türken zum Suezkanal (Berlin, 1938), p. 198; Kreß von Kressenstein, diary, 12 Oct. 1916, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg, archive.
19.
Martin Schede to Theodor Wiegand, 21 May 1917, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 8. As early as February 1915, Schede had expressed thoughts of keeping activity to a minimum during the war and expanding influence first after the conflict was over (see Marchand, Down from Olympus, p. 254). Their hopes were aimed at the demands they wanted to make on Turkey after the war when the Ottoman Empire’s considerable debt would be negotiated (see records regarding Royal Museums’ wishes for the future peace negotiations from 1918, PAAA R 64594).
20.
See consul Julius Löytved-Hardegg to Reich Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, 13 Nov. 1916, PAAA R 64593; Wiegand, Halbmond, pp. 98–9.
21.
Heinrich Graf von Waldburg to Reich Chancellor Georg Michaelis, 12 Sept. 1917, PAAA R 64593.
22.
Christoph Roolf, ‘Eine “günstige Gelegenheit”? Deutsche Wissenschaftler im besetzten Belgien während des Ersten Weltkrieges (1914–1918)’, in Matthias Berg, Jens Thiel and Peter Th. Walther, eds., Mit Feder und Schwert. Militär und Wissenschaft – Wissenschaftler und Krieg (Stuttgart, 2009), pp. 137–154, pp. 151–2; Marchand, Down from Olympus, p. 249.
23.
Christina Kott, ‘Der deutsche “Kunstschutz” im Ersten und Zweiten Weltkrieg: Ein Vergleich’, Pariser Historische Studien, 81 (2007), pp. 137–153, p. 145.
24.
Günther Haase, Kunstraub und Kunstschutz: Eine Dokumentation (Norderstedt, 2008), pp. 56–7.
25.
Paul Clemen, ed., Kunstschutz im Kriege: Berichte über den Zustand der Kunstdenkmäler auf den verschiedenen Kriegsschauplätzen und über die deutschen und österreichischen Maßnahmen zu ihrer Erhaltung, Rettung, Erforschung, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1919).
26.
Theodor Wiegand, ‘Denkmalschutz und kunstwissenschaftliche Arbeit während des Weltkrieges in Syrien, Palästina und Westarabien’, in Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, 54 (1918/19), pp. 278–93, at p. 283; Watzinger, Wiegand, p. 303.
27.
Wiegand to foreign office, 21 Sept. 1917, PAAA R 64594.
28.
Watzinger, Wiegand, p. 319.
29.
Wiegand, 2 Dec. 1916, in Wiegand, Halbmond, pp. 208–9. See Wiegand’s report from 21 Sept. 1917. Wulzinger and Dehn’s excavation report from Panderma in Asia Minor on 19/20 Oct. 1918 attests to how Ottoman authorities also worked cooperatively with German archaeologists outside of Djemal’s sphere of influence (PAAA R 64594).
30.
Wiegand to Bode, 12 May 1917, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 38.
31.
Friedrich Sarre, ‘Kunstwissenschaftliche Arbeit während des Weltkrieges in Mesopotamien, Ost-Anatolien, Persien und Afghanistan’, Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, 54 (1918/19), pp. 294–304, p. 299.
32.
Georg Karo, ‘Deutsche Denkmalpflege im westlichen Kleinasien’ (1917/18), in Kunstschutz im Kriege, pp. 167–73, p. 170.
33.
Hans Guhr, Als türkischer Divisionskommandeur in Kleinasien und Palästina: Erlebnisse eines deutschen Stabsoffiziers während des Weltkrieges (Berlin, 1937), p. 165; Watzinger, Wiegand, p. 303.
34.
Wiegand to his wife, 6 Dec. 1916, in: Wiegand, Halbmond, pp. 210–211.
35.
Watzinger, Wiegand, p. 293.
36.
Stefan Altekamp, ‘Luftbildarchäologie in Libyen 1911/12’, in Charlotte Trümpler, ed., Das große Spiel. Archäologie und Politik zur Zeit des Kolonialismus (1860–1940) (Essen, 2008), pp. 77–83.
37.
Regarding the worth of aerial photographs for various branches of Palestinian research, see remarks from P. Evarist Mader in the introduction to Gustaf Dalman, ed., Hundert deutsche Fliegerbilder aus Palästina (Gütersloh, 1925), pp. 113–15. Charlotte Trümpler, ‘Das Deutsch-Türkische Denkmalschutz-Kommando und die Luftbildarchäologie’, in Trümpler, ed., Das große Spiel, pp. 474–83, p. 478; Charlotte Trümpler, ‘Aerial Photography in Archaeology and its Pioneers’, in Charlotte Trümpler, ed., The Past from Above: Aerial Photographs of Archaeological Sites by Georg Gerster (Los Angeles, CA, 2005), pp. 9–23, p. 14; David L. Kennedy, Derrick N. Riley, Rome’s Desert Frontier: From the Air (Austin, TX, 1990), p. 48.
38.
Trümpler, ‘Deutsch-Türkisches Denkmalschutz-Kommando’, pp. 477–8.
39.
Lothar Saupe, Palästina von oben. Luftbilder der bayerischen Fliegerstaffel 304 im Ersten Weltkrieg aus Beständen des Bayerischen Hauptstaatsarchivs: Begleitausstellung des Bayerischen Hauptstaatsarchivs zur Ausstellung ‘Mission Palästina’ (Munich, 2006), p. 5.
40.
See Martin Schede to Wiegand, 10 July 1918, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 8.
41.
Erich Serno, Erinnerungen eines ‘Alten Adlers’, manuscript, Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv Freiburg i.Br., MSg 2/10873, p. 99.
42.
[Rudolf] Holzhausen, ‘Deutsche Flieger im Dienste der Archäologie’, in Luftwelt. Zeitschrift für alle Gebiete der Luftfahrt, 2 (1935), pp. 487–89, p. 488.
43.
Rudolf Holzhausen, Die deutschen Truppen im Gebiet der heutigen Staaten Israel, Jordanien und Syrien während des Ersten Weltkrieges, manuscript (1960), PAAA NL Holzhausen 18, p. 42.
44.
Trümpler, ‘Deutsch-Türkisches Denkmalschutz-Kommando’, p. 481.
45.
Saupe, Palästina, p. 6. “Bildsammlung Palästina“in Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Munich (BayHStA). This collection is accessible at: http://www.gda-old.bayern.de/findmittel/ead/index.php?fb=478
46.
Martin Riemensperger, Michael Unger, ‘Mit der Digitalkamera zurück in die Jahre 1917/18: Die Überlieferung einer bayerischen Fliegereinheit in Palästina’, in Archivalische Zeitschrift, 92 (2011), pp. 175–208, pp. 189–90. Dalman ed., Hundert deutsche Fliegerbilder.
47.
Karo to Wiegand, 27 June 1918, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 5.
48.
Watzinger, Wiegand, p. 325.
49.
See letters from the Minister for Education and Cultural Affairs to the General Director of the Imperial Ottoman Museums Halil Edhem Bey, 19 Jan. 1918, PAAA R 64441.
50.
Here it is typical that the leader of the Yildirim Army Group, Colonel-General Erich von Falkenhayn, had Koldewey’s writings about Assur sent to him directly after taking over his commando in the Middle East (see note from Professor Koldewey, 19 July 1917, PAAA Konstantinopel 429). Many examples like this, where German officers deployed in the Ottoman Empire demonstrate a particular interest in archaeology and art, could be added.
51.
Lieutenant von Manz to his father Lieutenant-General von Manz, 7 July 1918; file note from Bavarian War Ministry, 24 June 1918, BayHStA MKr 1957.
52.
Ramsay to Wiegand, 26 July 1918, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 8.
53.
Wiegand, diary, 25 July 1917, 2 Sept. 1917, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 23.
54.
See letters from Gotthelf Bergsträßer, 1 June 1918, PAAA Konstantinopel 423.
55.
See letters from 1 June 1918 and 10 Sept. 1918, PAAA Konstantinopel 423.
56.
See letters from the German consulate in Mosul to the Reich Chancellor from 19 July 1918, PAAA Konstantinopel 429 and letters from 27 July 1918, PAAA R 64441.
57.
Ramsay to Wiegand, 26 July 1918, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 8; letters from the German military commissioner in Constantinople to Wiegand, 18 Mar. 1918, PAAA R 64594.
58.
See Wiegand’s response to the German military commissioner in Constantinople, 18 Mar. 1918, PAAA R 64594.
59.
Schede to Wiegand, 21 May 1918, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 8.
60.
See newsletter of Prussian War Ministry, 9 Sept. 1918, BayHStA MA 95027.
61.
Karo, ‘Deutsche Denkmalpflege’, p. 169.
62.
Herzfeld to Wiegand, 18 July 1916, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 23.
63.
Wiegand, 2 Nov. 1916, in Wiegand, Halbmond, p. 202.
64.
Wiegand to his wife, 9 Dec. 1916, in Wiegand, Halbmond, p. 211.
65.
Wiegand, Halbmond, p. 190. Kreß von Kressenstein gave him this assignment.
66.
Schede to Wiegand, 18 Sept. 1918, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 8.
67.
Wiegand, Halbmond, p. 208.
68.
Wiegand, Halbmond, p. 196.
69.
Wiegand, ‘Denkmalschutz’, p. 293.
70.
Wiegand, diary, 24 Aug. 1916, DAI Berlin, Wiegand papers, box 23.
71.
Bode to state secretary of the foreign office Richard von Kühlmann, 29 Dec. 1917, PAAA Konstantinopel 429.
72.
Hasan Kayah, ‘Wartime Regional and Imperial Integration of Greater Syria in World War I’, in Thomas Philipp and Birgit Schaebler, eds., The Syrian Land. Processes of Integration and Fragmentation. Bilād Al-Shām from the 18th to the 20th Century (Stuttgart, 1998), pp. 295–305; M. Talha Çiçek, War and State Formation in Syria. Cemal Pasha’s Governorate during World War I: 1914–1917 (London/New York, 2014), pp. 194–196.
73.
Watzinger, Wiegand, p. 289; see also Wiegand to foreign office, 21 Sept. 1917, PAAA R 64594.
74.
Ahmed Djemal Pasha, ed., Alte Denkmäler aus Syrien, Palästina und Westarabien – Süria wa-Falastṃīn wa-ġarbī ʿArabistan abidāt-i-a̱tiqasy (Berlin, 1918).
75.
Christina Kott, ‘Die deutsche Kunst- und Museumspolitik im besetzten Nordfrankreich im Ersten Weltkrieg. Zwischen Kunstraub, Kunstschutz, Propaganda und Wissenschaft’, in Kritische Berichte. Zeitschrift für Kunst-und Kulturwissenschaften, 2 (1997), pp. 5–25, pp. 8–9, 19 ff.; Marchand, Down from Olympus, p. 249.
76.
Watzinger, Wiegand, p. 313. The Foreign Office first found out about this through participant Prof. Paul Schumann’s report from 11 Oct. 1917, PAAA R 64594.
77.
Theodor Wiegand, ed., Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen des deutsch-türkischen Denkmalsschutz-Kommandos (6 vols., Berlin, 1920–1924). The Prussian War Ministry had approved large sums for the publication of this study (see preface to: Theodor Wiegand, ‘Sinai’ (Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen des deutsch-türkischen Denkmalsschutz-Kommandos, vol. 1, Berlin/Leipzig, 1920)).
78.
Dr. Naumann (Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office) to the embassies in Stockholm, Bern, Kristiania, Copenhagen, The Hague; also see the responses, Bundesarchiv Berlin R 901/71590.

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Oliver Stein

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Stein, O. (2018). Archaeology and Monument Protection in War: The Collaboration Between the German Army and Researchers in the Ottoman Empire, 1914–1918. In: Clarke, J., Horne, J. (eds) Militarized Cultural Encounters in the Long Nineteenth Century. War, Culture and Society, 1750-1850. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78229-4_13

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78229-4_13
Published: 23 August 2018
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