The German–Ottoman Alliance and Muslim Prisoners of War in Germany (1914–8)

Abstract

During the First World War, thousands of Muslim soldiers were captured by the Germans and housed in special camps set up in Germany. The recruitment of Muslim POWs in these camps was part of Berlin's broader effort aimed at the ‘program of global insurrection’ adopted at the start of the war. This task was impossible without close cooperation with the Ottomans. The special camps became not only an opportunity, but also a challenge for both German propaganda and the German–Ottoman alliance, provoking conflicts between the Ottomans and Germans and, at the same time, forcing them to seek new forms of cooperation. The experience of this interaction and its consequences are still poorly understood. A study of German–Ottoman cooperation and rivalry through the lens of special camps for Muslim POWs, as well as the experiences of Muslim POWs in Germany, can shed additional light on both the interaction between the empires during the First World War and the history of participation of colonial soldiers in it.