‘And thus a shared marriage bound us to Germany’: the image of Wilhelmine Germany in the Kingdom of Greece (1889–1914)

Abstract

After unification in 1871 Germany became, for some of Greece's intellectuals, politicians, and journalists, a model for the organization and national integration of their own country. This article examines perceptions of the Second Reich between the accession of Wilhelm II and the start of the First World War. It traces the role played by the German model in public discourse within the Kingdom of Greece in relation to the importance of the monarchy, the dynasty, and the army in the realization of the Megale Idea, and in the choice of the country's political orientation between East and West.