Justifying Genocide in Weimar Germany: The Armenian Genocide, German Nationalists and Assassinated Young Turks, 1919–1923

Abstract

The Armenian genocide of 1915–1916 is linked to German history in a variety of ways. It is much more important to the course of German history than often acknowledged and needs to be perceived as an integral part of it. This importance stems not only from the alliance between Germany and the Ottoman Empire during World War I, but also from how political and public Germany perceived and decided to perceive the whole ‘Armenian question’ — the question as to how accommodate Armenian political aspirations within or outside of the Ottoman Empire — from the time of Imperial Germany up until the Third Reich. The Armenian genocide is important for German history because this was a genocide that was committed right under German noses — with German officers serving in all the key Ottoman armed services and German diplomats recording the genocide as it happened — 25 years before the Holocaust.