Liman von Sanders and the German-Ottoman Alliance

Abstract

Shortly after the end of the I9I4-I8 war, General Otto Liman von Sanders,1 whose dispatch to Constantinople in December I913 at the head of a German military mission had provoked so much suspicion and resentment in Russia, revealed in his memoirs that duringhis five years service in the Ottoman empire he had had to cope with constant attempts to 'minimize the influence' of his mission, that both the Turks and various German government agencies had repeatedly ignored his advice and recommendations, and that on several occasions he had not even been consulted on major military questions.2 Although the memoirs quickly became a standard source for historians of the Ottoman war effort, few writers outside Germany believed or paid much attention to his remarks about the limited influence he had possessed in Constantinople. Instead, many historians have continued to depict him as a key figure in the preparation, conclusion, and implementation of the GermanOttoman alliance of I9I4 and/or as the defacto commander of the entire Ottoman army. The opening of the German archives makes it possible to reassess Liman's role. The purpose of this article is to review his activities during his first year as an Ottoman marshal and to clarify why his military and political influence in Constantinople was indeed as limited as he had asserted in his memoirs. When he and about forty other German officers took service in the Ottoman empire in the winter of I913-I4, they did so officially to advise and assist the Turks in the reorganization of their army.