Ottoman Shock-and-Awe and the Rise of Protestantism: Luther's Reactions to the Ottoman Invasions of the Early Sixteenth Century

Abstract

Is Edward Said's model of Orientalism relevant to understanding the Germanlanguage reactions to the conflict between European countries and the Ottoman Empire that occurred in southeastern and central Europe from the late fourteenth to the early twentieth centuries? For over three hundred years during this period, German discussions of Ottoman Turks as representative Orientals and Muslims were conceived not in the context of European hegemony over the Middle East but rather at a time when the military strength of the Ottomans posed an actual threat to southeastern and central Europe. The destruction brought about by the invading army was devastating; cities and villages were pillaged and plundered; fields were burned, women were raped, and captives, including many children, were sold into slavery. As the Ottomans moved closer to central European areas, Germans and other Europeans reacted to these traumatic events with panic and desperation – with Carl Gollner's studies in particular challenging Stephen Fischer-Galati 's statement that there is no panic in after the siege of Vienna (Ottoman Imperialism 161). The period of hostility between the Ottoman Empire and an alliance of armies from the Holy Roman Empire coincided with the continued strife between various factions of religious and political leaders in Germany and in Europe. Particularly important in this context is the rise of the Reformation movement, which brought with it a complex power struggle that involved the ruling dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire, various factions of territorial rulers, other European powers, the pope, and the theologians of the Reformation movement led by Martin Luther.