ThesecondpartofthischapterwillfocusontherenewedhiringofGerman
militaryinstructors,beginningwiththeinterestingcaseofCaptainHansTröbst
duringtheGreco-Turkishwaruntiltheemploymentofretiredstaffofficersbe-
tween 1925 and1 93 9.Whatwerethelimitationsandfieldsofactionofthose
Germanspecialists?InwhichaspectofGermanmilitaryknowledgewasthe
Turkishsideinterested?Thischapterwillconcludewithanoverviewofthe
timeafter 1939 ,whenTurkeydrewitslessonsfromthedevastatingeffectsof
WorldWarOne.
‘LessonsLearned’?ALookattheSources
AftertheendofhostilitieswithGreece,theTurkisharmybegantoanalyzethe
outcomeofthewar.Accordingtoitscommanderinchief,MustafaKemal,the
Turkisharmyhadalsoconsultedforeignsources:“[...]themostusefulperiodi-
calsandmilitarypublicationsbymilitaryspecialists,publishedbothduring
theFirstWorldWarandafterwards,weretranslated,printedanddistributedto
thearmyinthousandsofcopies.”³
InGermanyandTurkey,thetwo‘flagships’ofmilitarypress,theMilitär-Wo-
chenblatt(MWB)andtheMecmua-ıAskeriye(renamedtoAskerîMecmuain 1928 ;
AM)continuedtoexist.Theycontainedarticlesandreportsaboutgeneraldevel-
opmentsinlandwarfareintheircountriesandnewsfromthearmiesofother
countries.⁴TheMWBanditsaffiliate,WissenundWehr(1919–1944),wereopenly
subsidizedbytheReichswehrMinistry,⁵aswasthecasewithallrelevantTurkish
periodicals.BeyondthesetwoGermanmainpublications,articlesfromthepri-
vatelyeditedKriegskunstinWortundBildwithitsillustrativepictures⁶wereoften
reprintedintranslationinseveralTurkishmilitaryperiodicals.Thecontributions
intheperiodicalsoftheconservativeofficer’sassociation,namely,DeutschesOff-
izierblatt(1908– 1927 )andtheDeutscherOffizier-Bund(19 23 – 1933 ),frequently
containedarticlesthatdealtwithtopicsrelatedtotheGerman-Ottomanwartime
allianceorcontemporarydevelopmentsinTurkey.Mostoftheauthorshad
MustafaKemal’sopeningspeechattheTurkishNationalAssembly,1March 1923 .TBMMZabit
Ceridesi[StenographicRecordsfromtheSessionsoftheTurkishGrandNationalAssembly],ed.
T.C.BüyükMilletMeclisi,vol28(Ankara:TBMM, 1923 ), 14.
ForacomparisonofbothjournalsseeSencer,OrderandInsecurityinGermanyandTurkey,11.
ChristianHaller,MilitärzeitschrifteninderWeimarerRepublikundihrsoziokulturellerHinter-
grund:KriegsverarbeitungundMilieubildungimOffizierskorpsderReichswehrinpublizistischer
Dimension(Trier:Kliomedia, 2012 ), 84 ,96.
Haller,Militärzeitschriften,1 06.
162 4German-TurkishMilitaryCooperationafter 1918