The \'German Spirit\' in the Ottoman and Turkish Army, 1908-1938. A History of Military Knowledge Transfer - Gerhard Grüßhaber

TheMittelbergerEra,1 933 – 1939

HilmarRittervonMittelbergerarrivedinIstanbulattheendofFebruaryin 1933.
TheretiredGeneraladmittedthathehadnorealideaoftheconditionsinTurkey.
HisknowledgewassolelybasedonconversationswithGermanofficerswhohad
beeninOttomanserviceaswellasonreadingthescarceliteratureavailableon
theRepublicofTurkeyinGermanlanguage.Thereadingofthesebooksalsohad
aninfluenceontheselectionofthetitleforhismemoirsthirdvolume.Itwasaref-
erencetoOttoLimanvonSander’sFiveYearsinTurkey.²²⁸Theexpectationsonthe
Turkishsidewerehigh.Besideshisteachingobligationsatthemilitaryacademy,
MittelbergerwasalsoaskedtoproofreadinternalmemorandaandTurkishservice
regulations.Inhismemoirshedepictshisinitialdifficultiesinacculturation:

“Thepeculiaritiesoftheforeigncountry,thelackofknowledgeoftheforeignlanguage,the

mentalityoftheTurkishpeople,differentfromusGermans,createddifficultiesinthebe-

ginningofmyoccupation.InordertohandlethemInotonlyneededalotoftimebut

alsoahighdegreeofenergyandstrongnerves.[...][Intheclassroomthe]interpreter

hadtobefamiliarwiththematterandmentally,aboveaverageintellectinordertoquickly

capturetheideasintacticsandstrategythatwereoftennoteasytograsp,andexpressthem

inhislanguage.”²²⁹

Hisfamiliarizationphasewaseasedbytheassistanceofapersonalinterpreter.
MittelbergerwasgladthattheTurkishCaptainSalih[Erkuş]wasathisdisposal
fortranslationaltasks.From 1911 to 1913 ,SalihhadservedinaPrussianinfantry
regimentandthusspokefluentGerman.MittelbergerandErkuşwereongood
termsandstayedincontactafter 1939 .Eventhoughitcontributedtohiswork-
loadandservedtheschematismoftheTurkishmilitary,theBavarianGeneral
wastheproudauthorofaboutfiftyTurkishtextbooks,manyofwhichwere
evenreprintedafterhisreturntoGermany.²³⁰Mittelbergeralsotriedtostimulate
thedevelopmentofnewTurkishserviceregulations,butthiswasnotachievable:

“GermanmilitaryserviceinstructionsdominatedtheeducationoftheTurkisharmy,some

oftheirpartswereadoptedliterally.Thissituationledtomisunderstandings.Thespiritof

theserviceinstructionswasnotreallycapturedinsomecases,aquitecomprehensiblephe-

nomenon.Amilitaryregulationhastohavenationalcharacterandhastobeadoptedtothe

Mittelberger,“WandererinvierWelten,”vol.3,9.BayHStAIVKriegsarchivHS2 71 0.The
lastvolumeofhismemoirsborethesubtitle“ 61 /2JahreTürkei”.
Mittelberger,“WandererinvierWelten,”vol.3,12.
Mittelberger,”WandererinvierWelten,”vol.3, 18 andfortheschematismproblemalso
ibid., 26 .SeeMittelberger,ÜcüncüSınıfTabiyeAraziMeseleleri[FieldTacticsTasksforthe
ThirdGrade],trans.AsımEren(Istanbul:HarpAkademisiBasımevi,1940).

212 4German-TurkishMilitaryCooperationafter 1918