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

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inthemilitarizationofyouth.Duringthe 1912 OlympicGamesinSweden¹⁵²,Carl
Diemwashighlyimpressed,especiallybytheSwedishstatefundingofsportsin
theCentralinstitutet,theverysameinstitutionthathadhostedSelimSırrıbe-
tween 1908 and 1910 .¹⁵³DiemwantedsimilarstatefundinginGermanytoim-
provethesuccessofthenation’sathletes.SimilarlytoSelimSırrı,inMarch
1913 ,CarlDiembecamethegeneralsecretaryforthe 1916 OlympicGamesat
thenationalGermanImperialCommitteefortheOlympicGames(Deutscher
ReichsausschussfürdieOlympischenSpiele).SelimSırrıwasamongthefound-
ingmembersoftheOttomanOlympicAssociation(MilliOlimpiyatCemiyeti)in
1908 andwasthesecretarygeneraluntil 191 4.Bothmenwereatthebeginning
oftheircareers,whiletheolderSelimSırrıhadalreadyachievedahigherfunc-
tionduetohisworkattheMinistryofEducation.¹⁵⁴
In 1913 DieminitiatedtheDeutschesSportabzeichen,aninsigniaawardedfor
versatileperformancesindifferentsportdisciplinessuchasjumping,running
andballthrow.¹⁵⁵Diempreferredathletics,althoughhealwayswantedtowin
thesupportoftheTurnermovementforhisaims.SelimSırrıfollowedasimilar
path,advocatingformoresport,especiallyforhisfavoredSwedishgymnasticsin
theOttomanpublicsphereaftertheBalkanWars.Diemorganizedbigsport
events,during whichhe enjoyed theaesthetics ofthe massperformance.
SelimSırrıhadsimilarimpressionsduringthe 191 4Praguesportfestival.Both
menknewhowthoseelementscouldservemobilisatorygoals.¹⁵⁶


TowardsaMilitantSpirit, 1914 – 1918


DiemjoinedtheGermanarmyasavolunteerinanInfantryregimentinAugust
191 4.Givenhisenthusiasmforsports,hewasfitforduty.HetookpartintheBel-
giumcampaignandpublishedhisdiaryinthepropagandisticJungdeutschland
yearbookin 1915 .TherehegaveinsightintothebrutalwarfareinBelgiumduring


CarlDiemandSelimSırrıwerebothinStockholmasofficialrepresentativesoftheirnation-
alOlympicassociations.Cf.ErikBergvall,TheFifthOlympiad:TheOfficialReportoftheOlympic
GamesofStockholm 1912 (Stockholm:Wahlstrom&Widstrand,1913),3, 96 2.
AnsgarMolzberger,DieOlympischenSpiele 1912 inStockholm:ZwischenPatriotismusundIn-
ternationalität(SanktAugustin:Academie-Verlag,2 012 ), 20 4.
ForthecareeroftheOttomansportsmanseeAltuğİstanbulluoğlu,TürkiyeMilliOlimpiyat
Komitesi 100 .Yılı[ 100 YearsoftheTurkishOlympicCommittee],(Istanbul:TürkiyeMilliOlimpiyat
Komitesi, 20 08), 15 – 17.
ItisstillawardedtodaybytheGermanOlympicSportsAssociation.Seehttp://www.
deutsches-sportabzeichen.de{LastAcessedon24November 2017 }
Becker,CarlDiemsLeben,vol. 1 ,1 82 ;Cora,“Constructingandmobilizingthenation,” 62.


134 3German-Ottoman/TurkishCooperationintheMobilizationofYouth

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