Germany and the Middle East Germany and the Middle East From Kaiser Wilhelm II to Angela Merkel R S OLF TEININGER berghahn N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D www.berghahnbooks.com Published in 2019 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com English-language edition © 2019 Rolf Steininger German-language edition © 2015 Lau Verlag & Handel KG Originally published in German as Deutschland und der Nahe Osten: Von Kaiser Wilhelms Orientreise 1898 bis zur Gegenwart in 2015 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A C.I.P. cataloging record is available from the Library of Congress British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-78920-038-6 hardback ISBN 978-1-78920-039-3 ebook C ONTENTS List of Illustrations vi List of Abbreviations viii Chronology x Introduction to the English Edition 1 Chapter 1 Before the First World War, 1898–1914 6 Chapter 2 During the First World War 13 Chapter 3 Weimar and the Third Reich, 1918–1939 30 Chapter 4 During the Second World War 47 Chapter 5 From the Founding of the Federal Republic to the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations with Israel, 1949–1965 59 Chapter 6 From the Six-Day War to Reunifi cation, 1967–1990 108 Chapter 7 From Reunifi cation to the Present 150 Conclusion 158 Epilogue to the English Edition 161 Selected Bibliography 162 Index 168 I LLUSTRATIONS 1.1 Kaiser Wilhelm II in Damascus 8 1.2 The Jaffa Gate in 1903 9 1.3 The Wailing Wall in 1910 11 2.1 General Allenby with ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and Emir Abdullah 22 3.1 British soldiers in front of the Damascus Gate 32 3.2 British soldiers in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem 33 3.3 Arabic pamphlet to boycott Jewish goods 35 3.4 The German colony in Haifa, 1934 37 3.5 Scene on a Haifa street 39 3.6 The Jaffa Gate 41 3.7 General strike in Jerusalem 42 3.8 British soldiers protecting Government House in Jaffa 44 4.1 Meeting between Adolf Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, 1941 51 5.1 Jerusalem, ca. 1949 61 5.2 Jewish celebrations in Vienna after the UN decision to divide Palestine 61 5.3 Proclamation of the new state of Israel 62 5.4 The secretary general of the Arab League proclaims a state of war 62 5.5 and 5.6 Transfer of the Herzl coffi n from Vienna to Israel 63 5.7 Herzl’s grave on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem 64 – vi – Illustrations 5.8 Protests in Jerusalem against West Germany 64 5.9 Konrad Adenauer and Nahum Goldmann 65 5.10 Gamal Abdel Nasser 79 5.11 Israeli soldiers near El Arish on their way to the Suez Canal 80 5.12 General Moshe Dayan with Brigadier-General Assaf Simhoni and Colonel Avraham Yaffe 80 5.13 From the Suez Canal back to the Negev, 1957 81 5.14 Lowering the Israeli fl ag, 1957 82 5.15 Theodor Heuss in Israel 86 5.16 Franz Josef Strauß and Shimon Peres 87 5.17 Ambassador Rolf Pauls 92 5.18 Rainer Barzel in Israel 96 5.19 Konrad Adenauer and David Ben-Gurion 98 6.1 Beginning of the Six-Day War, 5 June 1967 109 6.2 ‘Motta’ Gur, paratroop commander, overlooking the Old City and Temple Mount of Jerusalem 110 6.3 Israeli paratroopers beside the Wailing Wall in East Jerusalem 111 6.4 Major-General Uzi Narkiss, Defence Minister Moshe Dayan, and Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin entering the Old City of Jerusalem through the Lion’s Gate 113 6.5 Arab families living close to the Wailing Wall are forcibly removed from their homes 115 6.6 Israel’s prime minister, Golda Meir, welcomes West German chancellor, Willy Brandt 125 6.7 Protests against Willy Brandt in Israel 126 6.8 The Yom Kippur War 128 6.9 Yitzhak Rabin in Bonn 140 6.10 Helmut Kohl in Jerusalem 144 7.1 A development project in Palestine fi nanced by Germany 152 7.2 Angela Merkel in Jerusalem 156 – vii – A BBREVIATIONS AA Auswärtiges Amt (German Foreign Offi ce) AAPD Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland; Edition of Documents from the AA: Institut für Zeitgeschichte, ed. on behalf of the Auswärtiges Amt (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1994–2014). ABC Atomic, biological, chemical weapon Bi-Zone, 1947–1949, Union of British and American Zones in Germany AMAN Military Intelligence Directorate (Israel) CDU Christlich Demokratische Union (German party) CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union CSCE Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe CSU Christlich Soziale Union (German party) DEFCON Defense Condition DM Deutsche Mark DP Displaced Person EEC European Economic Community EU European Union FAZ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung FDP Freie Demokratische Partei (German party) FOIA Freedom of Information Act FRUS Foreign Relations of the United States – viii – Abbreviations GDR German Democratic Republic IDF Israeli Defense k.u.k. kaiserliche und königliche Truppen (imperial and royal army) MGZ Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NS National Socialist NSAP National Socialist Arab Party NSDAP Nationalsozialistische deutsche Arbeiterpartei OKW Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Wehrmacht, the German Armed Forces) PLO Palestine Liberation Organization QED quod erat demonstrandum (what was to be demonstrated) SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (German party) UAR United Arab Republic: union between Syria and Egypt from 1958 to 1961. Egypt continued to be known offi cially as the UAR until 1972. UN(O) United Nations (Organization) US United States (of America) VAR Vereinigte Arabische Republik (= UAR) – ix –