6. Promoter of German Economic Expansion and the Berlin-Baghdad Railway

Abstract

The fervent German nationalism sustaining Oppenheim’s activities as the “Kaiser’s spy” and adviser to the Auswärtiges Amt in Oriental matters was not confined to the sphere of politics. Even his work as explorer, archaeologist and ethnographer was aimed not only at advancing knowledge and satisfying his own genuine curiosity, but also at enhancing Germany’s standing in the world and winning for her, through extraordinary achievement in scholarship and culture, the “place in the sun” to which,...