To access digital resources including: blog posts videos online appendices and to purchase copies of this book in: hardback paperback ebook editions Go to: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/163 Open Book Publishers is a non-profit independent initiative. We rely on sales and donations to continue publishing high-quality academic works. Lionel Gossman is M. Taylor Pyne Professor of Romance Languages (Emeritus) at Princeton University. Most of his work has been on seventeenth and eighteenth-century French literature, nineteenth-century European cultural history, and the theory and practice of historiography. His publications include Men and Masks: A Study of Molière; Medievalism and the Ideologies of the Enlightenment: The World and Work of La Curne de Sainte- Palaye; French Society and Culture: Background for 18th Century Literature; Augustin Thierry and Liberal Historiography; The Empire Unpossess’d: An Essay on Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall”; Between History and Literature; Basel in the Age of Burckhardt: A Study in Unseasonable Ideas; The Making of a Romantic Icon: The Religious Context of Friedrich Overbeck’s “Italia und Germania”; Figuring History; and several edited volumes: The Charles Sanders Peirce Symposium on Semiotics and the Arts; Building a Profession: Autobiographical Perspectives on the Beginnings of Comparative Literature in the United States (with Mihai Spariosu); Geneva-Zurich-Basel: History, Culture, and National Identity, and Begegnungen mit Jacob Burckhardt (with Andreas Cesana). He is also the author of Brownshirt Princess: A Study of the ‘Nazi Conscience’, and the editor and translator of The End and the Beginning: The Book of My Life by Hermynia Zur Mühlen, both published by OBP. The Passion of Max von Oppenheim Archaeology and Intrigue in the Middle East from Wilhelm II to Hitler Lionel Gossman Unless otherwise stated, all contents of this book are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 unported license available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © 2013 Lionel Gossman. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that she endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Gossman, Lionel. The Passion of Max von Oppenheim: Archaeology and Intrigue in the Middle East from Wilhelm II to Hitler. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2014, http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0030 Further details about CC BY licenses are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Digital material and resources associated with this volume are available on our website at: http://www.openbookpublishers.com/9781909254206 ISBN Paperback: 978-1-909254-20-6 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-909254-21-3 ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-909254-22-0 ISBN Digital ebook (epub version): 978-1-909254-23-7 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi version): 978-1-909254-24-4 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0030 Cover image: A new Haroun Al Raschid. A Dream of Baghdad, Made in Germany, cartoon by Leonard Raven-Hill, Punch (25 January, 1911). Princeton University Library. Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders; any omissions or errors will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. All paper used by Open Book Publishers is SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative), and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) Certified. Printed in the United Kingdom and United States by Lightning Source for Open Book Publishers In fond and grateful memory of my teachers, Miss McCallum (Pollokshields Primary School, Glasgow), Miss Ross (Largs Higher Grade School, Ayrshire), Miss Gibson and Miss Forsyth (Eastwood Secondary School, Renfrewshire), Alan M. Boase and Norman Cohn (Glasgow University), Jean Frappier (Paris) and Jean Seznec (Oxford). Table of Contents Dedication v Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xiii Note on Translations xiii Foreword xvii INTRODUCTION xxiii I. FAMILY BACKGROUND, DIPLOMATIC CAREER, ROLE IN WORLD WAR I 1 1. The Oppenheims 3 2. The Charm of the Orient 13 3. Attaché in Cairo. “The Kaiser’s Spy” 33 4. The Spectre of Pan-Islamism and Jihad. The Background of Oppenheim’s 1914 Denkschrift betreffend die Revolutionierung der islamischen Gebiete Unserer Feinde 47 5. Oppenheim’s 1914 Denkschrift 81 6. Promoter of German Economic Expansion and the Berlin-Baghdad Railway 107 II. THE ARCHAEOLOGIST: TELL HALAF 117 7. Discovery and Excavation, Publications and Critical Reception 119 8. Financial Difficulties. The Fate of the Tell Halaf Finds 147 viii The Passion of Max von Oppenheim III. “THE KAISER’S SPY” UNDER NATIONAL SOCIALISM. “LEBEN IM NS-STAAT” 159 9. Questions 161 10. The Oppenheims and their Bank under National Socialism 163 11. Waldemar and Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim, so-called “Quarter-Jews,” during the National Socialist Regime: Work for the Abwehr (German Counter-Intelligence) and Association with the Conservative “Widerstand” (German Resistance) 171 12. Max von Oppenheim, “Half-Jew,” during the National Socialist Regime 205 Oppenheim and the Race Question 205 Support of the Regime 222 13. Plotting for Nazi Germany. Oppenheim’s Role in the Middle East Policy of the Third Reich 231 14. Max von Oppenheim’s Last Years 277 IV. MAX VON OPPENHEIM’S RELATION TO NATIONAL SOCIALISM IN CONTEXT. SOME RESPONSES OF “NON-ARYAN” GERMANS TO NATIONAL SOCIALISM 283 15. Two Jewish Organizations: the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden (Association of German National Jews) and the Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten (Jewish War Veterans Association) 285 16. Some Individuals: Schoeps, Pevsner, Kantorowicz, Landmann 293 17. By Way of Conclusion 325 APPENDIX of originals and translations of passages quoted 337 INDEX OF NAMES 379 Illustrations Frontispiece. “Mein Zelt” (My Tent). Dr. Max Freiherr xvi von Oppenheim, Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf durch den Haurān, die Syrische Wüste und Mesopotamien (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1899), vol. 1, frontispiece. 1.1 Portrait of Salomon Oppenheim jr., founder of the Oppenheim 4 bank. Artist unknown (before 1828). Wikimedia Commons. Original in colour. 1.2 Synagogue in the Glockengasse, funded by the Oppenheim 5 family, 1861. Lithograph by J. Hoegg from a water colour by Carl Emanuel Conrad (1810–1873). Wikimedia Commons. 1.3 Alexander Duncker, Die ländlichen Wohnsitze, Schlösser und 8 Residenzen der Ritterschaftlichen Grundbesitzer in der Preussischen Monarchie, in naturgetreuen künstlerisch ausgeführten, farbigen Darstellungen nebst begleitendem Text (Berlin: Alexander Duncker, 1857–1883), vol. 9 (1866–1867), Plate 530. Original in colour. 2.1 “Bedouin Women.” Dr. Max Freiherr von Oppenheim, 24 Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf durch den Haurān, die Syrische Wüste und Mesopotamien (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1899), vol. 2, facing p. 124. 2.2 “Bedouin Minstrels.” Dr. Max Freiherr von Oppenheim, 24 Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf durch den Haurān, die Syrische Wüste und Mesopotamien (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1899), vol. 2, p. 127. 2.3 “Syrian Villagers.” Dr. Max Freiherr von Oppenheim, Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf, vol. 1, facing p. 254. 24 Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf. Ibid., vol. 1, facing p. 254. x The Passion of Max von Oppenheim 5.1 Al-Ğihād—El Dschihad, Zeitung für die muhammedanischen 88 Kriegsgefangenen (a fortnightly newspaper published in Arabic and other languages by the Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient for Muslim prisoners-of-war, beginning on 1 March, 1915), Arabic issue, no. 21, 4 November, 1915, front page. Courtesy of Staatsbibliothek, Munich (2 H. un.app. 42t). All rights reserved. 7.1 Tell Halaf. “The Pole Goddess,” excavated in 1899. 137 Dr. Max Freiherr von Oppenheim, “Bericht über eine im Jahr 1899 ausgeführte Forschungsreise in der asiatischen Türkei,” Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, 36, 2 (1901): 69–99. Plate 16. 7.2 Tell Halaf. “The Goddess with the Veil.” Dr. Max Freiherr von 138 Oppenheim, “Der Tell Halaf und die verschleierte Göttin,” Der Alte Orient, 10, 1 (1908): 43. Plate 12. 7.3 Tell Halaf. “Sphinx.” Berlin, Pergamon Museum. Wikimedia 143 Commons. Photograph by Z. Thomas. CC-BY-SA. 7.4 Tell Halaf. “Enthroned Goddess.” Illustrated London News, 145 October 25, 1930, p. 707. 8.1 Façade of Aleppo National Museum, showing plaster casts 148 of caryatids shipped to Berlin by Max von Oppenheim. Wikimedia Commons. 8.2 Illustrated London News, October 25, 1930, front page, showing 149 caryatids from Tell Halaf in newly opened Tell Halaf Museum. 8.3 Tell Halaf. Orthostat. “Seated Figure holding a lotus flower.” 154 New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1943 (43.135.1) © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All Rights Reserved. 8.4 Tell Halaf. Orthostat. “Lion-hunt scene.” New York, 155 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1943 (43.135.2) © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All Rights Reserved. 8.5 Tell Halaf. Orthostat. “Two heroes.” Baltimore, MD, 155 The Walters Art Museum, accession no. 21.18. © The Walters Art Museum. All Rights Reserved. Illustrations xi 8.6 Tell Halaf. Orthostat. “Winged goddess.” Baltimore, MD, 155 The Walters Art Museum, accession no. 21.16. © The Walters Art Museum. All Rights Reserved. 14.1 Max von Oppenheim (left) and his faithful manservant 279 Sommer. Photograph sent at end of World War II by Oppenheim to his former collaborator Ernst Herzfeld at the Institute