“Bulgaria: What It Is and What It Will Become”. Bulgaria from a German Perspective in 1915

Abstract

“Bulgaria: What It Is and What It Will Become” is the title of a publication that appeared in 1915 brought to press by the Royal Bulgarian Consulate in Berlin through the Publishing Company of Georg Stilke, Berlin NW 7, the “Court Stationer of His Imperial and Royal Majesty the Crown Prince”. The contributors to it represent personalities who at the time were counted among the intellectual elites of Germany. What is amazing is their affinity for Bulgaria, for Bulgaria’s ruling house and politicians, as well as for Bulgarian culture. This shows that in Germany in the period around the First World War there was a great interest in a country which up to that point had been relatively unfamiliar to people. The reports included in the booklet convey a many-sided picture of Bulgaria at the turn of the century and the beginning of the 20^th century. They impart as well valuable details concerning the motivation of the German Empire in its conduct of the war during the WWI. The reports, however, are at the same time revealing as to the authors themselves – some of these German personalities were well known, but some less well known. They were in different positions and had for different reasons devoted themselves to the Bulgarians and wrote about them. In this respect with this publication we are dealing with an important source for researching German-Bulgarian relations at the time. It is surely unmistakable that the German authors in their views were following (for the most part) the politically motivated trend of the time, and wanted to support the policies of the government of the Reich. The German-Bulgarian brotherhood in arms was for the Central Powers (Germany and Austria) extremely important with regard to tactical military considerations. Nevertheless, this was also about including Bulgaria in the economic, political, and cultural sphere of influence of the German Reich.