Germany has a bizarre historical connection with Islam that lies beneath much of the present day crisis in Europe. One could argue that these connections are just the product of historical coincidences, but with Germany the coincidences seem to add up regularly.

When one studies the age of European imperialism, Germany came late to the game, almost as an afterthought.  Bismarck, for all his authoritarian faults, felt that imperialism would do Germany no good, and wanted no part of it.  He was overridden by public opinion, and Bismarck's policy was later repudiated by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who wanted Germany to take her “Place in the Sun.”

Imperialism would not have destroyed Germany, per se; smaller and weaker nations such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and even backward Spain all had empires.

But what set Germany apart was a concerted love of Arabs and Islam. There was something deeper and darker to this than mere German MachtPolitik.  One of his first acts, upon assuming power as Kaiser, was to visit the Ottoman Empire in 1889,  He wore a fez. He offered to arm the Turks.

Sultan Mehmet V greets Kaiser Wilhelm upon his arrival in Constantinople

The Kaiser’s Islamic enthusiasm was fired by an 1889 visit to Turkey, which Bismarck opposed on the grounds that it would gratuitously alarm the Russians. Wilhelm met the murderous Sultan Abdul Hamid II and enjoyed the sinuous gyrations of the Circassian dancers in his Constantinople harem.  - New York Review of Books

The Turks were astounded.  The Ottoman Empire was on a death watch, and the only reason the European powers did not carve Turkey up is because they feared an intra-Christian war over the pieces.  Now, the Kaiser was promising to make Islamic Turkey great again. Kaiser Wilhelm had resurrected the Islamic corpse.

It would only get worse.  In 1898, during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Kaiser made the insane insinuation that were he not already Christian, he would be a Muslim.

A later visit to Jerusalem [in 1898], then under the auspices of the same flattering sultan, left the impressionable Kaiser declaring that, had he arrived agnostic, “I certainly would have turned Mahometan!” Soon the Kaiser was styling himself “Hajji Wilhelm”, the Protector of Muslims.  - The Express

He also made this public speech:

In Damascus, the Kaiser visited the grave of Saladin, who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. In his speech delivered on Nov. 6, 1898, the German monarch declared: "May his majesty the Sultan and the 300 million Muslims who live scattered across the globe ... rest assured that the German Kaiser will be their friend at all times." - Der Spiegel

Historians claim that the Kaiser was merely trying to foment trouble among the Muslims in the British and French Empires, and there is, no doubt, truth to this.  To see a scary German documentary about this (Click Here) - You will have to set auto translate.

There was some method in Wilhelm’s half-madness; the Kaiser was savvy enough to understand that the “Mahometans” might be a secret weapon in his game against a “certain meddlesome Power!”, whose Empire he lusted after. - The Express

Those of us who are older were never taught this in school.  Until the 1980s, the Islamic world was an afterthought – and those insane actions of Kaiser Bill were considered historically inconsequential at the time.  But the trouble that the Kaiser fomented is coming home to roost now.  Imperial Germany subsidized and encouraged worldwide jihad, as an extension of German policy.  It is not until now that the West fully appreciates what the Kaiser had wrought. Only now are books being written about it.

Hitler and Mussolini would later indulge and encourage jihad.  Many are familiar with Hitler's support of the Mufti of Jerusalem, and the formation of an Islamic SS division, the Hanschar Division. Less well-known is that Hitler preferred Islam to Christianity.

The Mohammedan religion too would have been more compatible to us than Christianity. - Inside the Third Reich as quoted by WikiIslam

And herein lies a bizarre key.  There is something in the German psyche that actually admires Islam and Arabic culture.

Around the turn of the 20^th century, it became fashionable among the British elite to fancy themselves as the lost tribes of Israel.  Foolish or not, it demonstrated a Judeophilic world view. However, at the same time, the Germans were glorying in their recent acquisition of the ancient temple at Pergamon, and the Famous Babylonian Ishtar gate.  The Pergamon Museum in Berlin, built between 1910 and 1930, was constructed to display these “archeological treasures.”

Truly scary is that the Bible declared that very Pergamon altar as the throne of Satan.

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write,
‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword: 13 “I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. - Rev 2:12-13

The Germans had embraced the throne of Satan as their national prize, their answer to the British Museum.  The Pergamon Museum is still in operation.

Before and after WWI, some European intellectuals embraced Islam. Idiocy is universal; but the German boasted of being better at it.

The secular French government spent lavishly on ostentatious mosques, while Germany sought to demonstrate its superior treatment of Muslims, when compared to France and Britain.  - Foreign Policy

Some more coincidences pile up.  The fact is that, for centuries, the Germans have been fascinated with Islam. Goethe and Hegel praised Islam.  Frederick the Great gave the Ottoman ambassador a glorious welcome.

[O]n Nov. 9, 1763 the first Turkish envoy, Ahmed Resmi Efendi, arrived in Berlin with an exotically dressed entourage of 73 aides who were greeted by the cheering inhabitants of the city. Deeply impressed and evidently slightly confused by this emphatic reception, the diplomat wrote to Sultan Mustafa III that "the people of Berlin recognize the Prophet Muhammad and are not afraid to admit that they are prepared to embrace Islam."  Der Spiegel

Martin Luther, thank God could be critical of Islam; but undergirding German civilization is a bizarre legend, coming from the oldest city in Germany: Trier.  According to legend, the founder of the German City of Trier was an exiled Assyrian prince named Trebeta, who migrated to the area.

Legend has it that Trier was founded ... by Trebeta, the stepson of the Assyrian Queen Semiramis.

Ante Romam Treveris stetit annis mille trecentis which means "Trier stood 1300 years before Rome".

This inscription can be found on the facade of the Red House, and it was also mentioned in the Gesta Treverorum, the history deed from the Middle Ages. - Germany Insider Facts

For those who subscribe to Biblical history and eschatology, that is a frightening pedigree.  For those who think the story is made up – as most moderns do – why would the Germans even claim such an Assyrian lineage?  Yet, they do, and Trier boasts of it. 

Of course, the Germans are not Arabs.  They are orderly and disciplined, unlike Arab civilization. But through much of history, the Islamic “virtue” of jihad violence to impose a worldview found a mirror in the German psyche, which gave the world the word MachtPolitik (Power Politics).  This is not a recent phenomenon.  Hitler had it. Kaiser Wilhelm II started the modern jihad. Frederick the Great indulged it; and the city of Trier boasts of it.

I leave it to the reader to ponder how deep this goes.  Germany is schizophrenically half Western; but the other half of its psyche is Eastern, and part of it gravitates to the methods of Islam. Scratch beneath the surface of Christian Germany and one finds a love affair with Islam, if not the religion itself, then with certain aspects of Islam's totalitarian practices. This is not a recent development.

Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American who wishes he had availed himself more fully of the opportunity to learn Spanish in high school, lo those many decades ago. He writes on the Arabs of South America at http://latinarabia.com. He also just started a website about small computers at http://minireplacement.com.