(BACKGROUND)
The German adventurer Karl Neufeld (1856-1918) was, near the more famous Rudolf Carl Frhr. von Slatin Pasha,
many years imprisoned in Sudan by Abdullāhi bin Sayyid Muhammad Chalīfa during the Mahdiya-uprising of the
80s and 90s in the late 19th century. In spring 1915 Neufeld started a secret propaganda mission to the Hedschas,
commissioned by Dr. Max Curt Prüfer, political adviser and intelligence service agent of the German foreign office.
``At least on paper, Neufeld was a Muslim, and could therefore (unlike Roloff) travel without disguising himself. His
Muslim name was “Shaiykh Abdallah Naufal al-Almani” After 30 years residence in the Sudan Neufeld was thoroughly acquainted with Arab society and Islamic customs, which came in handy when an irate fellow pilgrim suspected him
of being a Christian in Medina. Neufeld´s travelling companions, four Muslim sailors from the German steamer
“General”, the yacht of the German embassy in Istanbul, had rescued him by vouchsafing for his Muslim credentials.”
Source:
Chapter 6: German and Ottoman Propaganda – Case Studies, Part 4, “The prisoner of the Mahdi as Propagandist”
Carl Neufeld, page 172, In: Ottoman and German Propaganda and Intelligence Operations in the First World War,
Tilman Lüdke, Thesis University Oxford 2006. http://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/3-8258-8071-0
(All this happen one year before Neufeld´s secret mission in 1916 with Major Frh. Othmar von Stotzingen to reach
as the original objective the Yemen, as a part of the Hejaz Expeditionary Force leaded by Ferik Fahreddin Pasha!)
(Reichspostdampfer (German: Royal Mail Steamer) GENERAL: http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 1&t=193287)
Has anybody any idea where I can find the names of these four (German?) sailors from the ship S.S. GENERAL?
Regards Holger
