The Responses of Muslims in Weimar Germany to the Abolition of the Caliphate

Abstract

The abolition of the Caliphate in 1924 had profound global repercussions that were felt far beyond the territorial boundaries of the former Ottoman Empire. This event provoked intense and ambivalent responses among the community of Muslims in Weimar Germany. To date, this reaction has received little attention. Defeat in the war deprived Germany of its colonies, but Berlin became an important point on the map of emerging transnational anti-colonial networks and the centre of the intellectual and political life of Muslims in Europe. In the Islamic space of Berlin, there was an active search for new normative values and a vocabulary that would correspond to the realities of the post-Ottoman Muslim world. A more detailed and nuanced picture of Muslim reactions in Germany to the abolition of the Caliphate can shed more light on the history of Muslim émigré activism and the creation of a Muslim space in Europe during this period.