page_title: Seventh German Inner Africa Research Expedition
section_title: Journey to Africa
hierarchical_section_title: Seventh German Inner Africa Research Expedition / Journey to Africa
caption_attribution_description: German Baghdad Railway.
context_page_description: The Seventh German Inner Africa Research Expedition was led by German ethnologist and archaeologist Leo Frobenius in October 1914-March 1915. Though referred to as the seventh of Frobenius' scientific expeditions to Africa it was a front for a German military espionage mission to Ethiopia. The objective was to restore communications with the German legation at Addis Ababa; persuade Ethiopian Emperor Lij Iyasu to support the Central Powers in the First World War and to proceed to Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to provoke an uprising there. This could have threatened British and Italian colonies in Eastern Africa and possibly the vital supply route of the Suez Canal.
  The expedition is thought to have comprised seventeen persons, five of European descent and twelve of Turkish or Arab origin. The European contingent left Berlin in October 1914 and rendezvoused with the other members in the Ottoman Empire. After travelling by rail, cart, camel and dhow to Al Qunfudhah the party boarded a sambuk for the Red Sea crossing to Eritrea.
context_section_description: The expedition left Berlin in early October 1914 and travelled via Austria, Romania and Bulgaria to reach Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman Empire, on 21 November.  They left the city on 24 December and travelled via the Chemins de fer Ottomans d'Anatolie, the Berlin–Baghdad railway, horse-drawn cart and camel via Aleppo to Damascus, Syria which they reached on 5 January.  The party resided at the Hotel Victoria whilst the full complement of European staff was gathered.
  The expedition travelled from Damascus via the Hejaz railway to Jaffa in Palestine, where many of the Ottoman contingent were recruited.  The party continued by rail to Al-`Ula in north-western Arabia, arriving on 15 January 1915.  They travelled south by Bedouin camel to Al Wajh on the coast of the Red Sea.  Frobenius made careful assessments of the political condition of the regions he travelled through and reported to Berlin of the weakness of Ottoman forces in the area, the unpopularity of their Tripoli-born officials and the poverty and hunger caused by the British blockade and disruption of the Hajj pilgrimage.  He also noted the success that the British were having in buying the loyalty of the Arab population with food shipments.
  The expedition left Al Wajh on 24 January and proceeded via dhow to Al Qunfudhah, arriving on 7 February.  Here many of the expedition disguised themselves in Arab robes and posed as smugglers of animal hides; the Palestinian Arabs in the party were disguised as gardeners.  Türstig masqueraded as an official of the Red Cross and his eighty packs of photographic equipment were disguised as hospital supplies. On 13 February the expedition boarded a sambuk to make the crossing of the Red Sea to Africa.
  The sambuk was intercepted on its first day of travel by the armed merchant cruiser Empress of Russia at the Farasan Islands; because of which Frobenius suspected that his movements in Arabia had been monitored by British agents.  The vessel was allowed to proceed on its way until later that day when she was again brought to inspection by the French cruiser Desaix.  The crew of the sambuk distracted the French sailors by trying to sell postcards to them whilst Frobenius' men used a toilet to enter the boat's sanitary tank.  The expedition escaped detection and even managed to take a photograph of the Desaix through a crack in the sambuk's hull.  The sambuk was stopped and inspected twice more by British vessels near Al Hudaydah and was again allowed to proceed on her journey.
  The sambuk docked at Massawa in Italian Eritrea on 15 February 1915.  British intelligence services had tipped off the Italians about the expedition as early as February 1915 and the party received a cold reception from the Italian authorities.  Suspicions were later raised that Passarge, Frobenius' interpreter, who held dual Italian and German citizenship and was a close friend of Carmine Senise (a prominent Italian intelligence official), may have been a double agent.  Frobenius also compromised the expedition by introducing himself in Massawa as a military captain.
caption: Berlin-Baghdad Railway train
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