The Stotzi In this context several propaganda missions were conducted. The task of the Stotzingen-Neufeld mission was to establish a propaganda center in the Yemen from where agitation in East Africa Sudan, Abyssinia, Somalia was to be carried out. The undertaking was poorly and hastily prepared.
The article deals with the planning and financing of the operation, the composition of the group, the different stages of the expedition, as well as its relations with the Ottoman authorities. Although primarily espousing Turkish nationalism, the Young Turk leadership also utilized Pan-Islam for wartime mobilization. To this aim, apart from warfare proper, mixed propaganda and military campaigns would be carried out in certain areas of the Middle East. They were to assess public opinion and the loyalties of those in power.
A second charge was to develop and spread propaganda for the central powers. A third function of the missions was to recruit agents to dispatch to Sudan and Abyssinia to carry out agitation against England. There were at least two such missions. Moreover, there was confusion and bickering over responsibilities and authority in the various departments of the relevant ministries Foreign Office, Colonial Office and General Staff.
The embassy in Istanbul and especially its military section were not properly or not at all informed about the planning and sending of expeditions. Therefore, the aim of this article is to combine the existent information, to reconstruct the origins, chronology, course, itinerary and results of the mission in order to attempt a comprehensive assessment.
For Neufeld, his stay in Medina combined both the personal experience of the hajj and his political mission. Neufeld easily made contacts with scholars and notables in Medina with whom he discussed the war in Europe and the battles at the Dardanelles. This did not come as a complete surprise to Neufeld. From South-West Arabia Sudanese merchants would be recruited and dispatched to their home country and Abyssinia with instructions to spread propaganda for the German-Turkish alliance and advocate for the liberation of Muslim peoples.
