‘Wo sind wir?’ Orientalism, Gender and War in the German Encounter with Romania

This article explores the changing German perceptions of Romania in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The impact of growing economic and political interaction, coupled with orientalist assumptions about the nature of Balkan society, shaped a particular understanding of Romanian society. Romanian elites were often portrayed as westernizing and modern, whereas the peasantry was backward and effeminate. The Romanian entry into the First World War on the side of Germany's enemies prompted a radical revision in German attitudes toward Romanians, as the Romanian elite suddenly emerged as a degenerate and effeminate force preying on an honest peasantry. The alleged unchecked power of women over an emasculated male elite was blamed for moral degeneracy and political disaster. The experience of occupation and ambitions for post-war domination prompted yet another revision, as Germans sought a usable collaborationist class. As a result, the Romanian elite was bifurcated between good and bad, pro-Entente and pro-German, and the peasantry emerged as a legitimizer of Germany's modernizing mission.