Brazilian sound artist living in Berlin. www.lauramello.org
Intangible Sound of Contact investigates the history of contact between distinct groups of people at the beginning of the 20th century. Following the path of the Blumenau family, it addresses the German presence in Brazil and Turkey during the so-called new colonialism.
The project considers listening as a phenomenon that relates artistic experiences to a specific territory.

Laura Mello

Intangible Sound of Contact investigates the history of contact between distinct groups of people at the beginning of the 20th century. Based on the history of the Blumenau family, it addresses the German presence in Brazil and Turkey during the so-called new colonialism at the beginning of the 20th century.

The project considers listening as a phenomenon that relates artistic experiences to a specific territory.

Text: Laura Mello

Speakers: Aaron Snyder, Laura Mello, Petra Nachtmanova, Zack Hart

Music: Laura Mello, Petra Nachtmanova, Çağrı Bangevaz

Acknowledgments: Çiğdem İksilik, Lena Alpozan, Pia Entenmann, Sinem Tekel, Jutta and Hans-Joachim Blumenau-Niesel, Cathrin Hermann, Klaus Wolf, Wolfgang Musil.

Funded by: Alumnifonds Tarabya Cultural Academy, Goethe Institut Istanbul, German Minister of State for Culture and Media (Program Neustart Kultur).

Sources:
- German Political Archive of the Foreign Office (References: RZ 201/13529 RZ 201/13530, RZ 201/19177, RZ 201/19015, RZ 201/21068, RZ 201/21069).
- Veit Veltzke „Unter Wüstensöhnen. Die deutsche Expedition Klein im Ersten Weltkrieg" (Berlin 2014)
- Sean MacMeekin: "The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany's Bid for World Power, 1898-1918" (Penguin, UK, 2011)

To discover the brazilian side of this history listen to the Audiowalk O Som Intangível do Contato under this link:
https://explore.echoes.xyz/collections/ECqtvt88m7O4kwYK

Historian Salvador Oberhaus said: "The illusion of the early end of the war in Europe was followed by the "orientalist war of illusions".  The incitement of Islamic peoples against their colonial masters was called "Holy War". Ultimately, the motto was "the enemies of my enemies are my friends." The focus of German actions was Persia because the area was the bridge between the Ottoman Empire and India.  With the support of the Hamburg-America Line and Wönckhaus companies, the German Empire first tried to secure a sphere of influence in Persia in order to use it to advance into India and meet the British.

For instance, the Baghdad Railway, also known as the Berlin-Baghdad Railway, was a major railway project that aimed to connect Berlin in Germany with the city of Baghdad in the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Iraq). The railway was proposed and initially supported by the German government as a means to strengthen German influence and trade connections in the Middle East and to establish a more direct route to the Persian Gulf. While the railway itself was not fully realized, the idea and efforts behind it played a role in shaping the broader political landscape of the time. 

Speaker: Laura Mello
Image: AI

starling

goldfinch

hoopoe

Everybody knows Lawrence of Arabia, but the German expeditions to the Orient during the First World War are little known. These were often groups of adventurers who went around without anyone really controlling them. These groups made their own attacks, which mostly helped themselves. They may have sounded exciting and interesting, but they didn't have much impact on the military or the outcome of the war.

A man named Captain Fritz Klein was one of these adventurers.  He had gained experience abroad, including at the Consulate General in Cairo and at the legation in Tehran. At the end of October 1914, the General Staff and the Foreign Office appointed him head of a group that was to conquer the British oil area at Karun in the Persian Gulf for Germany.

Speaker: Petra Nachtmanova
Image: Edgard Stern, Fritz Klein, ? - Fritz Klein Private Collection

Erich von Falkenhayn, Prussian Minister of War
Berlin, October 8, 1914
Acknowledgment

Yesterday I spoke to Mr. Ballin, General Director of the Hamburg-America Line, who agreed with the execution of the attack on the oil wells of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in the sense of the exposé. He repeatedly promised the help of his captain and the entire crew of the "Ekbatana" (about 50 men), as well as the shipment of 1000 pounds for this purpose to Basra by the Wönckhaus Company. In the telegram to Constantinople, which in my opinion is now necessary, the addition to Wassmuss is included, since the latter would possibly otherwise attempt an attack on his part, which in the firm conviction of Herr Wönckhaus would fail and make an attack to be carried out by his own expedition very difficult or impossible.

Speaker: Aaron Snyder
Image: AI

The 400-man Karun expedition included mostly Austro-Hungarian soldiers who had escaped from Russian captivity, but also Persian gendarmes, 18 mainly civilian German experts, and a Turkish escort force of 10 men.  One of these men, Pedro Hermann Blumenau, is buried here in Tarabya.

Speaker: Laura Mello
Image: Group photo of the expedition Karun. Aleppo, December 1914. Photo: Fritz Klein estate, private property.

War diary of the Karun expedition by Captain Klein 1914 / 1915
List of participants
Number 16: Hermann Blumenau, mine director, lieutenant in the Imperial Ottoman Army. Joined the expedition on Nov. 1, 1914.

Speaker: Aaron Snyder
Image: AI

Pedro Hermann Blumenau was a Brazilian citizen volunteer war officer. His father, Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau, founded a German colony in Brazil in 1850. Pedro was born in Hamburg, Germany, but spent his childhood with his father in Brazil. In 1880, at the age of 12, he returned to Germany to study mining engineering in Braunschweig. Blumenau's expertise became indispensable to the fields of coal and petroleum exploration.

Speaker: Petra Nachtmanova
Image: Portrait Pedro Hermann Blumenau Source: private archive Jutta Blumenau-Niesel

The area where the expedition Klein was on the road from 1914 to 1916 today includes Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. In the reports appear, among others, the cities of Dyarbakir, Aleppo, Baghdad, Karbala and Babylon, to Basra and Abadan on the Persian Gulf. At the end of January, the expedition started with a river trip on the Euphrates from Aleppo to Baghdad.  The first thing Captain Klein did was to obtain a religious blessing in a center of Shiite Islam, Karbala.

Speaker: Laura Mello
Image: AI based on the map contained in the book "Unter Wüstensöhnen" bei Veit Veltzke

Fritz Klein - Campaign Memories

Since it was in great political interest to carry the holy war into Persia, it was necessary first to win over the Persian clergy in Karbala to my mission and to obtain the fatwa for jihad in Persia.

Fritz Klein - War Diary  of the Karun expedition
Karbala, Jan. 25, 1915
In the evening Dr. Preußer, Dr. Bachmann, Hoffmann, Back, Schadow, Müller, Blumenau, Reul, Thieme etc. arrive on horseback from Babylon and are likewise hospitably received. Dr. Uth and Dr. Preußer are appointed to travel to Nedjef together with Achmed Khan, where important religious dignitaries must also be won over for our plans. In the afternoon we take part in a specially arranged, very handsome military celebration in the apparently well-organized Persian school at Karbala, where a spirited address delivered by a student was presented to us as an address to His Majesty, the "Savior of Islam."

Speaker: Aaron Snyder
Image: AI

Fritz Klein, Campaign Memories

"It was obvious to take advantage of this opportunity for the German economic interests. Accordingly, I gave Blumenau the order to thoroughly explore all of Mesopotamia and the border mountains towards Asia Minor for mineral resources of all kinds, coal, petroleum, copper, silver, etc., using the far-reaching powers of attorney and letters of safe conducts issued to him by the Wali and the army commander. It was known to me that this had only been done to a very limited extent, that earlier expeditions sent out for this purpose had been deliberately misled by the authorities and the natives, and that all kinds of difficulties were put in the way of such undertakings by the Turks in peacetime: under the protection of the official mandate and his uniform, it must therefore be possible for Blumenau to obtain extraordinarily valuable documents that could perhaps already be used in the peace negotiations".

Speaker: Aaron Snyder
Image: AI

Ailton Krenak, a Brazilian writer, researcher, environmentalist and indigenous leader. says: “The relationship that resulted in the climate crisis has been foretold by native peoples from the outset, it is a sensitive intelligence to understand that there are things that need to be stabilized in the Earth’s organism. Colonialism does not recognize natural borders, it invades everything furiously”.

Speaker: Laura Mello
Text: Interview with Airton Krenak on Conectas Human Rights Magazin
https://www.conectas.org/en/noticias/the-climate-crisis-has-been-foretold-by-native-peoples-from-the-outset-says-ailton-krenak/
Image: Adriana Moura, same publication, edited

Colonialism does not recognize natural borders

11 - Colonialism does not recognize natural borders

On February 11, 1915, Lieutenant Hermann Blumenau, Constable Clemens Kirchner, who had previously worked as an excavator operator and assembly foreman on the Baghdad Railway, Turkish war volunteer Fritz Früschle and two servants embarked on a long journey. Their goal was to find sources of valuable raw materials. These raw materials were to help solve the problem of coal for the Ottoman units in Iraq. Moreover, they were to be used later by Germany. During their trip, they wanted to visit places such as the oil wells of Kirkuk, the ore deposits of Diyabarkir and the copper mines near Angora (Ankara). The major's determination sometimes caused suspicion among the Turks.

Speaker: Petra Nachtmanova
Image: Postcard from the front, from Pedro Blumenau to his son Werner, private property Family Blumenau

Kifri, March 4, 1915 - Letter from Pedro Blumenau to his son Hermann.
My dear Hermann!
I now have time to write because we let our horses rest today. They have been working hard the last few days, since we have been riding for about 8 hours a day.
Kifri is north of Baghdad, not very far from the Persian border. From here I will ride via Kerkuk and Altünköprü to Mosul, which lies on the Tigris. See if you can find the places in the atlas.
The other day I visited an asphalt spring. Think, the same asphalt, as it is used in Berlin in the streets, springs out there from the rock and is neatly run on. Of course, the asphalt soon stares, but you can still see quite clearly how it flowed over pebbles. I'll bring back a few pieces of it for you to see, which I'm sure you'll enjoy. Tomorrow I will visit a petroleum well; I will write to you about it later.
I ride a large gray horse on our trip, my two German companions a gray horse and a chestnut, the two servants have browns. We also have 5 mules and 3 donkeys to carry our luggage. The luggage is quite a lot, because we have 2 tents with us, in which we have already slept several times, furthermore cots to put together, cooking and eating utensils. You see, we are a whole caravan, it looks neat and tidy when we are on the march.
That's enough for today; I will finish the letter in Mosul.

Mosul, March 12. I have been here since yesterday evening. Now I want to write to you quickly about the petroleum sources and then start a letter to your mother. Well, the petroleum comes directly out of the rocks in the earth. The people have made deep holes in which it collects and is then scooped out. The way it comes out, it's all thick and black and it stinks a lot, so it has to be cleaned before you can use it for burning. When I get back home, I'll tell you more about it.
Now take it easy, my dear boy. Give my best regards to mommy, Werner, Emma and Grete, and be warmly greeted yourself by your
Daddy.

Speaker: Zack Hart
Image: Letter from Pedro Hermann Blumenau / Source: private archive Jutta Blumenau-Niesel
Acknowledgment: freesound.org (user: 468249_conkoni)

Pedro Hermann Blumenau later described the exciting early history of the Salahije mine in his final report to the Imperial Embassy in Constantinople. This mine is located about 150 kilometers north of Baghdad and about 100 kilometers east of the Tigris River.

Speaker: Petra Nachtmanova
Image: Map attached to Pedro Blumenau´s Report
Acknowledgment: freesound.org (user: 468249_conkoni)

Report on some deposits in Asian Turkey  by Pedro Hermann Blumenau
The city of Zakho is located not far from the northern border of the Mosul wilajet between two mountain ranges in a fertile plain on the Khabur River, which flows into the Tigris at Feishabur. The distance to Mosul is about 95 km, to Feishabur 30 km.
From Zakho the coal can be transported by means of the usual hose-rafts, Keleks, on the Khabur, which has sufficient water for this almost during the whole year, and then further on the Tigris to Baghdad, or after completion of the Baghdad railroad to a suitable point of this.
According to information given to me on the spot, the labor conditions are not unfavorable, since in the zone where the coals occur there are about 2000 able-bodied men, who at present hardly find employment. The population is mainly Kurdish, with the exception of some villages inhabited by Christians. Whether the Kurds, who live mainly from robbery, will be suitable and inclined for the heavy mining work, seems to me, however, quite questionable. The local daily wage is low; it amounts to 5-7 piastres, about  0.92 - 1.50 Vienna Currency.

Speaker: Zack Hart
Text: Excerpt from "Report on some deposits in Asian Turkey / Author: Pedro Hermann Blumenau. Source: Political Archive of the German Foreign Office
Image: Pira Delal Bridge / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International / Wikipedia User Moplayer

I hugged many as friends
My Faithful Creator is the Black Earth
I wandered in vain and got tired in vain
My Faithful Creator is the Black Earth

I stayed attached to many beauties
I saw no loyalty, nor was I benefited
I Got All My Desires from the Earth
My Faithful Creator is the Black Earth

Sheep Gave Lamb Gave Milk
He gave food He gave bread He gave meat
He gave me a scarlet letter when I didn't beat him with a pickaxe
My Faithful Creator is the Black Earth

If I Look at the Air, I Get Air
If I look at the earth, I receive prayer
If I Leave the Earth, Where Will I Stay?
My Faithful Creator is the Black Earth

Whoever Becomes the Exemplar of this Secret
Leaves an Immortal Work to the World
One day, Veysel's bosom will be pressed to his bosom
My Faithful Creator is the Black Earth

Bağlama / Voice: Petra Nachtmanova
Recording/Mixing: Laura Mello

Aşık Veysel / Petra Nachtmanova: Kara Toprak

Captain Klein's return journey took place between April 9 and 15, 1916, by wagon via Aleppo and then on April 21 by train to Constantinople, where he stayed for several days.
For him, however, the return was not only the conclusion of a special stage of his life, but also an encounter with the areas of death. Between the cities of Hit and Aleppo, Klein and his fellow travelers were confronted with the Armenian forced marches and their terrible traces.  Due to the catastrophic hygienic conditions in the Armenian camps, typhus was also rampant in the region.

Speaker: Petra Nachtmanova
Image: Armin Wegnener, probably 1915, public domain

Fritz Klein - Campaign Memories
Aleppo, April 8, 1916
Hundreds of corpses, skeletons and fresh burial mounds marked our path. Just outside Aleppo, we pitched our tents near an Armenian camp set up at the base of a mountain when a huge downpour began. Here our group had a gruesome experience. The torrent of rain, along with the torrents of mountain water, poured down on the Armenian shelters and splashed some of the Armenians into the Euphrates River. It had become pitch dark, the air trembled with lightning. Thunder and horrible cries for help from the drowning people. We ourselves were fighting for our lives, help was out of the question. After two hours the turmoil of the elements had subsided, but it remained dark. The Turkish gendarmerie used this time to rob the remaining Armenians of the rest of their belongings. The next day we were begged for bread by two completely demolished young girls.

Speaker: Aaron Snyder
Text: Fritz Klein / Campaign memories
Image: Postcard from Aleppo / Captain Klein to Pedro Hermann Blumenau / Private Archive Jutta Blumenau-Niesel

Pedro Hermann Blumenau returned to Berlin after his assignment in the Klein expedition. According to documents from the Political Archive of the Foreign Office dated 26 Jan 1916, Blumenau was later assigned to Deutsche Erdöl A.G.. After a stay as a technical manager of an office in Bulgaria he died on 3.7.1917. of a lung stroke in Istanbul.

Speaker: Petra Nachtmanova
Image: Collage from two documents Source: Political Archive of the German Foreign Office

On the 7th of this month, in the afternoon 4:20, in the service of the Fatherland as a war officer at the Prussian Ministry of War in Constantinople, died of a stroke of the lungs after a short illness in the 49th year of life, my dearly beloved husband, the dear, good father of my children, our dear son, brother and brother-in-law, uncle and nephew,
the mine director
Hermann Pedro Blumenau
graduate mining engineer
Knight of the Liskat Medal and the Iron Crescent
In deep sorrow 
Mrs. Gertrud Blumenau, born Götze
Hermann and Werner Blumenau
Mrs. Hermann Blumenau, born Repsold
Christine Blumenau
Hugo Sierich and wife born Gertrud Blumenau
Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Landhausstrasse 18, Brunswick, Hamburg
The funeral took place in Constantinople on March 9. 1917

Speaker: Aaron Snyder
Image: Private Archive Jutta Blumenau-Niesel

Promenade 01 - Baghdad Bahn and German Djihad

Promenade 02 - The German Lawrence of Arabia

Promenade 04 - The Karun/Klein Expedition

Promenade 06 - Pedro Hermann Blumenau in Brazil

Promenade 07 - Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran

Promenade 09 - Seeking for energy sources

Promenade 10 - Mineral resources of all kinds

Promenade 11 - Colonialism does not recognize natural borders

Kifri, March 4, 1915 - Letter from Pedro Blumenau to his son Hermann.
My dear Hermann!
I now have time to write because we let our horses rest today. They have been working hard the last few days, since we have been riding for about 8 hours a day.
Kifri is north of Baghdad, not very far from the Persian border. From here I will ride via Kerkuk and Altünköprü to Mosul, which lies on the Tigris. See if you can find the places in the atlas.
The other day I visited an asphalt spring. Think, the same asphalt, as it is used in Berlin in the streets, springs out there from the rock and is neatly run on. Of course, the asphalt soon stares, but you can still see quite clearly how it flowed over pebbles. I'll bring back a few pieces of it for you to see, which I'm sure you'll enjoy. Tomorrow I will visit a petroleum well; I will write to you about it later.
I ride a large gray horse on our trip, my two German companions a gray horse and a chestnut, the two servants have browns. We also have 5 mules and 3 donkeys to carry our luggage. The luggage is quite a lot, because we have 2 tents with us, in which we have already slept several times, furthermore cots to put together, cooking and eating utensils. You see, we are a whole caravan, it looks neat and tidy when we are on the march.
That's enough for today; I will finish the letter in Mosul.

Mosul, March 12. I have been here since yesterday evening. Now I want to write to you quickly about the petroleum sources and then start a letter to your mother. Well, the petroleum comes directly out of the rocks in the earth. The people have made deep holes in which it collects and is then scooped out. The way it comes out, it's all thick and black and it stinks a lot, so it has to be cleaned before you can use it for burning. When I get back home, I'll tell you more about it.
Now take it easy, my dear boy. Give my best regards to mommy, Werner, Emma and Grete, and be warmly greeted yourself by your
Daddy.

Speaker: Zack Hart
Image: Letter from Pedro Hermann Blumenau, license: private archive Jutta Blumenau-Niesel
Acknowledgment: freesound.org (user: 468249_conkoni)

Promenade 13 - Pedro Writes to his Son Hermann

Promenade 16 - Kara Toprak / Aşık Veysel

Captain Klein's return journey took place between April 9 and 15, 1916, by wagon via Aleppo and then on April 21 by train to Constantinople, where he stayed for several days.
For him, however, the return was not only the conclusion of a special stage of his life, but also an encounter with the areas of death. Between the cities of Hit and Aleppo, Klein and his fellow travelers were confronted with the Armenian forced marches and their terrible traces.  Due to the catastrophic hygienic conditions in the Armenian camps, typhus was also rampant in the region.

Speaker: Laura Mello

Promenade 17 - Encounters with the areas of death

Promenade 18 - Captain Klein and the Armenian Camp

Promenade 19 - Pedro Blumenau returns to Berlin

On the 7th of this month, in the afternoon 4:20, in the service of the Fatherland as a war officer at the Prussian Ministry of War in Constantinople, died of a stroke of the lungs after a short illness in the 49th year of life, my dearly beloved husband, the dear, good father of my children, our dear son, brother and brother-in-law, uncle and nephew,
the mine director
Hermann Pedro Blumenau
graduate mining engineer
Knight of the Liskat Medal and the Iron Crescent
In deep sorrow 
Mrs. Gertrud Blumenau, born Götze
Hermann and Werner Blumenau
Mrs. Hermann Blumenau, born Repsold
Christine Blumenau
Hugo Sierich and wife born Gertrud Blumenau
Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Landhausstrasse 18, Brunswick, Hamburg
The funeral took place in Constantinople on March 9. 1917

Speaker: Aaron Snyder
Image: Collage from two parts of a document Source: Political Archive of the German Foreign Office

Promenade 20 - Pedro dies in Constantinople

Intangible Sound of Contact - Istanbul

40 ECHOES

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The Echoes

01 - Baghdad Bahn and German Djihad

02 - The German Lawrence of Arabia

03 - Attack on the Oil Wells

04 - The Karun/Klein Expedition

05 - Participant nr. 16

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