"We Found Her at the River": German Humanitarian Fantasies and Child Sponsorship in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries.

This article examines the discursive and practical strategies of German humanitarian efforts on behalf of Ottoman Armenians in the Eastern Mediterranean from the 1890s through the early 20th century. German humanitarians, constrained by their government's pro-Ottoman policies, developed a pietist Protestant counterpublic that mobilized support through pious journalism, individualized child sponsorship programs, and emotionally charged narratives focusing on personal suffering and salvation. These efforts, organized under the Armenisches Hilfswerk (Armenian Relief Works), established permanent, bureaucratic institutions for orphan care and education, blending religious mission with emerging modern humanitarian practices. Despite widespread anti-Armenian sentiment in Germany and official political alignment with the Ottoman Empire, the Hilfswerk's model influenced interwar international humanitarianism and exemplified an evolutionary continuity between 19th-century missionary aid and 20th-century secular humanitarian regimes.