The Great War has completely destroyed German influence in the Near East. In the way of any resumption of German enterprise in Turkey are formidable obstacles which are not likely to be removed for some time. To begin with, the Turks themselves will not encourage German attempts to recover the Bagdad Railway or other property rights which were liquidated by the Treaty of Versailles. Among Turkish Nationalists there is satisfaction that Turkey has “shaken off the yoke of the ambitious leaders who dragged the country into the general war on the side of Germany” and has got rid of the “arrogance” of the Germans who infested the Near East during the last years of the war. Resentment at German military domination of Turkey during 1917 and 1918 will not soon disappear.[1] Furthermore, Germany possesses neither the disposition nor the power to regain her former preëminence in the Near East. The confiscation by the Treaty of Versailles of private property in foreign investments has set a precedent which will make German investors—as well as prudent investors everywhere—extremely chary of utilizing their funds for the promotion of such enterprises as the Bagdad Railway. The surplus production and surplus capital of Germany may be absorbed by reparations payments or attracted to such enterprises as the reconstruction of the German merchant marine. But the _Drang nach Osten_ has become a thing of the past. The dismemberment of the Austrian Empire and the erection of the Jugoslav Kingdom have shut off German access, through friendly states, to the Balkan Peninsula and Asiatic Turkey. Formidable customs barriers will stand in the way of overland trade with the Near East and render railway traffic from “Berlin to Bagdad” unprofitable. Defeat and disarmament have destroyed German prestige in the Moslem world. Democratization of both Germany and Turkey, it is hoped, will render increasingly difficult the kind of secret intrigue that characterized Turco-German relations during the régime of William II and of Abdul Hamid. If Germany returns to the Near East in the next generation or two, it is not likely to be in the rôle of an Imperial Germany promoting railway enterprises of great economic and strategic importance.