The level of professionalisation of the German and Ottoman intelligence services by the outbreak of war in 1914 was highly different. The German intelligence service (Section IIIb of the German General Staff) had only been founded a couple of years before the war and therefore more or less had to “learn by doing.” The Ottomans, in contrast, had a number of professional intelligence services, the most important of which were the Directorate of General Security (Emniyet-i Umumiye Müdürlü?ü) and the Te?kilat-i Mahsusa. The fascinating field of Ottoman and German intelligence in the Middle East is, however, still rather understudied, mostly due to a lack of sources (which in the German case were largely destroyed, and are largely inaccessible in Turkey due to political considerations). It could be argued that as far as the German intelligence service was concerned, no professionalisation took place in the Middle East. The official German intelligence service was pre-occupied with the European adversaries of Germany and did not manage to establish intelligence networks in the Ottoman Empire. The “Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient (Intelligence Office for the East)” was an organisation founded by Max Freiherr von Oppenheim at the periphery of the German Foreign Office and employed a curious (if interesting) mix of academics, journalists, diplomats, missionaries and largely self-styled “specialists for oriental affairs”). It had only weak contacts to the German government and military leadership. German field agents in the Middle East were mostly amateurs recruited for specific missions. The Ottomans, in contrast, had several professional institutions dealing with intelligence matters. Security police forces were headed and coordinated by the Directorate for General Security (Emniyet-i Umumiye Müdürlü?ü). Another intelligence service was the Te?kilat-i Mahsusa, which had been founded in 1911 and dealt with espionage, counter-espionage and propaganda both within and without the Ottoman Empire. It has also been accused of having been directly involved in the Armenian Genocide. The Ottoman intelligence services contributed greatly to securing the general internal cohesion of the Ottoman Empire throughout the war. It could also be argued that they, particularly the Te?kilat-i Mahsusa, were predecessors of the clandestine organisations, which became so important during the Turkish national struggle after the end of World War I.