Summary
The Kommission zur Erforschung Palästinas (CEP), created at the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903 out of the CEEP (founded 1902), whose board — Franz Oppenheimer, Otto Warburg and Selig Soskin — edited the journal Altneuland (journal) as a scientific instrument for preparing Zionist settlement (PDF p.133, p.138-139).
Details
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The CEEP, the Komitee zur wirtschaftlichen Erforschung Palästinas [Committee for the Economic Exploration of Palestine], was founded in 1902 by, among others, Alfred Nossig, Davis Trietsch, Warburg and Soskin; its journal was Palästina (PDF p.138).
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The German delegation’s petition at the Sixth Congress provided a two-year budget to explore Palestine and adjacent countries and publish a scientific journal, with further unbudgeted goals of agronomical-technical and disease laboratories and a technical information office (PDF p.132-133).
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The CEP’s internal disagreements over capitalism showed in Oppenheimer’s lack of involvement in its business ventures to increase trade between Germany and the Middle East (PDF p.141-142).
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The CEP was founded as a parallel institution to the East Africa Commission, both widening the scope of potential Zionist settlement (PDF p.145).
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The CEP’s ventures included the Hamburg trade company (with the Jewish Colonial Trust), an industrial syndicate plan, the Olive Tree Fund planting JNF land — also a juridical device against Ottoman mirie reversion and against Arab cultivators acquiring rights — and the planting association Palästina and a Herzl forest (PDF p.167-170).
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With the Friedrich Polytechnic in Köthen and its Zionist student association Tchioh, the CEP ran Easter lecture courses in 1905 and 1906 to train engineers, agronomists and administrators for colonial service; about 200 students registered for the first series, about a quarter Jewish (PDF p.173).
Related pages
Zionism and Cosmopolitanism: Franz Oppenheimer and the Dream of a Jewish Future in Germany and Palestine, Altneuland (journal), Franz Oppenheimer, Otto Warburg, Selig Soskin