Ein neues Kapitel in der Fälschung des slawischen Mittelalters: Der Alexandermythos im osmanischen Makedonien um 1900
A New Chapter of Fabrication of the Slavic Medieval History: The Alexander Myth in Ottoman Macedonia around 1900

Summary/Abstract: Between 1870 and 1912/1913, the Slavic population of Ottoman Macedonia was exposed to the even more aggressive attempts at nationalisation by the young post-Ottoman states Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria who according to their mental maps shaped discourses of Macedonia as their genuine national landscape. In this context Greek politicians launched propaganda campaigns trying to alienate the local Slavic population from pro-Bulgarian sentiments and to implement exclusive Greek national identity. This article analyses content and language of two such pamphlets written in local South Slavic vernacular and using Greek letters. One text is written as a faked prophecy of Alexander the Great who allegedly predicts a Greek national future for the region of Macedonia. Since Bulgarian nationalism imitates German political romanticism and stresses language as the crucial marker of ethnicity, the pro-Greek pamphlets try to detach linguistic (Slavic) identities from national belonging.

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