In 1922, King Amunalah of Afghanistan awarded a German consortium the contract to bring his nation into the 20th century. That spring, eight men and three women left Berlin on a three-month journey across Eurasia to fulfill the aspiration of a new King.

The 1920s were an erratic time for most of the world. Central and Eastern Europe was in disarray. Oceanic, African and Asiatic colonies were moving towards liberation. Economies across the Globe were dissipating. The United States was enjoying its new position as a world power outside the western hemisphere. The Soviet Union was recovering from civil war and re-expanding. Finally, Afghanistan had broken free of British influence, and was, for the first time in over a century, autonomous.

The Afghani ruling class turned its ear to Germany, the Soviet Union and USA. The Soviet Union gained the most influence due to geographical proximity. King Amunalah envisioned steering Afghanistan from a state guided solely by the mullah’s interpretation of Sharia to a state on par with the industrialized world: secular, industrial, palatial. A similar path Turkey was taking at the time.

Siemens led the German consortium to modernize Kabul and sent eight of Germany’s best engineers and architects—to be known as the Darul-Aman Herren. The group was led by a man named Maas and accompanied by a photographer named Müller. Among the entourage was a young engineer and architect named Martin Standke who was accompanied by his wife Martha, my great grandparents.

They departed on the famed Eiszug (Ice Train), Berlin-Warsaw-Moscow. In Moscow they boarded the Trans-Siberian to Kazan then southeast to Tashkent. From Tashkent they traveled on horseback south over the Fan Mountains into Dushanbe, continuing over the Hindu Kush into Kabul.

Upon arriving in Kabul the group commenced several projects to bring the city forward. They built bridges over the Kabul River, ambling parks, schools, factories and administration buildings. Their greatest task was to build a new center on the outskirts of Kabul where the Hindu Kush rose. A long, tree-lined boulevard with libraries, museums, ministries, theatres, trams, cafés, mansions and gardens crowned with a grand palace for the royal family.

Years passed and schools taught Afghanis about western industries and technologies. Grand homes and buildings rose from the dust of the city. Infrastructure began replacing the hodgepodge of crumbling straw and mud. Telephone, plumbing and electricity lines were installed. German agrarians brought new-fangled technology like steel ploughs to replace the wooden peg.

By late 1928, the religiously conservative classes began organizing. They rose against implementing education and technology outside the Quran. Revolution broke in 1929. My great-grandmother traveled to Lahore, in the British Raj, to stay with her relatives whilst Martin and the rest of the group continued construction. Amunalah was replaced by another Shah whom continued the reformations, just more slowly. He immediately released the Darul-Aman Herren of their charge. Read More...