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Christiane Ackermann: In pre-modern literature, ‘the Turk’ frequently appears as the cruelest of tyrants and murderer of Christians described according to stereotypical patterns. However, he may also serve as a medium to criticize social evils. Some of the most interesting appearances of this sort can be found in the genre of the drama, among which the act of the Turkish sultan in the carnival play Des Turken Vasnachtspil (before 1456) is especially curious: the türkisch keiser (a fictitious counterpart of Mehmed II al Fatih) is used as a rhetorical weapon articulating anger at the misbehavior of nobility and clergy, and, most of all, of the Holy Roman Emperor (Frederick III) and the Pope (Calixtus III). The Great Turk and his entourage visit Nuremberg to chastise the Christians for their unfaithful way of life, in which the Sultan presents himself as the divine punishment for the Christians’ unfaithfulness. In the course of the play, images of the Turk as a powerful threat and a sign of revolt as well as obscene phantasies of his punishment are displayed. Thus, he is an ambivalent figure that bears witness to the vast heterogeneous inventory of European images of the Ottomans (which were all fairly virulent). These images were in no small way influenced by other political challenges the Holy Roman Empire had to face (especially the discord between the ecclesiastic and profane regimen). This paper focuses on the carnival play and other German ‘Turk dramas’ as a kaleidoscope of the imaginary of the Ottoman Empire – a turning kaleidoscope creating patterns of cultural identities.[audio mp3="http://revolt.hypotheses.org/files/2014/04/christiane_turks-in-theatre_conference_cut.mp3"][/audio]Christiane Ackermann studied German and English at the University of Bielefeld (state examinations), working on American literature (University of Cologne) and German medieval literature (Universities of Bielefeld, Regensburg, and Tübingen). She received her Ph.D. in Medieval German Studies from the University of Tübingen and is co-founder of the international Research Training Group Religious Knowledge in Premodern Europa (800–1800): Transfers und Transformations – Ways to Modern Knowledge Society. Her research and teaching esp. focuses on German literature of the thirteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth century and combines historical depth with theoretical-based analysis of medieval and early modern literature. Recent publications include “Gestimmte Texte” “Voiced Texts”, LiLi 171, 2013, edited together with Hartmut Bleumer. She is currently working on her second book (Medial Transfers and Transformations of Knowledge in the Premodern ‘Turk Drama’ 15th–17th Centuries) and preparing an introduction toLiterary and Cultural Theory in Germanic Medieval Studies (De Gruyter 2014).