The establishment of diplomatic relations with Ethiopia was not an important act per se for Friedrich Rosen, but a small step in a wider policy to find mutual solutions with Britain and France for mutual problems that arose from restless imperialist expansion. Africa was a continent to negotiate solutions on, a laboratory for the development of understanding between the European powers. The core aim of this policy was peace and stability in Europe. Rosen was not an anti-colonialist. Shortly before the outbreak of World War One, Rosen was to negotiate with Britain about the future of the Portuguese colonies and the Free State of Belgian Congo. A vast German Central Africa was on the agenda. World War One foiled Rosen’s attempts and marginalized his political visions.

Although Rosen contributed to the policy of linking economic penetration with scholarly endeavours for the Middle East, he did not really believe in the sustainability of capital exports. He joked about the shift from materially disinterested idealism in dealing with “the Orient” to visions of economic profit linked to railroads and banks, which he had experienced during his lifetime. Rosen’s style of negotiating with Menelik, the linking of commerce with archaeology, fitted into the Middle Eastern pattern, although Rosen was hardly a believer in the economic importance of this process. In a way Ethiopia served as a laboratory to accommodate German, French and British interests. The economic side of the process soon turned out indeed to be negligible. The scholarly aspect partly froze in the results of Littmann’s Aksum expedition. However, when the four voluminous books on the expedition appeared in 1913, Menelik was already dead and, according to the German representative von Syburg, crown prince Lij Yasu utterly disinterested in the issue of Aksum’s past. Sent to Addis Ababa as a gift, the books remained with the German delegation. Indeed, subsequent German attempts to draw Lij Yasu into the war as a German ally would not have found Rosen’s approval. The revolt of Ras Tafari against Lij Yasu in 1916 created a situation for the German delegation that was precisely the opposite of Rosen’s intentions. The delegation was now literally isolated by hostile powers.

Rosen’s sober view of economic potential and his cautious manner in dealing with the other European powers in Ethiopia, i.e., respect for Ethiopian sovereignty but with peace in Europe constantly in mind, were certainly not shared by all members of the delegation, or by Arnold Holtz. The economic adviser to the delegation, Carl Bosch, developed vast plans for economic cooperation. Arnold Holtz became a restless entrepreneur in economic and political daydreams, which included bringing the second motor car to Addis Ababa in 1908. Holtz’s private war against the French in Djibouti, which had begun in 1917, put him in harsh French confinement for many years. Some indirect results linked to the activities of Bosch and Holtz were more sustainable than the anticipated wishes. Both Holtz and Bosch were paradoxical pioneers in the history of technical aid to Ethiopia, and contributed to the dual and often inconsistent structures of the emerging private “German Community” in Ethiopia and the public German legation. The first permanent German representative in Ethiopia, Georg Coates, who served in Addis Ababa from 1906 to 1907, was a man of caution. His successors were more willing to be involved in local competitive politics and Strive.

In 1907, an Ethiopian delegation under Dajazmach Mashasha visited Germany. The delegation was met in Hamburg by (now) legation secretary Edmund Schüler. They also met Carl Bosch and Hans Vollbrecht. Carl Bosch in particular was disappointed – as Arnold Holtz before him– by the political disinterest in the support of grand economic schemes in Ethiopia. Although “Military industry” was Dajazmach Mashasha’s key interest, a visit to Cologne Cathedral was included in the programme. Dajazmach Mashasha put the Jerusalem Question at the centre of his audience with William II, i.e. the right of Ethiopian Christians to access the Church of Sepulchre by a door hitherto used only by Egyptian Copts. The gift from Emperor Menelik II to William II was a set of elephant tusks. The Austrian Empire was the next stage of the Ethiopian delegation’s European visit, and Austrian diplomats carefully followed the whereabouts and dealings of the delegation in Germany. According to an Austrian report, the German government was not unhappy when the delegation left Germany.

Ethiopia did not have a representative in Germany until 1927. The first consul was German citizen, ex-major and industrious arms dealer Hans Steffen. Steffen was made Consul-General in 1935. Although at that time a member of the Nazi Party, he was willing to take Ethiopian citizenship if he were made a fully-fledged Ethiopian ambassador to Germany. The outcome of the Italo-Ethiopian war in 1936 frustrated his intentions.

However, the most sustainable item linked to the Rosen Delegation of 1905 was a promise. Menelik II had awarded the German delegation the land on which the German Embassy in Addis Ababa is still situated today. The promise of a suitable plot of land for an Ethiopian embassy in Berlin was made in return. The opportunity of keeping this promise was first possible when Berlin once again became the German capital and seat of government in 1991.