The rapid Ottoman expansion from Thrace to the Danubian Europe is remembered as posing the greatest threat to Christendom. It gave rise to the widely shared image of the “terrible Turk” as the most feared enemy of European peoples and civilization and has helped enriched particularly the German language with specific references to measures adopted to warn or fend off the Turkish menace, such as Türkensteuer, Türkenglocken, and the overall Türkenfurscht.
