The Nazis’ Gifts to Turkish Higher Education and Inadvertently to Us All: Modernization of

Turkish universities (1933-1945) and its impact on present science and culture.

Arnold Reisman^
Ismail Capar*

^ Reisman and Associates, Shaker Heights, OH. USA

* Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA

^ Corresponding author, reismana@cs.com

ABSTRACT
The system of higher education inherited by the Republic of Turkey in 1923, consisted of a few
hundred Ottoman vintage (Islamic) madrasas and three military academies, one of which was
expanded into a civil engineering school around 1909.With secularization enshrined in its
constitution, the new government recognized the need for modernization/westernization
throughout Turkish society and established a number of policies to bring this about. At
government invitation and mandate to modernize higher education, starting in 1933 and running
through WWII, Turkey provided safe-haven for many intellectuals and professionals fleeing
Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and other Nazi dominated lands. This paper discusses the
impact of these émigré professors, not just on Turkey's higher education in the sciences,
professions, and humanities, but also on its public health, library, legal, engineering, and
administrative practices. The multi-faceted legacy of this impact on present Turkish society with
all its richness is documented if but in part as are some of the socio-economic reasons for
Turkey’s not taking full advantage of the second and third generation progenies of its modern
higher educational system and the ensuing “brain drain.” Lastly, the paper briefly addresses the
impact on American science, technology, and culture of the Turkey-saved intellectuals.
.

Key words: Turkey; History; History of science and technology; Development; Technology Transfer; Educational Policy;
Government Policy; Higher education; Nazi persecution; Nazism; Holocaust; Migration; Diaspora; Exile.

Acknowledgments: The authors are grateful to a number of scholars, archivists, and institutions for having provided
information contained herein. Among these are Stephen Feinstein, University of Minnesota, Rainer Marutzky,
Braunschweig Institute for Wood Research, Anthony Tedeschi and Becky Cape, Head of Reference and Public Services,
The Lilly Library, Indiana University; Samira Teuteberg, AHRB Resource Officer, Centre for German-Jewish Studies,
University of Sussex; Viola Voss, Archivist, Leo Baeck Institute, New York; Ralph Jaeckel and staff of the von
Grunebaum Center for Near East Studies, UCLA; Chris Petersen, the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Valley Library,
Oregon State University; Virginia G. Saha, Director, Cleveland Health Sciences Library; and especially once again to Ron
Coleman, Reference Librarian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, who went beyond the call of duty in providing
references and did so in a most timely fashion.
INTRODUCTION

The year was 1933. The date was January 30. Hitler came to power.
The bill "Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums1" was passed a few weeks later. A
beginning of the end! The capstone on the most productive wellspring of western science, technology,
and culture! All this happened in the German speaking part of Europe! Europe in general, never
regained its status2. By design, the new civil service law enabled speedy dismissal of hundreds of
Jewish3 and politically suspect professors from their positions at all German universities and institutes,
(Neumark, 1980, 13). Although writings on the walls were loud and clear much before that, Austria
followed in the boot-steps after the 9th March 1938 Anschluss. And, so did the Sudetenland portion of
Czechoslovakia after the September 29, 1938 talks ended with the “Munich Agreement” between
Hitler, the British Prime minister, the French Premier, and the Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini.
These developments happened to coincide with radical social reforms undertaken by Kemal Atatürk,
founder of modern Turkey and its first president. In 1923 the Republic of Turkey inherited around
three hundred Ottoman vintage (Islamic) madrasas4, Ihsanoglu,(2004), and three military academies5
for its system of higher education, (http://www.itumuk.com/info/itu/ITUHistory.html). With secularization
enshrined in the Republic’s constitution, and in line with government policies of modernization and
westernization throughout Turkish society,6 the three academies7 were quickly transformed into state
universities8. As such they were clearly in need for modernization, in scope and in depth of coverage,
Reisman et al (2004). Additionally the leadership of Turkey’s new government made up of career
military officers were aware that the madrasa-based system of civilian higher education which had
served the Ottomans for centuries was woefully out of sync with education provided by the new
knowledge seeking universities of the West and in need of major redesign if not replacement9.

1
Reestablishment of the Civil Service Law.
2
The number and mix of Nobel awards is but one indicator.
3
In whole or in part.
4
Training of civil administrators to serve the Ottoman empire was part of mission for some of these madrasas.
5
One of these was expanded into a civil engineering school in 1909 and was the forerunner (in the Republican era) of the
Istanbul Technical University.
6
This included the creation of a new – Latin based – alphabet and industrial infrastructure, Reisman et al (2004).
7
During the last century of Ottoman rule, due to battlefield pressures, the military academies’ curricula were modernized
by expatriate French officers. Reisman et al, (2004).
8
Tension between the secular state supported universities and the traditional culture persisted over decades. It is currently
manifested in the symbolism of women’s head scarve worn on campus - some students insist on making the point that is
expressly forbidden. Also, over the years Islamic parties attempted to introduce legislation and or administrative actions
in parliament exacerbating that tension.
9
Other then some anecdotal information shown later, the authors are unaware of any systematic study of the impact of this
redesign/replacement on the large community of educators who taught outside the divinity aspects of the madrasa

2
However, personnel to do this, were not available indigenously. Fortunately for Turkey at least, the
political changes taking place to the northwest provided a windfall of opportunities. So following the
precedent set by Sultan Bayazid II in 149210 and once again as a matter of government policy starting
in 1933 and running through WWII, Turkey invited and provided safe-haven for hundreds of
intellectuals and professionals fleeing Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and France, Shaw (1993).
With the passing of the above “Civil Service Law.” the departure of German intellectuals began.
Realizing that the worst was yet to come, many of them started looking for ways of leaving Germany.
Among those fired from their jobs was a Hungarian born Frankfurt pathologist Dr. Philipp Schwartz
who fled with his family to Switzerland. In March 1933 Schwartz established the Notgemeinschaft
Deutscher Wissenschaftler im Ausland11 in Zürich to help Jewish and other persecuted German
scholars secure employment in countries prepared to receive German refugees.
This paper documents the impact of these émigré professors12, not just on Turkey's higher education in
the sciences, professions, humanities, and the arts, but also on its public health, library, legal,
engineering, and administrative practices and the multi-faceted legacy of this impact13 on present
Turkish society. Things don’t end here however. In years following the war’s end and having
accomplished their mandate, many of the émigrés came to these shores and made major impacts on
American science and culture.
Before embarking on this documentation and discussion, it must be pointed out that during the period
starting with the Nazis gaining formal power by Hitler establishing Germany’s National Government
in January 30, 1933, and Germany’s surrender to the allies on 8 May 1945, the Republic of Turkey

curricula. Short of that it can only be assumed that, as a minimum, their centuries-old status within the Ottoman society
was significantly reduced by the new culture. Moreover, an entire generation of madrasa-trained administrators of public
agencies, banks etc., was clearly impacted by the second order effect due to university trained cadres. These were just two
of many socio-economic groupings dislocated in the aftermath of WWI in that part of the world. Many of these
dislocations are still understudied and largely unknown.
10
In 1492 Ferdinand, the king of Spain, issued an edict to expel from Spain all remaining Jews who did not convert to
Christianity. In that very same year, Sultan Bayazid II ordered the governors of - all Ottoman provinces "not to refuse the
Jews entry or cause them difficulties, but to receive them cordially". http://www.mersina.com/lib/Turkish
jews/history/life.htm
11
Emergency Assistance Organization for German Scientists
12
Parente and Prescott (2000), preface their book using the words “ideas” and “knowledge” (pgs1,2)as concepts but they
conclude the book by using the word “technologies” instead, (pgs 133, 142, 143). Hence these three words are
interchangeable in their Barriers to Riches context and the reasoning that was awarded a Nobel Prize in Economics for
2004. In this paper it is presumed that the émigrés brought with them to Turkey each and all of the above concepts.
13
This impact was not preordained. As will be shown, many counteractive forces were in place and active at the time.
Nevertheless, “[A]lthough in the years following 1933, the number of German-speaking refugees in other countries, especially
in the United States, far exceeded those in Turkey, in no other place was the relative significance of German refugees as great
as it was in Turkey, and nowhere else did their work leave as permanent an impact.” Neumark, (1980), 8-9.

3
went through: Two presidents14; four (4) prime ministers; five (5) foreign ministers; six (6) interior
ministers; and five (5) education ministers. Consequently, the policy of providing safe-haven to these
intellectuals was not dependent on the largesse of any one individual. It was indeed institutionalized.
Moreover, throughout this period neutral Turkey was under relentless pressure by the German Reich
as high up as Hitler himself that the Jewish professors15 “be returned to Germany for punishment along
with all Jewish Turks”, Shaw (1993).
No other nation can compare with Turkey’s explicit policy of inviting, saving, and thereby
allowing to flourish and conserving for future generations, so much intellectual capital during the
darkest years of the twentieth century. The impacts of that decision are like the ripples from a
pebble thrown into still water. They keep radiating. Having gained a momentum of their own
they can be seen worldwide to this very day and so they will till perpetuity. Yet this bit of history
is dim-lit16 and largely unknown. Hence this paper offers yet another “story” to “create a context
of origin, that the people may not live alienated from their ancestry and in ignorance of the
events that have given shape to their present17” Staudenmaier, (1985). This story is not limited to
the impact on science; nor just on technology; nor the evolution of western practice of
architecture, law, medicine, dentistry, librarianship, etc., in what started out as a non-western
society; nor is it limited to the evolution of its arts. It addresses all of that in the context of the
rise and fall of the German Reich on the one hand and vision of the Turkish Republic’s founders

14
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk , the republic’s first president served until his death (10 November 1938) and was followed by
Ismet Inonu who served in that capacity till 22 May 1950.
15
From “….a contemporaneous source, the so-called ‘Scurla-Report,’ ….Herbert Scurla, a senior [Nazi]executive officer,
was sent to Turkey in 1939 by the Ministry of Science and Education to take stock of activities of German university
professors there". Muller (1998), further provides documentation that the “German emigrants were observed very closely
[by the Gestapo] in Turkey and pressure was put on appointments.” The Scurla-Report was first published by Grothousen
(1987).
16
“In May 1991, an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars convened at the Wissenschaftskollegg in Berlin to
discuss the impact of forced emigration of German-speaking scholars and scientists after the Nazi takeover in 1933.” Ash
and Sollner Ed. (1996). The result of that conference is the cited and referenced book. In its Foreword, Donald Fleming,
critically reflects on the established historical paradigm e.g., “Germany had been intellectually punished for yielding to the
Nazis and America and Britain intellectually rewarded for their political and civic virtues”. Significantly, the book’s (10-
page, double-column, small-print) Index has only one entry for Turkey. Page 10 mentions Turkey along with Palestine and
Latin America in reference to studies documenting problems encountered by émigré academics. Moreover, Strauss (1979)
provides a compendium of “Archival Resources” and organizations that were set up worldwide to aid Jews persecuted by
the Third Reich. While the book specifically addresses “THE EMERGENCY COMMITTEE IN AID OF DISPLACED
FOREIGN SCHOLARS. Founded in 1933 in New York City….” It nowhere mentions the Notgemeinschaft deutscher
Wissenschaftler im Ausland nor the work of Philipp Schwartz. Moreover, “Turkey” does not appear in its 21-page detailed
Index. Hence, the above “dim-lit and largely unknown” claim. Although the emigration of German scholars and writers to
other European countries and particularly to the United States has been fairly extensively studied, the long-term sojourn of
many noted academics, artists, and politicians in Turkey has received scant critical attention. Seyhan (2005)

4
as well as successive administrations on the other. Juxtaposition of how such intellectual
treasure was treated by Germany/Austria and Turkey illuminates the shaping of our own
scientific and cultural present and future18.
In 1933 after negotiations between the president of Notgemeinschaft deutscher Wissenschaftler im
Ausland19, Philipp Schwartz a Frankfurt professor, and the Turkish minister of education, Resit Galip,
put together a complete list of names for professorships at the University of Istanbul, (Muller, 1998).
Thus, Atatürk and his visionary ministers jumped at the opportunity that presented itself and used it in
their intensive modernization of Turkish higher education. This involved the transformation of the
existing scholastic-Ottoman institution of Dar-ül Fünun20 into the University of Istanbul. The Istanbul
Technical University was created out of a former military academy21 and Ankara University founded
from ground up by Atatürk22 himself, “for those principles that describe a modern society, science and

17
“The image of Turkey in present-day Germany is determined by the so called ‘Gastarbeiter’” - foreign laborers, and
“mainly negative”, while in Turkey “Germany is regarded as a country in which people who, for political and religious
reasons are being persecuted” Muller (1998).
18
In his memoir Fritz Neumark, one of the émigré economists observed that: “although in the years following 1933 the number of
German-speaking refugees in other countries, especially in the United States, far exceeded those in Turkey, in no other place was
the relative significance of German refugees as great as it was in Turkey, and nowhere else did their work leave as permanent an
impact.” Neumark, F. (1980, pgs 8-9).
19
The Emergency Organization for German Scientists Abroad, Schwartz, (1995)
20
Arabic for "house of knowledge."
21
Istanbul Technical University's long and distinguished history began in 1773 when it was founded by Sultan
MustafaIII..….Mustafa sought to modernise the army and the internal state machinery to bring his empire in line with the
Powers of Western Europe. In 1845 the engineering function of the school was further widened with the addition of a
program devoted to the training of architects. The scope and name of the school were extended and changed again in 1883
and in 1909 the school became a public engineering school which was aimed at training civil engineers who could provide
the infrastructure for the rapidly building country.
22
A career military officer turned revolutionary and statesman, “Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was born in 1881in Salonica,
then an Ottoman city, now in Greece”. Starting with a traditional religious education followed by a military high school
“[he] graduated from the War Academy in Istanbul in 1905, with the rank of Staff Captain. In 1915, when Dardanelles
campaign was launched, Colonel Mustafa Kemal became a national hero by winning successive victories and finally
repelling the invaders. Promoted to general in 1916, at age 35, [he] liberated two major provinces in eastern Turkey that
year. In the next two years, [he] served as commander of several Ottoman armies in Palestine, Aleppo, and elsewhere,
achieving another major victory by stopping the enemy advance at Aleppo. On May 19, 1919, [he] landed in the Black Sea
port of Samsun to start the War of Independence. In defiance of the Sultan's government, he rallied a liberation army in
Anatolia and convened the Congress of Erzurum and Sivas which established the basis for the new national effort under his
leadership. On April 23, 1920, the Grand National Assembly was inaugurated [and Ataturk] was elected to its Presidency.
Fighting on many fronts, he led his forces to victory against rebels and invading armies. Following the Turkish triumph at
the two major battles at Inonu in Western Turkey, the Grand National Assembly conferred on Mustafa Kemal Pasha the
title of Commander-in-Chief with the rank of Marshal. At the end of August 1922, the Turkish armies won their ultimate
victory. Within a few weeks, the Turkish mainland was completely liberated, the armistice signed, and the rule of the
Ottoman dynasty abolished. In July 1923, the national government signed the Lausanne Treaty with Great Britain, France,
Greece, Italy, and others. In mid-October, Ankara became the capital of the new Turkish State. On October 29, the
Republic was proclaimed and Mustafa Kemal Pasha was unanimously elected President of the Republic.”
http://www.ataturk.com

5
enlightenment.23” All three were fashioned on the nineteenth-century German university model.
Subsequently several hundred scientists and professionals24 along with family members and some with
key staff members came to Turkey. Most were given major teaching positions as Ordinarius professors
and professors in Turkish universities in Istanbul and Ankara which were then being intensively
reformed and modernized under the direction of Education Minister Hasan Ali Yucel25.

THE EMIGRES: THEIR CAPABILITIES, AND CONTRIBUTIONS

Refugees taken in by Turkey during the 1930s included leading professors, teachers, physicians,
dentists, attorneys, architects, urban planners, engineers, artists, librarians, and laboratory
workers as well as thousands more less well known individuals, Widman, (1981).
The authorities at Ankara have attempted to give the German professors every possible
facility for carrying on their work. Enormous sums have been spent on equipment for
laboratories and hospitals. One now sees in Turkey hospitals equal in equipment to any
in the world. In addition, more or less adequate appropriations have been made for
operating these physical plants. It is understood that strong advocates and protectors of
the professors exist in high circles in Ankara, and that any complaints which are made
against them fall on deaf ears in the Capito1, Washington (1936)

Following are some of the individuals and their impact on the Turkish higher education system
and in some cases on society as a whole:

Archeology
Assyriologist, Benno Lansberger and Hittitologost Hans Guterbrock joined the faculty of Ankara
University, The latter “organized and led major archeological excavations in Anatolia before
and during World War II, and subsequently joined the Oriental Institute at the University of
Chicago after helping to develop an entire generation of Turkish archeologists”. Shaw (1993)

23
This, “ value laden embrace” (Staudenmaier (1985)) of modern universities by Mustafa Ataturk, Turkey’s most revered
personage, initiated a “design stage” of the country’s system of higher education; by his “leadership” qualities and position,
institutionalized the “enduring nature of government policy”; and simultaneously the “enduring nature of cultural values”.
24
About 700-800 people from Germany and Austria fled from the repressions of the National Socialist Regime to Turkey.
http://www.museumonline.at/1999/schools/classic/istanbul/exilturkei_e.htm
25
During the prewar period, in addition to inviting those who needed a safe-haven from the Nazis Turkey also invited
German Jewish scholars who were comfortably settled elsewhere. Frederick Simon Bodenheimer was brought in from the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “While serving as visiting professor and founder of the department of agricultural
entomology at the University of Ankara, turkey, he wrote four textbooks that were translated and published in the Turkish
language: two on entomology, one in zoology, and one in bee keeping, plus a surpise bonusin the form of a fifth book in
Hebrew on Turkish folk art.” Harpaz, (1984).

6
Astronomy
Professor Erwin Finlay Freundlich received his “doctorate in mathematics at Göttingen, then
joined the Royal Observatory at Berlin, where he worked under the direction of Albert Einstein.
His observations of the motion of Mercury, which differs slightly from the Newtonian
prediction, were published in 1913 and helped convince the scientific community of the validity
of Einstein’s theory of relativity.”
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Freundlich.html
Later, he joined the University of Istanbul where he helped to create a modern observatory in Turkey
(University of Istanbul Observatory). In addition, he established the Astronomy and Space
Department together with émigré professors Hans Rosenberg, Thomas Royds, and Wolfgang and
Gleissberg26. These four émigrés chaired the department they created between 1933 and 1958 at
which time Prof. Dr. NÜZHET GÖKDO AN the first Turkish native took the helm of the department.
He served in that capacity (1958-1980) and was succeeded by other fellow countrymen.
http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/fen/astronomy/tanitim/tarihce/history.htm
Biochemistry
Felix Haurowitz, born in Prague in 1896, obtained a medical degree in 1922 and a doctorate of science
in 1923. In 1925 was appointed assistant professor at the German University in Prague.
Over the next few years, working with several important biochemists, he researched hemoglobin and
its derivatives. He began work on his popular "Progress in Biochemistry" series27 and from 1930

26
It appears that before the war’s end, professor Freundlich found his way to Scotland as guest professor of Astronomy,
University of St Andrews. In letters exchanged 27-2-46 and March 6th 1946 with professor Felix Haurowitz who was still
in Istanbul, one finds sad deliberations on the prospects of both returning to their native Prague and their former positions
at its University. Part of the discussion centers on the potential election outcome involving Jan Masaryk and what impact
that might have on their having returned. Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.
27
The Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers archives at Oregon State University include correspondence between Pauling
and Haurowitz as well as between Pauling and others re Haurowitz’s search for employment in the States. This
correspondence represents the years: 1935-1936, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1951, 1957-1958, 1966, and 1974. For example on
September 3, 1936 when Haurowitz was still in Prague, Linus Pauling thanks Haurowitz for his letter regarding work with
hemoglobin and encloses a paper by Dr. Mirsky and himself on the structure of proteins. On September 25, 1941, Dean of
the University, George Chase, wrote in behalf of Harvard’s “President Conant,” “it would be helpful if you would send us
your estimate of Professor Haurowitz’s standing and whether you have any suggestions about possibilities in this country.”
To which on October 12, 1941, Pauling replies “I have been greatly interested in his work for a number of years. In my
opinion he is one of the leading men in the world in the field of the chemistry of proteins. His researches are characterized
by imagination and good execution. His work on hemoglobin and on problems of immunology has been especially
successful. I do not know at present of any opening for Professor Haurowitz in this country.” For reasons best known to the
key players of the time, Harvard apparently did not make an offer. Years later Pauling was very instrumental in placing
Haurowitz at the University of Indiana.

Responding to an invitation, Pauling writes on 27 January 1958: “Your letter arrived at a bad time …I am feeling
pessimistic about the world as a whole. I do hope that I shall be able to visit Bloomington again before too long, to take

7
made immunochemistry his principal area of research. When the Nazi invasion forced him to leave
Prague in 1939, he took the position of Head of Biological and Medical Chemistry in the Medical
School at University of Istanbul, Turkey. He devoted himself to teaching, research, and producing a
Turkish textbook of biochemistry. In 1949 he re-emigrated to the United States and spent the rest of
his very productive career in Bloomington, Indiana. His trilingual (German, Turkish, and English)
correspondence with colleagues starting in mid 1920s through the 1960s is archived at the Lilly
library, Indiana University (2004). This correspondence documents more than his scientific
contributions. It portrays a human being forever concerned with the fate of others. The lifelong
relationships with former students28; the nurturing of more junior colleagues29; the helping hand

part in your colloquium and to talk with you about the interesting work that you and your colleagues are carrying on; but I
can’t plan to do so at any time in the future.” During this time Pauling was very much preoccupied with the future, to wit.

As international tension and competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union accelerated, he
[Pauling] also riveted public attention on the buildup and proliferation of nuclear weaponry—
preparations for thermonuclear warfare that he believed would destroy most of the planet's living
creatures. He addressed both issues in his popular book No More War! (1958). He maintained that
patient, reasoned negotiation and diplomacy, using the objectivity and procedures of the scientific
method, would settle disputes in a more lasting, rational, and far more humane way than war. He
asked scientists to become peacemakers. In this most intense phase of the Cold War, Linus
Pauling's name was often in the news—as when he circulated a petition against atmospheric
nuclear testing and the excessive buildup of nuclear arsenals. The petition was presented in early
1958 to the United Nations after being signed by some 9,000—eventually more that 11,000-
scientists worldwide. The U.S. government's opposing position was defended—sometimes
vituperatively—by most of the press and by various scientists, such as physicist Edward Teller,
many of whom were federal employees. http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/lpbio/lpbio2.html

28
On 15th November, 1944 using Harvard Medical School letterhead, Lahut Uzman a Turkish native, writes to his former
professor Haurowitz, who is still in Istanbul: “I have just received your very kind letter, of August 21st and the reprint of
your paper on denaturation. Needless to say, sir, I am very grateful for your having included my very modest experiments.”
This of course starts a productive collegial collaboration with much correspondence. On March 11, 1954 on Army
Medical Service Graduate School/Walter Reed Medical Center letterhead, now Captain, Medical Corps, Lahut Uzman
writes:“I am enclosing a reprint of a recent publication of mine hoping that you may be interested in data on nucleic acids
in the human.” On October 24, 1960, Assistant Professor of neurology, Harvard Medical School writes, “Your very kind
letter of October 13th in response to the reprint of my chapter in ‘Metal-Binding in Medicine’ leads me to assure you that
my small tribute to you is one of claiming privilege on my part. In the confusion that has reigned in the role of copper in
Wilson’s disease it is unfortunate that due credit is not fully given to your very sound pioneering work on this subject.”
Other correspondence indicates that Haurowitz did this work while still in Prague, e.g. before 1939. On July 7, 1962,
Uzman informs his former teacher of being the first recipient of the Bronson Crothers Professorship of Neurology,
Harvard Medical School and thereby Neurologist-in-Chief, Children`s Hospital Boston. So, American science and
medicine started reaping benefits of at least one émigré professors’ trained Turkish national while America was still in
WWII. And, Uzman’s contributions to American military medicine continued through the Korean war. Unfortunately, on
November 10, 1962 Haurowitz writes to the widow, Betty G. Uzman, “I remember the sad feelings I had whenever one of
my old teachers died. However, in view of the great difference in age, it was natural that they pass away earlier than
myself. I assure that it is much more depressing and saddening to lose one’s young students, particularly those like Lahut
who developed so brilliantly.” Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
“Lahut Uzman was born in Turkey in 1923, the son of the late Dr. Mazhar Uzman, the outstanding neuropsychiatrist of the
Levant. … He interrupted his medical course to spend three years in the study of protein chemistry with Dr. Felix
Haurowitz, the then - refugee professor of chemistry in Istanbul, following which he decided to complete his medical

8
provided to those in need during the darkest years of the 20th century; his own personal trauma of
being dismissed from the institution he contributed so much to, for no reason but the fact that he
was born Jewish; his attempts to come to America with his family; his 9 years in Turkey; and his
settling in at IU and in Bloomington. http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/lilly/mss/html/haurowit.html
On 10th March, 1960, Michael Sela wrote: “First of all please accept, though belatedly, my heartiest
congratulations on the occasion of the Ehrick award and medal, stressing once again your contribution
to science in general.” Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. What an eloquent
way of reminding us that this great scientist was saved for all of us by a 1933 invitation from the
Republic of Turkey.30
Biology
Like Haurowitz, Hugo Braun was born in Prague in 1881 and was fluent in German. Braun however
attained stature at the university of Frankfurt (1910-1933). His scholarly publications started with (Braun
(1907)). As a Jew he was forced to leave in 1933. He stayed at the University of Istanbul until 1949 at

training in the United States. After many wartime delays he reached Harvard Medical School late in 1943.” “He graduated
in 1946, did his internship in neurology at the Boston city Hospital,” researched and published on Wilson’s disease and
Gaucher’s disease. “In 1953 he became a U. S. citizen and began his military service.” Denny-Brown. (1963)

29
There is a ½ inch stack of correspondence with Michael Sela – an Israeli immunologist - who in the mid 1950s did post-
doc work at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda MD; collaborated with Haurowitz at long distance as well as in
Bloomington; became a laureate of many international science prizes; published at least 260 scientific papers– at least two
of which coauthored with Haurowitz; and was granted 19 (mostly US and UK and some multiple country) patents. On
October 16, 1957, on NIH letterhead young Sela wrote to Haurowitz, “I would like to ask you to add to my name on any
publication, the remark ’On leave of absence from the Weitzmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel’” decades later he
was elected to head that venerable institution and served in that capacity for a number of years. And, on August 14, 1957,
also on NIH letterhead he wrote “I would like to thank you once again for the very interesting and stimulating month which
I spent in Bloomington.” Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
30
As for Haurowitz’s second generation legacy: Stanley van den Noort, M.D., landed at University of Calfornia Irvine, in
1970--as a professor of neurology and the school's only full-time neurologist. Just three years later, he was appointed dean
of the school, a capacity in which he served until 1985. Van den Noort’s leadership was marked among many other
accomplishments by the expansion of UCI's neurology department to 16 people and the establishment of a Multiple
Sclerosis Center on campus. Among Dr. Van Den Noort’s awards is The Hope Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis
Society in 1988. Dr. Van Den Noort is also the celebrated author of numerous journal articles, scientific abstracts, and a
book published in 1999, Multiple Sclerosis in Clinical Practice. http://www.webhealthsearch.com/adboard.asp
“In 1958, van den Noort returned to Boston City Hospital to do residencies in neurology and neuropathology and a
fellowship in neurochemistry. He studied neurochemistry and neuropathology under Dr. L. Lahut Uzman, a ‘brilliant’
neurochemist who had been made chief of pediatric neurology at Harvard when he was 35 years old. ‘We studied the
chemicals that run the brain,’ recalls van den Noort, who was Uzman's first and only postdoctoral student before Uzman's
untimely death in 1962. ‘It was a beginning era then, very young and very exciting.’”
http://www.dartmouth.edu/dms/news/publications/dartmed/winter03/html/alumni_album.shtml

9
which time he returned and assumed a post in Munich until June 11,1963. Of the three In memoriam
columns published in the German language, Aub (1964) makes the Turkish connection only as part of a
sentence saying that among Braun’s 200 publications there is a “Turkish textbook on microbiology.”
Hochmann (1964) says simply31 that in 1949 Hugo Braun was invited back to Munich by a Prof. Kisskalt.
“He [Braun] was in Istanbul since 1933.” However, Eyer (1964) devotes considerable text to Braun’s life
leading up to and during the Turkish sojourn. Eyer provides a thorough bibliography of Braun’s lifetime
publications which shows that by 1930 there were no fewer than 93 on record. A two-year hiatus ended
with a publication by I. Springer in Berlin and then the others predominantly appeared in Turkish outlets
with a peppering in Dutch, French and Swiss publications. As of 1949 Braun had amassed 166
publications. Hence, while in Turkey Braun contributed over 70 out of a total of 182 works published in the
worldwide literature of science.
There is a treasure trove of correspondence spanning early 1930s well into the 1950s, between
Braun and Felix Haurowitz that was made available through archivists at the Lilly Library,
University of Indiana. By April 24, 1950 Braun settled in at the Munchen Hygienisches Institut
and wrote to Haurowitz (all their correspondence is in German). “The Turks were extremely
gracious in saying good bye to me.” On their return to the “Heimat” (homeland), he and Mrs.
Braun could not stop to see their son and daughter because of financial considerations. Other
letters mention that the daughter suffered a leg wound as a soldier, while the son –a medical
doctor – served in a hospital. Plowing through the correspondence it becomes clear that the both
served in Israel’s 1948 war of independence. There is much correspondence having to do with
arrangements to have Haurowitz share American scientific journals with Braun as these were
unavailable in war torn Germany. Also, Braun pleaded to have the Haurowitz family send CARE
packages to the widow of a colleague who remained in Germany through the war.

Chemistry
Fritz Arndt (1885-1969) was born in Hamburg but was not related to Kurt Arndt. He studied chemistry
at the universities of Geneva, Freiburg im Breisgau and Berlin and took his doctorate under Howitz at
Freiburg. After a varied academic career in Freiburg (as an assistant to Gattermann), Hamburg,
Griefswald, Kiel, Breslau and Constantinople, he became a professor at Breslau.

31
These omissions are indeed significant in the context of the story being told by this entire paper.

10
Fritz Arndt started to work in Turkey before the Republic of Turkey was established. During his first
visit he helped establishment of Institute of Chemistry for the Dar-ul Funun32. After working from 1915
to1918 for Dar-ul Funun as an associate professor, he went back to Breslau. Forced to leave Germany
in 1933, he went briefly to Oxford before returning to Istanbul. In 1934 he joined the University of
Istanbul and was director of the Institute of Chemistry between 1934 and 1955. In 1955 he retired and
went to Hamburg. Although his positions were often in inorganic chemistry, he carried out research on
azo compounds. His name is associated with the Arndt-Eistert synthesis of diazoketones.
http://www.jergym.hiedu.cz/~canovm/mechanic/pravidl2/arndt/arndt2.htm

Mathematics
At the University of Istanbul, Richard von Mises, Hilda Geiringer, and Wilhelm Prager 33formed
Turkey’s first modern undergraduate program in mathematics.

Applied mathematics

Richard von Mises was born in Lvov, Lemberg, and most recently, Lviv of the Ukraine. He studied
mathematics, physics and engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna and upon graduation
was appointed as Georg Hamel's assistant in Brünn, or Brno in the south-eastern Czech Republic. In
1907 he received a doctorate from Vienna and the following year became qualified to lecture on
engineering and machine construction. From 1909 until 1918, he was professor of applied
mathematics at Strasburg. This period was interrupted by World War I34. He taught the first university
course on powered flight in 1913. Having lectured on the design of aircraft before the war he put this
knowledge into practice by leading a team that constructed a 600-horsepower plane for the Austrian
army in 1915.

At war’s end in 1919, he was appointed to a new established chair of hydrodynamics and
aerodynamics at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden. He soon moved to the University of Berlin
as director of its new Institute of Applied Mathematics where he set up a new curriculum in applied
mathematics with applications to astronomy, geodesy and technology. Von Mises stressed that
applied mathematics was every bit as rigorous as pure mathematics requiring “... a mathematical

32
The roots of University of Istanbul go back to Dar-ul Funun.
33
Drucker (1984).
34
von Mises was a qualified pilot prior to the war. When war broke out von Mises joined the Austro-Hungarian army and
served as a pilot.

11
model of the widest possible generality, where the argument could be made with clarity, elegance,
and rigour.” The Institute rapidly became a center for research into areas such as probability,
statistics, numerical solutions of differential equations, elasticity and aerodynamics.

Although von Mises was not Jewish for he was a Roman Catholic by religion, he still fell
under the non-Aryan definition of the civil service act. However there was a clause in the Act
exempting those non-Aryans who fought in World War I. von Mises certainly qualified under
this clause and it would have allowed him to keep his chair in Berlin. In 1933 he realized, quite
correctly, that the exemption clause would not save him for long. http://www-gap.dcs.st-
and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Mises.html

Hilda Geiringer's father Ludwig Geiringer was born in Hungary. Her mother, Martha Wertheimer was
from Vienna and Ludwig and Martha had married while he was working in Vienna as a textile
manufacturer. It was a Jewish family which would later have a significant effect on Hilda's life. At
Gymnasium Hilda showed great mathematical ability and her parents supported her financially so that
she could study mathematics at the University of Vienna.

After receiving her first degree, Geiringer continued her study of mathematics at Vienna, working
under Wirtinger for her doctorate. This was awarded in 1917 for a thesis on Fourier series in two
variables. She spent the following two years as Leon Lichtenstein's assistant editing the mathematics
review journal Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik.

In 1921 Geiringer moved to Berlin where she was employed as an assistant to von Misesin the
Institute of Applied Mathematics. In this same year she married Felix Pollaczek who, like Geiringer,
had been born in Vienna into a Jewish family but had studied in Berlin. Hilda and Felix had a child in
1922 but their marriage broke up. After the divorce Geiringer continued working for von Mises
Though she had been proposed for appointment to the position of extraordinary professor in 1933,
Geiringer left Germany after she was dismissed from the University of Berlin. Together with her
child, she went to Brussels and later followed von Mises to Istanbul where she was appointed
professor of mathematics and continued to pursue her mathematical interests, particularly in
plasticity. In 1938 Kemal Atatürk died and some of those in Turkey who had fled the Nazis feared
that their safe haven would become unsafe. In 1939 von Mises left Turkey for the United States.
Geiringer fearing that she might not be able to obtain a visa to the United States wrote to von Mises
from Istanbul: “Is there no way to marry pro cura? Here an emigrant who has a resident's permit has

12
married his 'bride' and she was then allowed to come to him straight from Vienna”. Her fears of not
getting visa were unfounded, however, and together with her daughter she went to Bryn Mawr
College as a lecturer. In addition to her teaching Geiringer did classified work for the National
Research Council as part of the war effort. During 1942 she gave an advanced course in mechanics at
Brown University, with the aim of raising the American standards of education to the level that had
been attained in Germany. She wrote up her outstanding series of lectures on the geometrical
foundations of mechanics and, although they were never properly published, these were widely used
in the United States for many years.35

Physiology
Hans Winterstein founded and headed the General Physiology program/department at the
medical faculty of Istanbul University. He headed its Physiology Institute from 1933 to 1953.
His research concentrated on the "Chemical Arrangement of Respiration" and gained
international renown with his "Reaction Theory".
http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/istanbultip/tr/akademik_birimler/temel/fizyoloji/

Botany and Zoology

Botanist Gustav Gassner, one of the pioneers of wood science, was professor for botany at the
Braunschweig Technical Hochschule (today Technical University). Elected rector in 1932, he
became involved in a conflict between the Hochschule and Braunschweig’s provincial
administration which, starting 1930/1931, was already in Nazi Party hands. This was about two

35
Geiringer married von Mises in 1943 and the following year she left her lecturing post at Bryn Mawr College to be
nearer to him. She accepted a post as professor and chairman of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. During the
week she taught at the College, travelling to Cambridge every weekend to be with von Mises who worked at Harvard at
this time.
For many reasons this was not a good arrangement. There were only two members of the mathematics faculty at Wheaton
College and Geiringer longed for a situation where she was among mathematicians who were carrying out research. She
made many applications for other posts but these failed due to fairly open discrimination against women. As Richards
writes in [2] one response she received was quite typical:-
I am sure that our President would not approve of a woman. We have some women on our staff, so it is
not merely prejudice against women, yet it is partly that, for we do not want to bring in more if we can
get men.

For Geiringer who had been so discriminated against in Germany because of her Jewish background, to now be
discriminated against because she was a woman must have been a difficult blow. However, she took it all remarkably
calmly, believing that if she could do something for future generations of women then she would have achieved something
positive. She also never gave up her research while at Wheaton College. Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Geiringer.html

13
years before Hitler’s seizure of power in January 1933. In March of that year, the local Nazi
government dismissed Gassner from rectorship and imprisoned him for 11 days. On September
301933, this was followed with dismissal as professor of botany. Being the last legally elected
rector, he regained that position after the war (1945/1946). He died in 1955. Gustav Gassner was
mentor to Wilhelm Klauditz who founded the Braunschweig Institute for Wood Research known
today as the WKI-Institute in 1946. Between 1934-1939, Gassner served as one of the émigré
professors at Ankara Univeristy. He was an acknowledged expert and scientist. His book
Microscopic examinations of plant food was republished in 1989. http://www.vernetztes-
gedaechtnis.de/thgassner.htm
Zoologists Prof. Andre Naville and Ord. Prof. Dr. Curt Kosswig, and botanists Ord. Prof. Dr. Alfred
Heilbronn and Ord.Prof.Dr.Leo Brauner joined the University of Istanbul faculty in 193336. Through
the efforts of Prof. Dr.Curt Kosswig, the Institute of Hydrobiology at Baltalimanı, embedded in the
Faculty of Science, was established in 1950. Prof. Kosswig’s discovery of an area at the edge of
Manyas Lake known as Ku Cenneti (Birds’ Heaven) where migratory birds nest and the area in
Birecik where the Kelaynak (Bold ibis) birds nest were finds of world-wide importance. Lake
Manyas is one of the most important worldwide natural reserves for migratory birds and wildfowl
species. http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/fen/biyoloji/tarihce.htm. The northeastern part of the lake, called

36
Prof. Dr. A. Heilbron who worked at the university of Munster between 1923-1932, was forced to take refuge in
Switzerland with his colleagues Prof. Dr. Leo Brauner (botanist) and Prof. Dr. Andre Naville (zoologist) in the face of
increasing pressures of the Hitler regime. These valuable scientists came to Istanbul on the personal invitation of Ataturk
in October. They started to give courses in botany and zoology in the Biology Institute as the school was then named. To
establish a botanical garden under the auspices of the University of Istanbul was in the mind of A. Heilbron from the first
day he started lecturing in Istanbul.
The construction of the Institute building was started in 1934 on a piece of land that belonged to the Istanbul Girls High
School on the grounds of the Istanbul Müftülü ü (Istanbul Directorate of Religious Affairs). The chance Dr. Heilbron
was expecting came when he was assigned the duty to found a botanical garden here. Thus Dr. Heilbron started the
establishment and organization of the botanical garden with the great support of L. Brauner and Walter Stephan, the
German garden specialists.
These three men and their entourage worked in such a systematic and disciplined manner that the botanical garden was
ready to be opened in the spring of 1936. Another great attainment of these three is the first seed catalogue of the
botanical garden published in 1935.This first seed catalogue of the Istanbul University Plant Garden (Hortus Botanicus
Istanbuensis: Index Seminum), simple yet very valuable, includes an introduction by A Heilbron, L. Brauner and Garden
Specialist W. Stephan describing the objectives of the garden36. Kaynak et al, (2002). “The first attempt to set up a
botanic garden in Turkey was in about 1949 with the establishment of an Arboretum in Bahçeköy near Istanbul with the
support of the University of Istanbul Faculty of Forestry. In spite of the rich biodiversity and high number of species
both in flora and fauna in Turkey, the number of botanical gardens are [still] quite few.”
http://www.bgci.org.uk/botanic_gardens/TurkeyCukurovaUniversityBGCN25.html
In 1935, Andre Neville together with Botanist Prof. Dr. Alfred Heilbronn and Prof. Dr. LeoBrauner established (Turkey’s
first) Zoology Museum. It was initially located on the same floor as the zoology department within the Faculty of Science
building. Some bird cages and singing birds were brought from the Yildiz Palace others were obtained as gifts from
France and Germany.

14
Ku cenneti with a total area of 64 hactares, was first observed in 1938 by Prof. Curt Kosswig and
declared as a National Park in 1959. Then it was awarded a "Class A Wetland Diploma" by the
European Council in 1976 and the given diploma was renewed four times. In 1993, the lake was
included into the list of wetlands covered by the well-known Ramsar Convention.
http://www.toprak.org.tr/isd/isd_12.htm. Curt Kosswig37 also made a significant discovery affecting our
knowledge of cancer38.

Economics
Seven of the émigré professors were in Economics. Ord. Prof. Umberto Ricci, Ord. Prof. J.
Dobretsberger, Ord. Prof. Wilhelm Röpke, Ord. Prof. Fritz Neumarc, Ord. Prof. Alexander Rüstow,
Ord. Prof. Alfred Issac, Ord. Prof. Gerhard Kessler, Prof. Ernst Reuter39 joined the University of
Istanbul and they took active part when the Faculty of Economics was established in 1936.
http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/english/socrates/faculty5.htm

Gerard Kessler “…trained hundreds of Turkish students in labor economics at Istanbul University and
who, with some of his students helped found the first Turkish labor unions following World War II”,
Shaw (1991). And this is what the university has to say in 2004.
The Faculty of Economics of the university of Istanbul, is the oldest in its field in
Turkey. Among the academic staff of the faculty, which was founded in 1936, there are
world famous figures such as Ord. Prof. Umberto Ricci, Ord. Prof. I. Dobretsberger,
Ord. Prof. Wilhelm Röpke, Ord. Prof. Fritz Neumark, Ord. Prof. Alexander Rüstow,
Ord. Prof. Alfred Issac, and Ord. Prof. Gerhard Kessler. These academics greatly

http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/fen/biyoloji/m_zooloji_muz.htm
http://www.cevrekoleji.k12.tr/heberler.htm
37
According to Kallman, (2004), Curt Kosswig told him “many years ago that while living in Istanbul in 1943, he received
a draft notice from the German army. Needless to say he disregarded it.”
38
Modern cancerology is based on the oncogene concept. This is rather new. The idea of the oncogene, however, is old,
and can be traced back to two sources, namely to "cancer families," reported in 1866 by P. Broka, and to "virus induced"
neoplasia, detected by P. Rous in 1911. A gene which is--to my knowledge--the first reported oncogene by definition was
detected in the little ornamental Mexican fish Xiphophorus by Myron Gordon, Curt Kosswig, and Georg Haussler in 1928
when they observed the terrible hereditary melanomas that we are now coming to understand and to compare with other
kinds of neoplasms in Xiphophorus and in mammals, including humans. Although the Xiphophorus model was always
modest in its claims, it has--sometimes too early in its history--contributed many facts to the present concept of neoplasia.
Genetisches Institut, Justus-Liebig-Universitat Giessen, Germany.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1924175&dopt=Abstract
39
Ernst Reuter, returned to Germany following the war and served as mayor of west Berlin at the time of the Berlin airlift.
His son Edzard, who is fluent in Turkish, served as CEO of the Daimler-Benz Conglamorate for many postwar years. The
senior author of this paper actually witnessed his address to the students and faculty of Istanbul’s Sabanci University in
2001- in Turkish, hence the word “witnessed”.

15
 contributed in the founding of the faculty.
http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/fen/astronomy/tanitim/tarihce/history.htm
Wilhelm Röpke born on October 10, 1899, in Hanover, Germany was the son of a physician and raised
in the Protestant Christian tradition. Serving in the Germany army during World War I, he was
shocked by the sheer brutality of war and it had a profound effect on his life. A drive to understand the
causes and crisis of World War I led Röpke to pursue the study of economics and sociology. He
studied economics at the University of Marburg, receiving the Dr.rer.pol in 1921 and the Habilitation
in 1922. The following year he married Eva Finke, and they raised three children. His first academic
position was at Jena in 1924. Two years later, at the Vienna Convention of the German Association for
Sociology, he met Ludwig von Mises. Röpke moved to Graz in 1928, and became a Being one of the
first professors to be forced out of his job. Röpke 40left Marburg for Frankfurt, and in early 1933, soon
after giving a public address highly critical of the Nazis, he and his family left his homeland to
become professor of economics at the University of Istanbul where he stayed till 1937 when he

accepted a position at the Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Ritenour (2004

Management, public administration, business economics, and accounting curricula were introduced in
Turkish universities, and textbooks written by these émigré professors. In a number of significant ways
existing university structures were reconfigured.
Perhaps the most significant change was the conversion in 1936 of the Institute of National
Economy and Society within the Faculty of Law in the University of Istanbul into a separate
Faculty of Economics. A year later a chair in ‘Business Economics’ was established in this
faculty to be filled by a German professor … Alfred Isaak. This appointment was one among
the many German professors who were offered chairs in the University of Istanbul after the
advent of Nazi rule. This was an opportunity taken up by the Turkish governments at the time
as a way of remedying faculty shortages after the conversion from the Ottoman institution to a
university and an additional means of educating a new generation of scholars, Usdiken, and
Cetin, (2001).

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology41

Arthur von Hippel, a luminary of material physics was born in Rostock, Germany, on 19 November
1898. On completion of his doctoral thesis in 1924, von Hippel became an assistant to Max Wein at

40
Ropke had a “disciple in Ludwig Erhard (1897-1977), who had secretly educated himself in free-market economics
during the war by reading Ropke's prohibited books,” and became director of economic administration in the American and
British occupation zones of Germany. On June 21, 1948, the new deustche mark appeared, and “most wage-price controls
ended. Unemployment rose, spawning political discontent, but Erhard persevered, stoutly supported by Ropke's newspaper
writings, and soon Germany was prospering. This, "was a great personal vindication for Ropke. Even more, Ropke and his
allies had made West Germany immune to communism."
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0354/is_3_45/ai_n6140123

16
the Physics institute in Jena. He married Dagmar Franck, the daughter of Nobelist James Franck.
Because Dagmar was Jewish and because of his own outspoken anti-Nazi stand at the university and
in the press, von Hippel and his growing family were effectively compelled to leave. Fortunately, he
was able to secure a professorship in Turkey in 1934. Dresselhaus,(2004). Arthur von Hippel,
authored the book Molecular science and molecular engineering (1959). He coined the term molecular
engineering in the late 1950s and suggested the feasibility of constructing nanomolecular devices.
http://nanoatlas.ifs.hr/arthur_von_hippel.html

Philosophy and science

Hans Reichenbach, born (1891) in Hamburg, Germany, was a leading philosopher of science, a
founder of the “Berlin circle”, and a proponent of logical positivism (also known as neopositivism or
logical empiricism). He studied physics, mathematics and philosophy at Berlin, Erlangen, Gottingen
and Munich in the 1910s. Among his teachers were the neo-Kantian philosopher Ernst Cassirer, the
mathematician David Hilbert, and the physicists Max Planck, Max Born and Albert Einstein.
Reichenbach received his degree in philosophy from the University at Erlangen in 1915; his
dissertation on the theory of probability was published in 1916. He attended Einstein's lectures on the
theory of relativity at Berlin in 1917- 1920. At that time Reichenbach chose the theory of relativity as
the first subject for his own philosophical research. He became a professor at Polytechnic at Stuttgart
in 1920. In the same year he published his first book on the philosophical implications of the theory of
relativity, The theory of relativity and a priori knowledge, in which Reichenbach criticized Kantian
theory of synthetic a priori. In the following years he published three books on the philosophical
meaning of the theory of relativity: Axiomatization of the theory of relativity (1924), From Copernicus
to Einstein (1927) and The philosophy of space and time (1928); the last in a sense states logical
positivism's view on the theory of relativity. In 1926 Reichenbach became a professor of philosophy
of physics at the University at Berlin. His methods of teaching philosophy were something of a
novelty; students found him easy to approach (this fact was uncommon in German universities); his
courses were open to discussion and debate. In 1928 he founded the Berlin circle (named Die
Gesellschaft fur empirische Philosophie, "Society for empirical philosophy"). Among the members of
the “Berlin circle” were Carl Gustav Hempel, Richard von Mises, David Hilbert and Kurt Grelling. In
1930 Reichenbach and Carnap undertook the editorship of the journal Erkenntnis ("Knowledge").

41
This term was not known at the time. It is a break-through technology at this very time.

17
In 1933, Reichenbach emigrated to Turkey, where he became chief of the Department of Philosophy at
the University at Istanbul. While in Turkey Reichenbach promoted a paradigm shift for philosophy,
introduced interdisciplinary seminars and courses on scientific subjects and in 1935 published The
theory of probability42.

In 1938 he moved to the United States where he became a professor at the University of California at
Los Angeles; in the same year was published Experience and prediction. Reichenbach's work on
quantum mechanics was published in 1944 (Philosophic foundations of quantum mechanics).
Afterwards he wrote two popular books: Elements of symbolic logic (1947) and The rise of scientific
philosophy (1951). In 1949 he contributed an essay on The philosophical significance of the theory of
relativity to Albert Einstein: philosopher-scientist edit by Paul Arthur Schillp. Reichenbach died on
April 9th 195343 at Los Angeles, California, while he was working on the philosophy of time.44 Two
books Nomological statements and admissible operations (1954) and The direction of time (1956)
were published posthumously. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.iep.utm.edu/

Medicine and Dentistry

Friedrich Dessauer was a pioneer of the Roentgen machine. He joined the University of Istanbul
in 1934 as chair of the Institute of Radiology and Biophysics. In 1937 he went to Fribourg

42
Reichenbach, Hans (1935), Wahrscheinlichkeitslehre: eine Untersuchung über die logischenund mathematischen
Grundlagen der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung. Leiden: Sijthoff. Second edition, The Theory of Probability. (1949),
University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.
43
On a personal note, as an engineering student at UCLA the senior author of this paper remembers the dreaded need to
satisfy a university requirement outside the field. Fellow non-engineering students highly recommended – indeed raved
about Reichenbach’s philosophy course. Unfortunately, Reichenbach passed away one semester earlier.



The major intellectual influences in his own life and thought came from outside philosophy, a fact which was responsible
for some of his most outstanding contributions to philosophy. He was an expert in physics and mathematics, and his
philosophical contributions centered around and consistently returned to the borderline between science and philosophy; in
particular, to the two great theoretical developments in contemporary physics: relativity and quantum mechanics.
Philosophy was for him the logical and epistemological reconstruction of scientific knowledge; and to this task he devoted
his entire work with remarkable consistency throughout his life.
The first book he published was on Relativitätstheorie und Erkenntnis a priori (1920); and to the problem of interpreting
and clarifying the logical foundations of relativity, involving the basic concepts of space, time, and causality, he returned in
several major works: Axiomatik der relativistischen Raum-Zeit-Lehre (1924); From Copernicus to Einstein (1927; American
edition, 1942); Philosophie der Raum-Zeit-Lehre (1928; an English translation to be published posthumously); Atom and
Cosmos (1930; translated into four languages); Ziele und Wege der heutigen Naturphilosophie (1931). At the time of his
death he was completing another comprehensive work on the nature of time, with special emphasis on thermodynamics,
quantum mechanics, and information theory.
http://dynaweb.oac.cdlib.org:8088/dynaweb/uchist/public/inmemoriam/inmemoriam1957/@Generic__BookView

18
University in Switzerland as the chair for experimental physics. http://www.physik.uni-
frankfurt.de/paf/paf84.html , www.istanbul.edu.tr/edebiyat/ edebiyat/MKanarIstanbulUniversitesi.doc

Pediatrician Albert Eckstein “…made major contributions45 to the treatment of children’s illnesses
by creating a series of clinics throughout Turkey46”, Shaw (1991).
Rudolf Nissen: “After training as a voluntary physician and pathological assistant at the universities of
Breisgau and Freiburg, he planned to take over his father's clinic in Neisse. However, in September
1922 he received a surprising invitation to work with Ernst Ferdinand Sauerbruch (1875-1951) in
Munich. This was the beginning of many fruitful years of work. In 1926 he brilliantly defended his
habilitation thesis. The next year he followed Sauerbruch to the Berlin Charité, where he became
Sauerbruch's deputy and professor extraordinary in 1930. When the Nazis came to power he saw that
Germany was not the place to stay. On May 29, 1933, Nissen married Ruth Lieselott Clara Becherer
(1908-1986) and together they left Germany for the United States of America. However, on their stop
in Zürich he received a telegram from the Turkish government with a request that he assume the chair
of surgery at the University of Istanbul. Nissen enjoyed life at Bosporus, conducting scientific work
and organizing the clinic according to the Sauerbruch model. However, the closer friendship between
Turkey and Germany began to cause problems, as the German professors were believed to hold anti
Nazi opinions – which they probably did” http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/2594.html

Alfred Kantorowicz- innovator in pediatric dentistry was born in 1880. He received his dental degree in
1900 and his medical degree in 1906. After World War I he became the director of the dental institute in
Bonn, Germany. He was the developer of mobile clinics and preventive dentistry programs for children
in Germany. He worked in Turkey from 1933 until his retirement in 1948. During this period he was
instrumental in modernizing the dental curriculum in Turkey.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8258568&dopt=Abstract
During this period he tried to create a department similar to US counterparts. He was among the
outstanding professors and held many patents for his research.
http://litten.de/fulltext/kantoro.htm http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/dishekimligi/

45
His multifaceted impact on Turkey’s pediatrics is detailed in Akar and Reisman (2005).

46
Thus well over four centuries after an expellee from Spain became personal physician to the Ottoman court, an invitee,
expellee from Nazism, was instrumental in establishing Western pediatric standards in the Turkish Republic.

19
Law
Andreas Schwartz “made important contributions to the adoption of western law in Turkey during the
1930s as well as training a whole generation of Turkish legal scholars at the Law faculty of Istanbul
University”, Shaw (1991) 47

Architecture and City Planning

Clemens Holzmeister was Administrator of the Architectural Section of the Fine Arts Academy in
Vienna before 1938. From 1940 to 1954 he was Director of the Architectural Section of Istanbul
Technical University and Professor of Architecture. During this period he designed many Turkish
government buildings in Ankara, including the Grand National Assembly (1938), the ministries of
Agriculture (1934), War (1931), Interior(1932)…and that of the Turkish General Staff (1930)48, Shaw
(1993). In his career he planned 700 projects. The high points of his work in and the 30's 20's are in
Austria, Italy, Germany and Turkey. He returned to Austria in 1954 and served in his prior capacity at
the Viennese academy up to 1957. http://www.archinform.net/arch/2554.htm. In his own words:
It is solely thanks to the fact that my eleven projects were completed without the slightest cause
for complaint or reproach that I increasingly gained the government's confidence- until as the
crowning achievement of my career Atatürk commissioned me to plan his private palace. The
great father and founder of the New Turkey resided at that time in a modest old house in the
upper part of the city. The first audience I was granted was chiefly about the question whether
the new palace should be built on the site of the old house or alternatively next to it on a newly
acquired location. When I was asked for my opinion regarding this I commented that this old
house represented a significant part of the history of the New Turkey and thereby clearly won
Atatürk's heart. Frequently throughout the construction of the palace I had the opportunity to
meet this outstanding personality, this man of frightening severity and the voice of a
'Basserman / bass singer '. For him the respect for the professional expert counted above
everything, and if one had gained this respect through decent work everything else was easy.
Cheerful and proud-hearted, we did everything possible to accomplish this project, on which
last but not least a large number of excellent Viennese craftsmen were employed.
Holzmeister.(1999)

Margarete Schütte- Lihotzky was the foremost female social architect practicing in Europe before
World War II. Her specialty was designing working-class housing that would reduce the house work of

47
And this is what the university has to say in 2004. “The faculty was founded in the 1880s and is one of the foundation
stones of the university. Until other universities established their faculties of Law, ours was the first to train young jurists.
After the University Reform of 1933, with the contribution of academics fleeing the Nazi regime, the principles of
contemporary legal education originated and were developed at this institution. Many prominent and well-known figures,
famous academics such as Prof. Andreas Schwarz, Prof. Ernst E. Hirsch, Prof. Sıddık Sami Onar, many judges, politicians,
lawyers, writers, and journalists feature in the annals of the faculty. The academic staff of our faculty is proud of this
heritage and aims to retain and promote the tradition of high quality education of the institution.”
http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/fen/astronomy/tanitim/tarihce/history.htm

20
working women, particularly in the kitchen. In fact, her kitchen design became the prototype of the
modern built-in kitchen we take for granted today. Schütte-Lihotzky designed the famed Frankfurt
kitchen which was functional, inexpensive, and could be mass-produced. Beginning in 1927, the
Frankfurt City Council installed 10,000 of her prefabricated kitchens in working-class apartments.
Before her innovative design, kitchens were mostly planned for households with servants.

In 1922 Schütte-Lihotzky learned about the Taylor system, a scientific approach to

understanding the necessity of accurately measuring time per individual task in
organizing the workday that was transforming the industrial workplace in the United
States. Around the same time, she read an essay called "How Can Appropriate Housing
Construction Reduce the Work of Housewives" in the Breslau journal The Silesian
Home. Schütte-Lihotzky immediately understood that by connecting design to function
in the kitchen, there would be a positive impact for the working woman providing her
with more time for her family and for herself. To work out the design of her kitchen,
Schütte-Lihotzky used one of the tools used by industrial workplace designers, the
stopwatch. She timed each task required in the kitchen from preparing a meal to
cleaning up afterward. Lopez,(2004).
“On the eve of World War II Istanbul was a safe meeting place for many exiled Europeans, and the
Schüttes encountered artists such as the musicians Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith. In Istanbul Schütte-
Lihotzky also met fellow Austrian Herbert Eichholzer, an architect who at the time was busy organizing
Communist resistance to the Nazi regime. In 1939 Schütte-Lihotzky joined the Austrian Communist
Party (KPÖ) and in December 1940, of her own free will, together with Eichholzer travelled back to
Vienna to secretly contact the Austrian Communist resistance movement. However, she was arrested by
the Gestapo on January 22, 1941” but managed to survive the war and continued to practice architecture.
She celebrated her 100th birthday in 1997 dancing a short waltz with the Mayor of Vienna and
remarking, "I would have enjoyed it, for a change, to design a house for a rich man."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarete_Sch%FCtte-Lihotzky

In her memoirs she tells about the years she spent in the Resistance, her fellow prisoners and fellow
fighters, their efforts and courage in an uncompromising solidarity which actually saved her life.

Herbert Eicholzer was also an émigré architect and a colleague of C. Holzmeister in Istanbul starting
1938. After the establishment of a CP-Group in exile, he returned to Austria in 1940 and was involved
in the organization of a resistance group. In 1941 he was arrested and in 1943 he was executed.
http://www.museumonline.at/1999/schools/classic/istanbul/exilturkei_e.htm

48
Obviously he had done work in and for Turkey before being displaced from his position in Vienna.

21
Gustaf Oelsner “ who in addition to teaching architecture and city planning played an important role in
Turkey’s municipal planning programs”, Shaw (1993)

Library Science and librarianship.

Walter Gottschalk, born 1891 in Aachen, studied orientalism, philosophy, history, and the history of art in
Wurzburg and Berlin. He received a Ph.D. in 1914. From 1916 to 1918 he served in the war with postings
in Turkey, Syria, and Palestine. In 1919, he joined the staff of Prussian State Library in Berlin as senior
librarian for language and history of the Middle East and was promoted in 1923. Gottschalk made major
contributions in establishing that library’s Oriental Department. Specifically the department’s reference
library and a precise catalogue thereof was his doing. He was dismissed in 1935 due to his Jewish origins
and forced into retirement. He continued to work scientifically and held lectures; for example,
introductions to Arabic. In February 1939 he emigrated to Belgium, where he had relatives. Gottschalk
came to Turkey as an emigrant in 1941 where he was given instructions to work for Istanbul University as
an expert on library matters. Connected with this was the supervision of all the libraries of the institutes of
the university. From approximately 1949 onward, Gottschalk held a chair of library science at Istanbul
University, where he also played a prominent part in the development of the Turkish library system.
Gottschalk lived in Istanbul until his retirement in 1954. After that he returned to Germany and settled in
Frankfurt.
The senior librarians who emigrated to Turkey were joined by junior colleagues, bookbinders, and
restorers. In particular these skilled and well-trained refugees constructed corresponding bookbinding and
restoration departments49; and it is to their credit that many Turkish colleagues could be trained. Muller H.
(1998).
Georg Rohde “ who in addition to training a generation of philologists stimulated a major program of
translation into Turkish of the major works of classical and European literature published by the Turkish
Ministry of Education50”, Shaw (1991).

49
In doing so, the émigrés helped to conserve some of Turkey’s cultural riches accumulated throughout the Ottoman
period and some preceding it. This effort made such documents and artifacts accessible for all future generations.
50
Thus well over four centuries after an expellee from Spain introduced the first printing press to the Ottoman empire,
(Szyliowicz 1992) an invitee, expellee from Nazism, was instrumental in having a large body of Western thought translated
into Turkish and printed using the newly created Turkish alphabet.
The current alphabet used for the Turkish language replaced the earlier Arabic alphabet and was created in 1928 at the
initiative of Kemal Ataturk, founding President of the Turkish Republic, by borrowing different Latin characters.
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Turkish-alphabet The Turkish alphabet is composed of 29 letters. It has
all the letters in the English alphabet, except "q", "w", and "x". In addition, it has the characters "ç", "ð", "ý", "ö", "þ", and
"ü". http://www.turkishlingua.com/alphabet.html

22
Turkology

Andreas Tietze, a world-renowned Turcologist was born in Vienna on April 26, 1914, the son of
prominent art historians Hans Tietze and Erica Conrad-Tietze. He studied history and languages at the
University of Vienna from 1932 to 1937, spent one semester at the Sorbonne in 1933, and received his
doctorate from the former institution in 1937. A diary of two trips he made to Anatolia in 1936-37,
kept by one of his companions (Unsere Anatolienreise and Die Zweite Anatolienreise , a photocopy of
which is now in the archives of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam), remains
one of perhaps only two firsthand accounts by foreign visitors of life in those early days of the Turkish
Republic as lived in the countryside outside of Istanbul and Ankara. With the Nazi advance in Europe,
Professor Tietze moved to Istanbul in 1937. At Istanbul University he was a Lecturer in German from
1938 to 1952 and a Lecturer in English from 1953 to 1958.

In addition to his teaching, he was an editor of a series of 16 titles, Istanbuler Schriften, that included
his first reader for foreign students of Turkish, Türkisches Lesebuch für Auslaender (Istanbul, 1943),
written jointly with Sura Lisie. He was also active in the field of folklore as co-editor and contributing
translator on the Orientalist Hellmut Ritter’s monumental three-volume study of Turkey’s shadow
puppet theater, Karagöz: türkische Schattenspiele (Hanover, 1924-53). It was at this time too that he
became deeply involved in lexicography. He prepared a Turkish-German dictionary (Türkçe-Almanca
Sözlügü) with Ritter, and from 1946 to 1958 he directed the American Board Publication Office project
to revise the original Redhouse English-Turkish Dictionary of 1861 and the companion Redhouse
Turkish-English Dictionary of 1890. Both works, now further updated, remain indispensable to
students of Turkish. He also co-authored, with the scholars Henry and Renée Kahane, an etymological
dictionary of Turkish nautical terms of Italian and Greek origin, The Lingua Franca in the Levant
(University of Illinois Press, 1958). This work aimed to demonstrate the linguistic-cultural unity of the
Mediterranean area. In 1958, he came to the United States. He is considered “one of the founders of
Turkic studies in the United States51.” “Professor Tietze was best known for his contributions to


While at UCLA, Professor Tietze authored numerous articles and continued his research on folklore. Comparing the
oldest collection of Turkish riddles, those found in a section of the 14th-century document known as the Codex Cumanicus,
with related riddles from other Turkic sources, he described a new vision of this early work in The Koman Riddles and
Turkic Folklore (University of California Press, 1966). With the folklorist Ilhan Basgöz he compiled Bilmece: A Corpus of
Turkish Riddles , a large collection of the genre based on the efforts of several leading scholars (University of California

23
Turkish lexicography, his work on Turkish riddles and Turkish Karagöz (Blackeye) plays, his editions
and translations of Ottoman works, and his founding and editorship of an annual bibliography covering
all aspects of Turkish and Ottoman life. He was also a translator of modern fiction, from German to
Turkish, Turkish to German, and Azerbaijani to Turkish” Jaeckel, (2004).

The performing arts

According to Shaw (1993), the renowned composer Paul Hindemith assisted in the creation of the
Turkish State Conservatory in Ankara, which included among its faculty the famous German theatrical
producer Carl Ebert who, in turn, founded its theatrical department and between 1941 and 1947
directed the Turkish State Theater prior to moving on to Los Angeles. Also, Dr. Ernest Praetorius
founded and led the President’s Philharmonic Orchestra (CSO) in Ankara52.

The visual arts

Rudolph Belling was Professor of sculpture at the Fine Arts academy in Berlin before coming to direct
the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Art in Istanbul from 1937 until 1951, subsequently
teaching Architecture at the Istanbul Technical University, Shaw (1993). He continued in that position
till 1966. He died in Munich in June 1966, being highly decorated by the German government with the
Federal Cross of Merit with Star.
From 1933 on, Belling had no chance to work in his home country. His works were
marked degenerate, many of them were melted down or smashed. As his political
opinions were also not in conformity with the Nazi regime, he was banned from
working as well as from his membership of the “Akademie der Künste,” Berlin. The
President of the Academy of Arts in Berlin advised him in the name of the Minister
of Education and Arts to hand in his resignation from the Academy.

Press, 1973). With his colleague Avedis K. Sanjian, Professor of Armenian, he edited Eremya Chelebi Kömürjian's Armeno-
Turkish Poem "The Jewish Bride" (Budapest, 1981), a 17th-century work significant for its revelations about the Turkish
spoken in Istanbul in the second half of that century and about the relations between the different religious communities in
the turbulent period following the appearance of the self-styled Jewish Messiah Sabbatai Sevi. In recognition of his
outstanding qualities as a teacher, he received a Distinguished Teaching Award in 1971. Throughout his tenure at UCLA
Professor Tietze was instrumental in building up the holdings of Turkish and Ottoman books and manuscripts at the
University Research Library (now the Young Research Library), making it one of the largest collections of such works in
the United States and the largest collection in the West. Jaeckel, R (2004)

52
In 1935, upon the recommendation of Paul Hindemith, who was responsible for preparing the programs of universal
Turkish polyphonic music education and institutions, renowned German conductor Dr. Ernst Preaetorius was appointed as
conductor of the CSO. Preaetorius, a great orchestra pedagogue, helped the CSO achieve technical international standards.
After Preaetorius' death, the orchestra was headed by many famous conductors, including Ferit Alnar and G.E. Lessing.
Lessing in particular performed many modern Turkish compositions -- compositions which have been a symbol of the
universality of the Turkish nationality -- and therefore introduced Turkish composers to the wider world, through both
performances and recordings. The CSO not only introduced Turkish classical music to the world at large but also to the
Turkish public, through concerts all over the country. Turkish Daily News, 5 October,1996

24
 In 1935 Rudolf Belling stayed for eight months in New York, where he had an
exhibition in the Weyhe Gallery with his most important works from the Modern
Classic Period. He also gave courses of lectures on modern sculpture and his own
theories. America offered him a marvelous possibility at that time to live his life
there. But unfortunately he had to return because of his nine-years-old son Thomas,
who was in danger, because Rudolf Belling’s first wife has been Jewish. Fortunately
he succeeded in saving his son and once more he was lucky to emigrate, 1937, this
time to Istanbul. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Rudolf%20Belling

In its “Istanbul Gallery and City Listings” the Turkish Daily News announced on 16 January, 2000,
that “Turgut Atalay's painting exhibition can be seen until Feb. 253. One of the leading names among
Turkish realist painters, Atalay has worked with such prominent artists as Nazmi Ziya, Ibrahim Calli,
Leopold Levy and Rudolph Belling. He won the Academy Arts Award in 1964 and has more than
2,000 works in museums and special collections in Turkey and abroad.” (emphasis added).
Yes the above, Leopold Levy a French Jew and academic painter, was invited to head the Academy of
Fine Arts in Istanbul. As its Director until the end of 1949 he was instrumental in developing the
Turkish school of modern painting. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/386088.html

The national pride in the enduring legacy he left behind can be seen from the
announcement shown in Appendix 1. So, the legacy lives on in the arts as well.

DISCUSSION
Starting with some 300+ Islamic madrasas and three military academies the Republic of Turkey, using
expatriates from Western and Central Europe, followed by two generations of locally trained talent, has
currently in place a system of institutions of modern higher education and of cultural arts.
The following extract from an obituary to a first generation émigré-professors-trained Turkish scientist
speaks to the enduring national pride in the legacy the émigré professors left behind them:

Prof. Dr. Muhtar BASOGLU, first Turkish scientific herpetologist, was born 1913 at
Odemis near Izmir. In 1932 he enrolled, and in 1936 he graduated at the Natural Sciences
Section of the Science Faculty of the Istanbul University, where, after his military service,
he was appointed assistant in 1941. There, on behalf of his thesis "Sur le métabolisme de
la corde nerveuse du ver de terre", BASOGLU was promoted Doctor of Zoology.
…Guided by the German Professor Curt KOSSWIG, who, at that time, was teaching at the
Istanbul University, BASOGLU translated in 1946 BODENHEIMER's "Introduction into
the knowledge of Amphibia and Reptilia of Turkey (1944)", into Turkish. From then
onward BASOGLU became an engaged herpetologist, and his publication "Experiments
on the composition of the alveolar air in Testudo graeca and Clemmys rivulata" helped
him to become associate professor. …During all these years his research work was
53
At the Doku Art Gallery, Avukat Sureyya Agaoglu Sok, No: 4/2, Tesvikiye.

25
 devoted to herpetology, and, together with six doctors of zoology, raised by BASOGLU
himself, he founded and organized the first "Turkish Herpetological Centre" at the Ege
University. This institute now has brought together a large and comprehensive
herpetological collection of more than 20000 specimens, including material of every taxon
of amphibians and reptiles living in Turkey. Since then, one of the above mentioned six
doctors was appointed to the Istanbul University (now retired), the other five have become
full professors, one of which is now at the 9 Eylül University, the remaining four are still
with the Biology Department of the Science Faculty, Ege University ….During his last 20
years Professor Dr. Muhtar BASOGLU and his team studied the herpetofauna of Turkey,
and, summing up the results of these concentrated efforts, he published three books…Thus
the untimely death of Professor Dr. Muhtar BASOGLU on February 21st, 1981 ended the
career of an outstanding herpetologist and distinguished teacher, whose lifelong ideal was
to raise and form a group of zoologists, willing and able to carry on efficient scientific
work in the "Turkish Herpetological Centre" he himself had founded. (Emphasis added)
http://sci.ege.edu.tr/~zooloji/basoglu.html
As the first native generation of Turkish “Western” academicians passes on it should be noted that the
universities have come to symbolize Turkey’s coming of age in the image of the west. As in the west,
university education became a necessity for many career paths and for upward mobility. Currently on
an appointed day of the year, close to a million Turkish high-school seniors sit for a nationally
conducted university placement exam54. “[M]odern Turkey is several decades, ahead of western
countries particularly the US, in terms of percentages of women working as physicians (26.2%)55,
engineers (engineers (27%)56, architects (33.44 %)57, lawyers (30.24%)58 and university professors
(42%)59. This is also true at senior level administration of universities, government agencies, and
management of private sector companies”, Reisman et al (2004).
For several decades Turkey has been a NATO member and is being considered for partnership in the
EU. However, Turkey “was slow to adopt western models (Reisman and Cytraus (2004), Reisman
(2005)) for an efficient infrastructure to transfer technology from its universities to its private sector.
This inertia may well have affected Turkey’s rate of economic development and contributed to what is

54
Each of the test takers is rank-ordered in terms of the score attained. Choicest university admissions go to the top ranked
students and the rest follow in numerical order. In the opinion of Parker and Reisman (2004), over the years this practice
has unfortunately caused Turkish secondary education (public and private) to emphasize what is more readily measurable
in such mass examinations, e.g., factual information and analytic skills over that of synthesis, essay writing, and
entrepreneurship (in the broad sense).
55
Personal e-mail communication dated 11/29/O4, Sinan Solmaz, webadmin, www.ttb.org.tr (Turkish Medical
Association's website)
56
This represents an informed best estimate from the Selection and Placement of Students in Higher Education Institutions
in Turkey (OSYM). Very accurate information is available up to 1980. Since passage of a law in 1982 engineers and
architects who work for government related agancies are not required to be a member of professional organizations. Source
of information: Union of the Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, (Turk Muhendis ve Mimar Odalari Birligi
TMMOB www.tmmob.org.tr ) Personal communication with Aysegul Bildirici, 1/28/2004.
57
Chamber of Architects of Turkey. http://www.mimarlarodasi.org.tr/index.cfm?Sayfa=Oda&Sub=dagilim
58
Personal e-mail communication dated 12/01/O4 Figen Kalender, (Turkish Bar Association)
59
http://www.hurriyetim.com.tr/haber/0,,sid~436@nvid~485095,00.asp

26
referred to as ‘brain drain’”, and the spiraling consequences thereof, Reisman et al (2004).
Consequently, many North American universities list among their faculty, individuals who obtained
all or most of their education in Turkey. To a lesser degree this is also true in Western Europe and in
Australia. Additionally, Turkey’s development of its higher education has not impacted the basic
culture of a significant portion of its populace. The country is facing the reality of having a large
percentage of its population living in rural areas and in small towns, maintaining a traditional
patriarchal society, and to a large extent not having adopted the Republic’s program of
westernization60. “According to some sociologists, notably Max Weber, the scientific, rational
mentality is incompatible with traditional, patrimonially-organized society.” Inalcik (1992). The above
explains some of the reasons why the Turkish Republic to-date, has not fully lived up to the dreams of
its founding fathers.

THE EMIGRES: SOME OF THE PROBLEMS THEY ENCOUNTERED

According to Shaw (1993) “the refugee professors and scientists were, indeed, resented by many
Turkish professors, not only those who had been dismissed as part of the reforms, but also those who
remained but who reacted to a situation in which the newcomers were paid four or five times as much
as they. In addition to the assistants the newcomers were entitled to bring from Germany, they also
were given Turkish assistants, but the latter for the most part were persons who would otherwise have
been appointed to the professorships turned over to the refugees, so they also had little liking for their
nominal superiors and often ignored or sabotaged their activities and instructions61. Thus the American
Embassy went on to comment about the difficult relations that existed between many of the newly
arrived scholars and their Turkish counterparts and assistants.”
Considerable friction. . . has existed in Istanbul. This was no doubt inevitable when a large
group of foreigners of such note was introduced into an institution already established and
staffed largely with citizens of this country. On the one hand, the Turkish manner of conduct
has not led to the cooperation and effort to which German professors are accustomed on the
part of their associates and subordinates; and, on the other hand, it is natural for the Turkish
professors to feel that good positions and high salaries, which could have been enjoyed by
themselves, have been given to outsiders. The medical professors are supported in their
dislike of the Germans by the entire medical fraternity of Istanbul. Although the German
professors are prohibited from engaging directly in private practice, any resident of Istanbul
may go to the clinics operated by them and receive free of charge treatment of a standard so
60
Thus, the impact of modern universities on all segments of society cannot be viewed as culture neutral.
61
An account regarding a major political eruption involving the materials scientist Von Hippel, due to either a
mistranslation or an act of sabotage on the part of the translator is given on pp 80-81 in:
http://vonhippel.mrs.org/vonhippel/life/AvHMemoirs9.pdf

27
 much higher than that provided by the local doctors that the latter find that their patients are
decreasing in number. Moreover, patients who are willing to pay high fees have no difficulty
in finding Turkish doctors who will agree to summon the German professors in consultation,
which is a permissible means of circumventing the rules prohibiting private practice,
Washington (1936)

One of the real players at Istanbul University at the time was professor Von Hippel. In his memoirs
he describes the situation as follows:

There were twenty five to thirty professors with their families – mostly refugees selected by
Professor Schwartz and his advisors in Zurich – who formed the nucleus of a modern
university. The old Turkish faculty had been dismissed, but was still a powerful adversary
with connections in Parliament. Therefore we newcomers, with the shock of exile in our
bones, found ourselves surrounded by intrigues in a strange culture. Any success or mishap
affected us all. This was a severe testing ground for human qualities. It would have been an
exciting experiment for a psychologist.
http://vonhippel.mrs.org/vonhippel/life/AvHMemoirs9.pdf

The youngest of the emigre professors, von Hippel provides very vivid accounts of his personal and
professional experiences in Turkey. Over half a century after the fact they are told in a humorous
vein. Nevertheless at the time many were indeed serious, some tragic, and some to western eyes funny,
while others sad. Von Hippel discusses some of the early interactions among members of the
“Academic community in Exile” and those with their Turkish hosts. Among these are different ways
that displaced Turkish academics tried to directly sabotage the newcomers both in their work and in
person. Opthamology professor Igersheimer , “initially found that his waiting room was always empty.
At last he discovered that his predecessor had hired a beggar to sit in front of the office entrance to tell
approaching prospective patients that they would be made blind. After this obstacle was removed, the
hospital flourished and a few months later Igersheimer was asked to do a cataract operation on a
minister ”. This cross-cultural tragi-comedy goes on with the protagonist and his “blindness” claim
resurfacing in the media and a Ministerial inquiry. Realizing that these claims failed his ultimate
objective, he attempted actual poison but to his consternation Igersheimer survives and becomes
professionally well established in Turkey.
Though unintended by von Hippel, the account of his Turkish assistant serves as a counter point in
outcome. “[T]he son of a millionaire” his assistant coveted becoming the newly established
laboratory’s director. To speed things along, he somehow allegedly influenced the translator to jump
on any opportunity to mistranslate a lecture comment so as to incite nationalistic passions among the
students. It worked on first try. “To my consternation, the students, extremely nationalistic, jumped up
and looked like they wanted to murder me. The whole university was shut down by a student strike.”

28
This episode too culminated in a Ministerial inquiry. “My colleagues trembled and mostly deserted
me.” But in this case, - Von Hippel’s five-year university contract was reduced to one year.
(http://vonhippel.mrs.org/vonhippel/life/AvHMemoirs9.pdf)
The émigrés had cause and reason to suspect some of their own colleagues as well. As it turns out:
Information about the identity of emigrants and at the same time about the network of
informers which had been built up by the National Socialist Regime in order to keep the
emigrant-scene under surveillance in Turkey can be found in the so-called Scurla Report. It is
thanks to a coincidence that the German historian Hans Detlef Grothusen whilst carrying out
his investigations as curator of an exhibition about German-Turkish relations (on the occasion
of the Centenary of the Birth of Atatürk 1981), came across the report by Dr. Herbert Scurla
amongst the piles of embassy records from 1924-1938. In May 1939, in possession of a
wealth of Gestapo material, under orders from "The Reich Ministry for Science, Education
and National Education" he undertook a trip to Turkey. The purpose of the trip was to inspect
the activities of the German university lecturers in Turkey, a few of which had been officially
sent there and were loyal to the regime, the majority, however, were made up of political
refugees, who from the Turkish standpoint were given preference in obtaining employment
when they applied for a position. (Emphasis added)
http://www.museumonline.at/1999/schools/classic/istanbul/exilturkei_e.htm

Following is an entry in his report regarding a Dr. Dobretsberger. It speaks for itself:

Dr. Dobretsberger, born in 1903, who used to lecture at Graz University occupies the
Professorial Chair for Political Economy in Istanbul. Dobretsberger was an Austrian minister
in Schusching's Cabinet. Permission to change his residence to Istanbul in 1938 was only
given after serious misgivings had been put aside. After leading personalities/public figures
and Dobretsberger's colleagues had intervened and he personally has stressed repetitively,
both orally and in writing, that his stay abroad was to be seen as a possibility to show his
loyalty to The Third Reich. Doretsberger has been placed in temporary retirement and has
been given a pension. Even though there has not been any previous show of hostility against
the State he immediately joins an emigrant group in Istanbul and avoids the strongly
suggested contact to Professor Bodendorf. His wife's behavior must be seen as extremely
hostile towards Germany. He has not appeared in the General Consulate again since his first
meeting with Mr. Winter- The counselor to the Legation. The withdrawal of his original
permission to transfer his place of abode seems to be urgently required.(Emphasis
added)http://www.museumonline.at/1999/schools/classic/istanbul/exilturkei_e.htm

Though the following did not affect the émigré professors directly, no doubt it gave them reason for
concern. Two laws passed in 1942 aimed at the wealthy62 had a disproportionate effect on the
minorities in Turkey: one was called Varlik Vergisi Wealth Tax and the other was Land Reform.
”Mrs Salkim's Diamonds ” a recent award-winning Turkish movie “shows that a large community in
Turkey is ready to share its country's 'dirty laundry' with the world,"said the Turkish Daily News, "and
join the long list of nations and communities who are trying to apologise for a past they are not proud

62
Taxes went up to 75% for the wealthy.

29
of. Based on a popular book by Yilmaz Karakoyunlu, a parliamentary deputy with the ANAP
(Motherland Party), Salkim Hanimin Taneleri (Mrs Salkim's Diamonds) is set in the latter part of
World War II (1942-4). Turkey was looking over at Germany -- which had not yet suffered its first
major defeat -- believing it invincible and ready to take command of the world. Turkey established the
‘village institutes’ and began to prepare for the Nazi's fascist ‘new order.’ It went as far as to deny
docking of a ship in Istanbul carrying hundreds of Jewish refugees. Greece had already fallen, and
sections of the ruling Turkish elite are showing distinct sympathy towards the ideals of Nazi Germany.
The title of the film refers to a wealth tax introduced by the Saracoglu government which "was to
serve another purpose than simply to restore the Treasury's depleted resources: it was also to further
the aim of 'Turkifying' the nation that began in the thirties". http://www.turkfilm.net/arc46.html. and
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/past_probe/12_12_99/Dom2.htm

Moreover, “[t]he arrival of these prominent Jewish refugees from Nazism was bitterly opposed by
Istanbul’s German community, which for the most part supported the efforts of Nazi ambassadors,
merchants, and spies to undermine Turkish faith in Jewish abilities and gratitude for their
contributions, at time allying with Christian nationalist groups in efforts to drive the Jews out once and
for all…..They were not too successful in these efforts, however, not only because of public disinterest
but also because of strong Turkish government curbs against such activities.” Shaw (1991).
Despite continual Nazi pressure, the government of Turkey refused German demands to turn over the
Jewish refugees for internment in death camps. Krecker (1964), Neumark (1980) and Shaw (1991).

REAL TIME CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE ÉMIGRÉS AND WITH COLLEAGUES

ON THE OUTSIDE
To add to their personal burdens, the émigré professors were used as communication conduit between
colleagues left behind and relatives in free countries because of Turkey’s neutrality. In a letter dated
12th January 1942, Haurowitz informs a Dr. Hannan Oppenheimer, at the Agr. Res. Station,
Rehovot/Palestine, that his father apparently also an academician, has passed away in Utrecht,
Holland. And, “Finally there was a letter, [from the father] determined for you and your brother, I am
enclosing it to this letter, hoping that the censor will let it pass as a last message to the children.”
Another letter to Oppenheimer, dated April 25, 1942, says “I am very sorry that I have to give you sad
news again. ….In the mean time your mother wrote me ….I fear, a last letter from her. She asks me to
tell to you and your brother, that she will find the peace, she expects. All will be over, when I get her

30
letter.” Her death is confirmed by a third party in Holland. The information is transmitted in a 30th
June 1942 letter. Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

A copy of a letter showing “Istanbul, May 28, 1943” from Prof. Dr. Felix Haurowitz, to professor
Max Bergmann at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in NYC reads: “I hear nothing about
my cousin Leopold Pollak. I know only that he has been deported by the Germans. About 10 of my
near relatives have been deported; three of them died surely and I am not sure, how many of the others
died. I am glad, that my brothers are safely in England and America and that my own parents died
before, so that no nearest relatives remained there.” Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University,
Bloomington, Indiana.

The Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, archives at Oregon State University include correspondence
between Pauling and Haurowitz as well as between Pauling and others re Haurowitz’s search for
employment in the States. This correspondence represents the years: 1935-1936, 1943, 1945, 1947,
1951, 1957-1958, 1966, and 1974. For example on September 3, 1936 when Haurowitz was still in
Prague, Linus Pauling thanks Haurowitz for his letter regarding work with hemoglobin and encloses a
paper by Dr. Mirsky and himself on the structure of proteins. On September 25, 1941, Dean of the
University, George Chase, wrote in behalf of Harvard’s “President Conant,” “it would be helpful if
you would send us your estimate of Professor Haurowitz’s standing and whether you have any
suggestions about possibilities in this country.” To which on October 12, 1941, Pauling replies “I
have been greatly interested in his work for a number of years. In my opinion he is one of the leading
men in the world in the field of the chemistry of proteins. His researches are characterized by
imagination and good execution. His work on hemoglobin and on problems of immunology has been
especially successful. I do not know at present of any opening for Professor Haurowitz in this
country.” For reasons best known to the key players of the time, Harvard apparently did not make an
offer. Years later Pauling was very instrumental in placing Haurowitz at the University of Indiana.

Responding to an invitation, Pauling writes on 27 January 1958: “Your letter arrived at a bad time …I
am feeling pessimistic about the world as a whole. I do hope that I shall be able to visit Bloomington
again before too long, to take part in your colloquium and to talk with you about the interesting work
that you and your colleagues are carrying on; but I can’t plan to do so at any time in the future.”
During this time Pauling was very much preoccupied with the future, to wit.

31
 As international tension and competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union
accelerated, he [Pauling] also riveted public attention on the buildup and proliferation of
nuclear weaponry—preparations for thermonuclear warfare that he believed would
destroy most of the planet's living creatures. He addressed both issues in his popular book
No More War! (1958). He maintained that patient, reasoned negotiation and diplomacy,
using the objectivity and procedures of the scientific method, would settle disputes in a
more lasting, rational, and far more humane way than war. He asked scientists to become
peacemakers. In this most intense phase of the Cold War, Linus Pauling's name was often
in the news—as when he circulated a petition against atmospheric nuclear testing and the
excessive buildup of nuclear arsenals. The petition was presented in early 1958 to the
United Nations after being signed by some 9,000—eventually more that 11,000-scientists
worldwide. The U.S. government's opposing position was defended—sometimes
vituperatively—by most of the press and by various scientists, such as physicist Edward
Teller, many of whom were federal employees.
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/lpbio/lpbio2.html

There is an exchange of correspondence (in German) during April of 1946 with a Frau Dr. Berta
Ottenstein living in Brookline, Mass., regarding job opportunities at US universities in his profession.
Although pessimistic she suggested that there may be a position at the University of Utah and urges
him to come. From several letters it is clear that Haurowitz was unwilling to give up a secure position
allowing him to transfer some of his salary to the US until such time that he had secured a position in
the US. In other correspondence to Frau Dr. Ottenstein as well as to others, he had pointed out that
although he was satisfied with his work in Turkey his children had no future over there. His wife, son,
and daughter did immigrate before him and as of April 1946, were living on East 57th street in
Manhattan, NY. On 5 September 1948 he informs Frau Dr. Berta Ottenstein that during July of 1948
he settled in at Indiana University and his family had joined him in Bloomington. Courtesy, The Lilly
Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
On 15th November, 1944 using Harvard Medical School letterhead, Lahut Uzman63 a Turkish native,
writes to his former professor Haurowitz, who is still in Istanbul: “I have just received your very kind
letter, of August 21st and the reprint of your paper on denaturation. Needless to say, sir, I am very
grateful for your having included my very modest experiments.” This is in response to a Haurowitz
letter of August 21st 1944, saying “thank you for your letter of June 24th. I am very glad that you had
the possibility to find a laboratory, in which you can continue scientific work . Tyrocidine and
Gramicidine are surely very interesting substances and I hope you will be successful in elucidating at

63
Lahut was the son of Dr. Mazhar Osman, Turkey’s first and historically most eminent neuropsychiatrist. To this very day
according to a personal correspondence from a Turkish friend: “Everyone has heard of Mazhar Osman in Turkey, so much
so that if a friend does something crazy, people will say ‘Let me take you to Mazhar Osman’ to indicate that he is fit
to see a psychiatrist. The term "Mazhar Osmanlık" also widely used means again that somebody is due to see a
psychiatrist.

32
least a part of their mysterious effect.” “A short time ago I published a small paper on Denaturation,
Enzymatic Hydrolysis and Serological Specificity of proteins in Istanbul Seririyati, Vol.26, June. Your
experiments on the tryptic digestion of inactivated serum are described there. Your father had the
intention to send you several copies. I hope he has done it. I enclose, at any rate, one of the copies to
this letter. Another paper containing your experiments will be published in the near future.” This of
course starts a productive collegial collaboration with much correspondence. On March 11, 1954 on
Army Medical Service Graduate School/Walter Reed Medical Center letterhead, now Captain,
Medical Corps, Lahut Uzman writes:“I am enclosing a reprint of a recent publication of mine hoping
that you may be interested in data on nucleic acids in the human.” On October 24, 1960, Assistant
Professor of neurology, Harvard Medical School writes, “Your very kind letter of October 13th in
response to the reprint of my chapter in ‘Metal-Binding in Medicine’ leads me to assure you that my
small tribute to you is one of claiming privilege on my part. In the confusion that has reigned in the
role of copper in Wilson’s disease it is unfortunate that due credit is not fully given to your very sound
pioneering work on this subject.” Other correspondence indicates that Haurowitz did this work while
still in Prague, e.g. before 1939. On July 7, 1962:
The enclosed news paper clipping contains news which may please you. With the whole
world to chose from the ad hoc committee chose me to be the first recipient of the
Bronson Crothers Professorship of Neurology at Harvard. To be so elevated to the
highest possible academic rank was surprising and flattering, especially since the faculty
was fully aware of my physical handicap and limited life expectancy. You see my dear
Professor, for the past five years I have been suffering from Hodgkin’s disease and have
been kept alive in the last two years by heavy x-ray treatments. Since the new chair also
automatically makes me Neurologist-in-Chief, Children’s Hospital and the Brighton
Hospital, it was a very flattering mark of confidence that all these added responsibilities
were placed on my shoulders. Needless to say I am very happy that fate has allowed me
to realize my wildest dreams so soon. I hope your health continues to be well. You must
be a grandfather many times by now. Please convey my best wishes to Frau Haurowitz.

So, American science and medicine started reaping benefits of at least one émigré professors’
trained Turkish national. All this began taking place while America was still in WWII. Uzman’s
contributions to American military medicine continued through the Korean War.

In a letter dated April 28, 1950 to Braun, who was already back in Munich, Haurowitz states: “I never
regretted the nine years I spent in Turkey, and I feel that the Turks conducted themselves toward us
much better than some of the European professors [among us] toward the Turks.” Moreover, on 7/3/54
Braun writes: “I think it is very nice of you to have your former Turkish coworker [Mutahar Yenson]

33
working with you. Please do extend to him my heartfelt greetings and wishes. He was very decent to
me while I was still in Turkey.” Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
All attempts to liberalize the US quota system of immigration failed, even during the emergencies of
the war and the Holocaust period. Many, [German and Austrian scholars] could have been saved if
the U.S. government and public had understood the seriousness of the Jewish plight of the Holocaust
period, and had acted on that understanding.” Strauss (1979).
Evidence is lacking as to whether or not these émigré professors had an option of going to the States
or the UK given the fairly restrictive immigration laws in place at the time. Moreover university job
opportunities were limited by the fact that America was in, or coming out of, economic depression. So
even if some could have received a US or UK visa, it can only be assumed that they chose the
certainty of having an academic position within their expertise, in Turkey against the distinct
possibility of being unemployed or underemployed in the West. As documented earlier, Rudolf
Nissen, switched his itinerary while en route to the US on receipt of a telegram with a job offer in
Turkey. Albert Einstein on the other hand, was taking the Turkish option until receiving a job offer
from Princeton at the last minute, Shaw (1993)
A copy of a letter showing “Istanbul, May 28, 1943” from Prof. Dr. Felix Haurowitz, to professor
Max Bergmann at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in NYC reads “the authorities in
Washington have granted me and my family the visa. Friends and relations in America ask me to
come as soon as possibel. [typo in original] But all these people have no idea about the possibilities
[job opportunities]in our branch. I suppose that you are informed about the fate of the German
professors emigrated to the United States. Have they found satisfying appointments? And do you
think that I could find something.” In his response dated July 8, 1943, on Institute letterhead,
Bergmann says: “ As a rule every scientist from abroad, even if he is famous the world over and is a
Nobel Laureate, has to start here on a small scale, that is, with a small salary and one or two
collaborators, and it depends on his achievement in his new position whether he makes progress. In
general, it takes several months or one-half year for the newly-arrived scientist to find a job and
nobody gets a job offered to him before he has immigrated. [It] is not certain whether you would find
a job to your liking at once or not until after some time. During the last 10 years, everybody could be
sure of finding a job. Now, under war conditions, it is almost impossible to predict anything.” Courtesy,
The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
In a letter dated April 3, 1963, Faruk L. Ozer M.D., staff member of the Hematology Research
Laboratory, University of Texas,- Medical Branch in Galveston, writes to Dr. Felix Haurowitz at the

34
Department Biochemistry, University of Indiana: “As a former student of yours in Istanbul, I am
taking the liberty of writing this letter concerning a phenomenon which we find difficult to explain.”
He then goes on to describe the unexplainable finding in “a human syrum”…This starts a renewed
relationship now among colleagues expanding science in America. Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana
University, Bloomington, Indiana.

CONCLUDING REMARKS
No other act served Ataturk’s vision of modernizing and westernizing Turkish society more than the
development of the country’s universities64. No other policy served that country’s educational reforms
then the invitations extended to Nazi persecuted German, Czech, and Austrian intelligentsia. No other
country had a national policy to save so much intellectual capital65 for current (at the time) and for
future generations66. Yet, it appears that the arrangement served the Nazis as well. It served the aim of
making their universities, professions, and the arts Judenfrei before the activation of death camps. By
giving Turkey what it greatly wanted and sorely needed, Germany held exploitable chits on issues of
Turkey’s neutrality67 during wartime. Thus, the national self-interests of two disparate governments
served humanity’s ends during the darkest years of the 20th century. As fortuitous as the timeliness of

64
Arguably, changing of the alphabet comes in a close second. The totality of that policy however, presaged the notion that
“barriers to riches” in developing counties can be overcome by creating a western knowledge-using society as discussed by
Parente and Prescott (2000), and for which the 2004 Nobel prize in economics was awarded.
65
“All attempts to liberalize the US quota system of immigration failed, even during the emergencies of the war and the
Holocaust period. Many, [German and Austrian scholars] could have been saved if the U.S. government and public had
understood the seriousness of the Jewish plight of the Holocaust period, and had acted on that understanding.” Strauss
(1979).
66
Evidence is lacking as to whether or not these émigré professors had an option of going to the States or the UK given the
fairly restrictive immigration laws in place at the time. Moreover university job opportunities were limited by the fact that
America was in, or coming out of, economic depression. So even if some could have gotten a US or UK visa, it can only be
assumed that they chose the certainty of having an academic position within their expertise, in Turkey against the distinct
possibility of being unemployed or underemployed in the West. As documented earlier, Rudolf Nissen, switched his
itinerary while en route to the US on receipt of a telegram with a job offer in Turkey. Albert Einstein on the other hand,
was taking the Turkish option until receiving a job offer from Princeton at the last minute, Shaw (1993)
However, a copy of a letter showing “Istanbul, May 28, 1943” from Prof. Dr. Felix Haurowitz, to professor Max
Bergmann at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in NYC reads “the authorities in Washington have granted me
and my family the visa. Friends and relations in America ask me to come as soon as possibel. [typo in original] But all
these people have no idea about the possibilities [job opportunities]in our branch. I suppose that you are informed about the
fate of the german professors emigrated to the United States. Have they found satisfying appointments? And do you think
that I could find something.” In his response dated July 8, 1943, on Institute letterhead, Bergmann says: “ As a rule every
scientist from abroad, even if he is famous the world over and is a Nobel Laureate, has to start here on a small scale, that is,
with a small salary and one or two collaborators, and it depends on his achievement in his new position whether he makes
progress. In general, it takes several months or one-half year for the newly-arrived scientist to find a job and nobody gets a
job offered to him before he has immigrated. [It] is not certain whether you would find a job to your liking at once or not
until after some time. During the last 10 years, everybody could be sure of finding a job. Now, under war conditions, it is
almost impossible to predict anything.” Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
67
The Bosporus and the Dardanelles hold strategic importance.

35
the émigrés’ arrival for Turkey had been, so was their voluntary departure. The critical mass of
Turkish cadres essential for sustained takeoff, had already been trained by the late forties.
America’s society is reaping some of the fruits of Turkey’s modern system of higher education68 – the
second or perhaps the third generation of those trained by the émigré professors who escaped Nazi
persecution by accepting invitations from the Republic of Turkey. Moreover, American science,
humanities, and arts benefited even more directly from the wisdom and fortitude of successive Turkish
administrations during the trying years preceding and during WWII - an unforeseen consequence of
that policy/practice. Though some of the Émigré Professors adapted to the host culture, learned its
language, stayed on, and continued to make contributions into the sixties. Immediately after the war
the United States allowed entry to refugees from Fascism significantly more readily than it did in the
thirties and during wartime. Hence, for differing reasons and as opportunities opened up, some re-
emigrated at war’s end and made significant contributions at America’s institutions. Among these are:
Felix Haurowitz69, Indiana; Richard von Mises, Harvard; Hilda Geiringer (von Mises), Bryn Mawr
College, the National Research Council, and Brown University; Benno Landsberger, Chicago; Hans
Gutterbock, Chicago; Werner Lipschitz, Lederle Laboratories; Joseph Igersheimer, Tufts; Philipp
Schwartz, Warren State Hospital, PA; Rudolf Nissen, Brooklyn Jewish Hospital and Long Island
College of Medicine; Hans Reichenbach, and Andreas Tietze, UCLA; Wolfram Eberhard, UCLA and
U.C. Berkeley; Erich Auerbach, Yale; Leo Spitzer, Johns Hopkins; Alexander Rustow,
Princeton/CUNY; Hans Bremer, Texas, Dallas; Arthur von HIPPEL, MIT; William Prager, Brown;
Alfred Kantorowicz, University of Illinois at Chicago, Kurt S. Lion, MIT70; and of course Paul

68
In a letter dated April 3, 1963, Faruk L. Ozer M.D., staff member of the Hematology Research Laboratory, University of
Texas,- Medical Branch in Galveston, writes to Dr. Felix Haurowitz at the Department Biochemistry, University of
Indiana: “As a former student of yours in Istanbul, I am taking the liberty of writing this letter concerning a phenomenon
which we find difficult to explain.” He then goes on to describe the unexplainable finding in “a human syrum”…This starts
a renewed relationship now among colleagues expanding science in America. Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana
University, Bloomington, Indiana.
69
In a letter dated April 28, 1950 to Braun, who was already back in Munich, Haurowitz states: “I never regretted the nine
years I spent in Turkey, and I feel that the Turks conducted themselves toward us much better than some of the European
professors [among us] toward the Turks.” Moreover, on 7/3/54 Braun writes: “I think it is very nice of you to have your
former Turkish coworker [Mutahar Yenson] working with you. Please do extend to him my heartfelt greetings and wishes.
He was very decent to me while I was still in Turkey.” Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington,
Indiana.

70
While a professor at M.I.T. Kurt Lion wrote several books on instrumentation, including “Instrumentation in Scientific
Research, Electrical Input Transducers” (1959); participated with the National Science Foundation in developing a
curriculum for electronic instrumentation; and in 1958 founded Lion Research, Inc. (later changed to Lion Precision).
Though he passed away in the 1960’s the company is still very much in the high-tech instrumentation business..
www.lionprecision.com,

36
Hindemith, Yale, and world-wide music.
The impact that these émigrés have made on American science and technological development lies
outside the realm of measurement possibilities while Germany and Austria in 2004 are not even close
to regaining the science and culture stature they held prior to 1933. Germany’s current community of
expatriate Turks is overwhelmingly comprised of laborers71 and their families, in America the Turkish
community is predominantly professionals.
In summary, Man’s inhumanity to Man in one society brought about great developmental leaps in
more humane cultures. In the story told, such was indeed the case.

EPILOGUE
If past technological change is commonly discussed as if it were independent of any
historical context, then the language used to speak of present technological issues will
be radically impoverished. For this reason I find the ahistorical nature of much popular
technological analysis alarming. By the same token, I am concerned that so much
general historical discourse pays so little attention to technology. Staudenmaier (1985).

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Drucker, D.C., (1984), William Prager 1903-1980. Memorial Tributes: National Academy of
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Significantly: “It has nearly been forgotten that about sixty years ago the historical development went in exactly the
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Muller (1998).

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von der Auslandsabteilung des Reichserziehungsministeriums in Berlin uber seine
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Harpaz, I, (1984), Frederick Simon Bodenheimer (1897-1959): Idealist, Scholar, Scientist.
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http://www.mersina.com/lib/Turkish jews/history/life.htm

APPENDIX 1.
The Nuri yem Retrospective Exhibition,
29.11.2001
Evin Art Gallery, Istanbul

Between the period 1933-1937, Nuri yem had attended the Nazmi Ziya, Hikmet Onat, brahim Çallı and the Leopold
Levy Studios and graduated from them with the first degree. He finished his military service in 1938 and came back
to the Academy in 1940 to continue his education for the masters degree in the Painting Department. Together with
his colleagues Kemal Sönmezler, Selim Turan and Avni Arba , made observations about the fishermen and
portworkers life and decided to open an exhibition describing their life struggle. Followingly Turgut Atalay, Ha met
Akal, Agob Arad, Fethi Karaka , Ferruh Ba a a and Mümtaz Yener participated in this group. These young students
of Leopold Levy, opened an exhibition at “Beyo lu Press Administration Hall” with the paintings they had
handcrafted in the port and named their first exhibition as “The Port : Istanbul” in 1941. After this exhibition they are
called as “Yeniler”. The group’s second exhibition with the theme “Woman” had been opened the same place and the
third one at “Eminönü Public House”. “Yeniler” established an important turning point, first time in the Turkish
painting history, with their point of view in defending the social realistic painting. Nuri yem had taken his masters

39
degree from the Painting Department of Academy and also win the first prize with his painting “Nalbant-The Horse
Shoer” as his graduation project, in 1944. Then he opened his first personal exhibition, in 1946, at the third floor of a
Beyo lu job as well as participating in the fourth mixed exhibition of the “Yeniler” in the same year. Then he sent his
“Nalbant-The Horse Shoer” to the UNESCO exhibition. In the following years he continuously attended to the
“Yeniler” mixed exhibitions which took place at the French Cultural Center once in every two years between the
period 1947 to 1951. In 1948, he turned towards the abstraction in painting. He painted view and object abstractions.
After the “Yeniler” group had been disseminated in 1951, he joined the exhibitions of Turkish Painters Association as
a member. In 1952 he opened his second personal exhibition continuing of his nude and portrait paintings at the
Maya Art Gallery. After this date, he had his own personal exhibition each following year. In 1956, he attended to the
Venice and in 1957, he attended to the Sao Paulo Bienals. He had continued his abstractions and nonfigurative works
until 1965. Between the years 1959 to 1970 he had several wall painting works none of which today. In the same
period, his fine art articles appeared on periodicals: “Yeditepe” and “Dost”. In 1986, for the honour of his 50th year
in fine arts, a retrospective exhibition had been held at the “Tüyap Trade Center” and an exhibition book had been
published. He had received the honorary prize of the 50th year of Turkish Republic for painting in 1973, Sedat
Simavi Fine Arts prize in 1989 and the honorary prize of the Tüyap Istanbul Art Fair in 1997. Evin Art Gallery had
archived the photographic images of most of his Works by locating his paintings in collectioners’ possessions. Being
the continuation of this project, a retrospective exhibition, named “From Yesterday to Tomorrow : Nuri yem” had
been held in the year 2001. Also his an art book and two volumes and a cd had been published containing his 1504
paintings which had been exhibited. Today, he is currently pursueing his works and his works of art are been
exhibited in “Evin Art Gallery”. (emphasis added).

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