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Abstract
Between 1933 and 1945, hundreds of German-speaking academics who had to leave their posts and their countries under the Nazi regime went to Turkey to work at Istanbul University and later at other institutions. This paper looks at this unique exilic experience from a translational perspective and sheds light on the various translation processes operational during the émigré professors' time in Turkey. It examines the professors' contribution to Turkish scientific and legal terminology, their involvement in literary translations and the use of translation in their classrooms. The paper argues that Istanbul and Ankara in the 1930s and 1940s formed a singular setting for translation that was linguistic, cultural and culture-changing. In these multicultural and multilingual spaces, translation in both its literal and metaphorical sense transformed all the subjects involved in the encounter.
Notes
1. A body of research exists on the exiled professors in Turkey. However, Emily Apter's interest remains limited to émigré professors Erich Auerbach and Leo Spitzer, and she examines the role of translation only in regard to the “invention” of comparative literature as a discipline (Apter Citation2006). Similarly, Kader Konuk's focus on Auerbach and Spitzer is based exclusively on the establishment of national philologies at Istanbul University and the Turkish education reform (Konuk Citation2005 ,Citation2008).
2. For the names of these professors, see Widmann Citation2000, 62–3.
3. For the names of the dismissed professors, see Bahadir Citation2007, 81–4.
4. However, the stories of the professors vary. An interesting account comes from Sedat Alp (1913–2006), the first Turkish Hittitologist, who while studying at Leipzig University in 1935 witnessed the dismissal of his professor Benno Landsberger from the university. Alp contacted Cevat Dursunoğlu, the Turkish Ministry of Education inspector, and arranged Landsberger's appointment to the Faculty of Language and History-Geography in Ankara (Şarman Citation2005, 194).
5. Not all the foreign professors teaching at various Turkish universities and institutions during the 1930s and 1940s were German-speaking émigrés. Although fewer in number, there were some Swiss, French, British and Italian experts.
6. It is almost impossible to list all the names of the German emigrants who came to Turkey in the 1930s and 1940s. For different lists of the professors, see Widmann Citation2000, 417–502; Shaw Citation1993, 5–8; Reisman Citation2006, 474–8; Verein Aktives Museum Citation2000, 51–97. Utz Maas (Citation1996) also lists German-speaking émigré academics in various countries. However, these lists are not without mistakes: there are some errors in the spelling of the names, and some of the professors listed were not in fact émigrés but were among the other foreign academics who came to Turkey before or after 1933.
7. “Da stand ich nun, ein in der deutschen Heimat als Jude missachteter, wegen seiner ‘minderwertigen’ Rasse aus seinen Ämtern verjagter, […] ‘weit hinten in der Türkei’ inmitten eines [...] ehemaligen Thronsaals als einer zu den oberen Tausend gerechneter deutscher Professor!”
8. “Die an den Schwellen ‘zwischen’ Kulturen und Lebenswelten in den Blick genommenen migratorischen Erscheinungsformen können mit Bezeichnungen wie ‘Grenzüberschreitung’, ‘Entortung’, ‘De-Platzierung’, ‘Ent-Grenzung’ u.v.m. belegt werden. Nicht zuletzt durch die Bewegung des Übergangs oder der Transformation ist ihnen allen das Moment der Übersetzung, im engen wie im weiteren Sinn, immanent.”
9. See especially Hirsch, Neumark and Widmann, whose accounts were also translated into Turkish. Reisman provides interviews and personal stories (2006, 379–435), with a rich body of photographs, letters and public records.
10. “Heimweh hatten wir nach der Landschaft und vor allem nach ‘unserer’ Sprache. Ich wüsste für mich nicht zu sagen, was bei mir stärker war – vermutlich die Sprache. Carl Zuckmayer hat in seinem Essay ‘Die Brüder Grimm’ (1948) von ‘Sprach-Heimweh’ gesprochen und zutreffend hervorgehoben, dies sei ‘für einen Schriftsteller im Exil die schmerzhafteste Form des Heimwehs’; und ‘Schreibende’ waren wir ja fast alle.”
11. Arndt was among the 20 professors who came to Istanbul in 1915. He was responsible for establishing Turkey's first academic department of chemistry, Yerebatan Kimya Enstitüsü, and learned Turkish during that time.
12. The official Translation Bureau (1940–1967) played an important role in the country's cultural efforts towards Westernization. The bureau published over 1,000 books between 1940 and 1967, half of which were produced between 1940 and 1946, when the bureau was still under the single-party regime and thus reflected government policies. Of 109 translations accomplished in the first three years, 39 were from ancient Greek, 38 from French, 10 from German, eight from English, six from Latin, five from Eastern and Islamic Classics, two from Russian and one from Scandinavian literature. The most translated author during the 1940s was Plato (with 34 books), followed by Molière (26) and Balzac (23). See Berk Citation2004, 123–47.
13. “Es war ziemlich schwierig, die Übersetzungen in einer Zeit zu leisten, wo die türkische Sprache selbst im totalen Umbruch war, indem man die arabischen Wörter eliminieren wollte und türkische Wörter manchmal ganz willkürlich schaffte. Und es war auch eine Zeit, wo von einem Tag auf den anderen die Monatsnamen abgeschafft wurden und durch neue ersetzt wurden. Das mehrfach, und das erfuhr man dann aus der Zeitung. Und wehe man hatte die Zeitung nicht gelesen.”
14. “Rohde'nin bana verdiği notlari Almanca bakimindan anlamak gibi bir sikintim yoktu, tek derdim onlari Türkçe'ye çevirmekti. Düşün ki 1936 ve sonraki yillarda Türkçe bizim bugün konuştuğumuz halk Türkçesi olmaktan çok uzakti, Arapça ve Farsça eklentilerinden kurtulmak şöyle dursun, bu arinma çabasi daha başlamamişti. Doğru dürüst bir Türkçe sözlük yoktu daha ortada, oysa benim eski ya da yeni Türkçe üstüne bilgilerim öyle kitti ki, taş çatlasa yetmezdi Rohde'nin konferanslarini çevirmeye.”
15. These included Cahit Arf for Richard Edler von Mises in mathematics; Macit Gökberk for Ernst von Aster in philosophy; Nusret Hizir for Hans Reichenbach in philosophy and Wilhelm Peters in psychology; Hifzi Veldet Velidedeoğlu for Andreas B. Schwartz in law. In later years, all these interpreters were to become distinguished professors in their fields.
16. “In meiner Muttersprache kann ich ausdrücken, was ich sagen will, in türkischer Sprache nur das, was ich türkisch zu sagen gelernt habe; und dies ist, selbst wenn ich mir sehr große Mühe gebe, für eine wissenschaftliche Vorlesung nicht ausreichend.”
17. “Ganz wider Erwarten stellte sich heraus, daß die Übersetzungsmethode, die in den deutsch gesprochenen Vorlesungen angewandt wurde, für Lehrer und Studenten gleich befriedigend war. Der Lehrer war gezwungen, klar und mit einfacher Satzgebung zu sprechen. Es wurde nicht jeder Satz, sondern jeder zusammenhängende Gedanke übersetzt. Die Zeit der Übersetzung konnte der Sprecher zur Verbreitung des nächsten Gedanken benutzen. Allmählich gewannen Lehrer und Übersetzer eine solche Routine – besonders in der Kürze der Formulierung –, daß ein wirklicher Zeitverlust nicht entstand. Und als einige der Professoren schon vor dem vertraglich geforderten Termin in Türkisch zu unterrichten begannen, waren die Studenten wohl erfreut über den Eifer und die Mühe beim Erlernen ihrer Sprache, ließen aber in taktvoller Art erkennen, daß ihnen der Übersetzungsmodus mehr gab.”