We Refugees Archive

Orteköy, 28.04.37

Zeichnungen des Bosporus von Bruno Taut in einem weiteren Brief an Tokugen Mihara vom 8. August 1938. Akademie der Künste Berlin, Bruno-Taut-Sammlung, Nr. 145Mein lieber Herr Mihara,
Ihre Pflaumenblüten hatten noch den Duft von Gummaken. 11Eine Präfektur in Japan Aber noch schöner war die Güte, die in Ihrem Brief lag.
Gestern Abend: Mond und heller Stern, Wölkchen, grosse Kiefern – dahinter sprüht der Glanz auf dem fliessenden Meerwasser des Bosporus. Ein Schiff fährt hindurch und zieht hinter sich funkelnde Fäden. Die Nachtigallen singen fleissig. Ich sehe und höre das, und höre zugleich vom Radio (aus Warschau) die 3 oder 400 jährigen Chöre von Palestrina – leise und gross.
Meine Welt hier ist fast zu schön. Zu schön für meine schweren Aufgaben. Nie weiss ich, ob sie gelingen werden. Trotzdem muss man sich selbst vertrauen.
Yoitsiyuki-kun soll das auch tun. Er hat es schwer; ich denke manchmal mit Sorge an ihn: der Egoismus verkleidet sich oft in Freundschaft. Die einzige Hilfe: man muss sich selbst zur Entfaltung bringen. Grüsse und Wünsche Ihrer Familie, auch Herrn Ueno! 22Isaburo Ueno, ein weiterer Freund und Kollege Tauts in Japan.
In allen guten Gedanken immer
Bruno Taut

Footnotes

• 1Eine Präfektur in Japan
• 2Isaburo Ueno, ein weiterer Freund und Kollege Tauts in Japan.

Orteköy, 28.04.37 

My dear Mr. Mihara,
Your plum blossoms still had the scent of Gummaken. 11A Prefecture in Japan. But even more beautiful was the kindness that was in your letter.
Yesterday evening: moon and bright star, little clouds, big pine trees – behind them sparkles on the flowing sea water of the Bosporus. A ship passes through and draws sparkling threads behind it. The nightingales sing diligently. I see and hear this, and at the same time I hear from the radio (from Warsaw) the 3 or 400 year old choruses of Palestrina – soft and great.
My world here is almost too beautiful. Too beautiful for my difficult tasks. I never know if they will succeed. Nevertheless, one must trust oneself.
Yoitsiyuki-kun should do the same. He has it bad; I sometimes think of him with worry: egoism often disguises itself in friendship. The only help: you have to bring yourself to unfoldment. Greetings and wishes to your family, also to Mr. Ueno! 22Isaburo Ueno, another friend and colleague of Taut in Japan.
In all good thoughts always
Bruno Taut

Footnotes

• 1A Prefecture in Japan.
• 2Isaburo Ueno, another friend and colleague of Taut in Japan.

Bruno Taut (1880-1938) was a well-known German architect and urban planner who represented the Neues Bauen (New Building) school. Having already become successful and well-known in Germany, among others by several large housing estates in Berlin and by becoming a professor at the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1931, in 1933, he and his partner Erica Wittich had to flee from the National Socialists to Japan, where he worked as an advisor at the State Teaching Trade Institute Kogei Shidosho in Sendai until 1934  a time that he experienced as very fruitful and formative.
Through the mediation of his colleague Martin Wagner, former city architect of Berlin and, since 1935, urban planning advisor to the city of Istanbul in Turkey, Taut came to Turkey in 1936, where he was to lead the modernization of Turkish architecture as head of the architecture faculty at the Academy of Arts in Istanbul and as head of the construction office of the Ministry of Culture, in which he was mainly responsible for school and university construction. The recruitment of German architects was part of the Turkish modernization program. 11For further information see: Burcu Dogramaci (2016): Kollegen und Konkurrenten: Deutschsprachige Architekten und Künstler an der Akademie der schönen Künste in Istanbul. In: Kubaseck, Christopher; Seufert, Günter (eds.): Deutsche Wissenschaftler im türkischen Exil: die Wissenschaftsmigration in die Türkei 1933-1945. Istanbuler Texte und Studien, Bd. 12. Würzburg: Ergon. p. 135-156.
Bruno Taut’s time in Istanbul until his early death from asthma in December 1938 was marked by a great deal of work: against some resistance, Taut tried – as professor and administrative director of the institute – to reform architectural education with a stronger practical orientation. He placed hopes in the potential of young Turkish architects and the modernist spirit in the young republic to find and implement a new architectural style. In his own architectural projects, including many school and university buildings, he enjoyed the artistic freedom granted to him. In addition, his writing on the “Theory of Architecture”, which he had already begun in Japan, was published in Turkish. After Atatürk’s 22Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) founded the Republic of Turkey, which emerged from the collapsed Ottoman Empire after World War I, and was its first president from 1923 to 1938. Until today, he is admired as a symbolic figure of Turkish national self-assertion with a strong and mostly uncritical personality cult. He is best known for the uncompromising modernization course with which he led the young Turkish republic: As a path to modernization, he proclaimed a radical laicization and Europeanization of the state.  death, Taut was commissioned to design his catafalque. As the only foreigner and non-Muslim until then, Taut was buried in the Turkish state cemetery in Edirnekapı, Istanbul.
In his letters to Japanese colleagues and friends, Taut’s longing for his first place of exile, Japan, with which he continued to feel connected even while living in Istanbul, becomes evident. The letters ramble from personal information and inquiries, to the uniting thoughts on reforms in architecture and professional successes, to descriptions of the urban and natural scenery in Istanbul.

Footnotes

• 1For further information see: Burcu Dogramaci (2016): Kollegen und Konkurrenten: Deutschsprachige Architekten und Künstler an der Akademie der schönen Künste in Istanbul. In: Kubaseck, Christopher; Seufert, Günter (eds.): Deutsche Wissenschaftler im türkischen Exil: die Wissenschaftsmigration in die Türkei 1933-1945. Istanbuler Texte und Studien, Bd. 12. Würzburg: Ergon. p. 135-156.
• 2Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) founded the Republic of Turkey, which emerged from the collapsed Ottoman Empire after World War I, and was its first president from 1923 to 1938. Until today, he is admired as a symbolic figure of Turkish national self-assertion with a strong and mostly uncritical personality cult. He is best known for the uncompromising modernization course with which he led the young Turkish republic: As a path to modernization, he proclaimed a radical laicization and Europeanization of the state.

Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts), Berlin, Bruno-Taut-Sammlung, Nr. 141

Picture: Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts), Berlin, Bruno-Taut-Sammlung, Nr. 145

Special thanks to Martina Krickel for her support in researching the documents and background information in the Taut Collection of the Berlin Academy of Arts.