[…] Aber unsere Kunst, die Architektur, hängt nun einmal mit den rationalen Elementen der Technik, Konstruktion und Funktion aufs engste zusammen. Infolgedessen müssen wir Architekten auch viel nachdenken, wir müssen ständig den Weg suchen, bei dem die Wahrheit nicht leidet und zu gleicher Zeit das Gefühl nicht hungert.
Die aufrüttelnde Zeit des Weltkrieges, in der alle Grundlagen der europäischen Kultur fraglich wurden, spornte noch mehr zum Nachdenken an, und in dieser Zeit begann ich über Architektur und Städtebau zu schreiben, theoretisch zu skizzieren usw., sodaß außer zahllosen Aufsätzen bis jetzt vierzehn Bücher von mir erschienen sind, dem bald ein fünfzehntes mit dem Titel „Architekturtheorie“ in türkischer Übersetzung folgen wird. […]
Was wir suchen müssen, ist die Synthese zwischen der alten Tradition und der modernen Zivilisation. Dies sollte jede Einseitigkeit ausschließen. Ich persönlich ging in dieser Meinung so weit, und tue es heute noch, dass mir nichts daran lag, an bestimmten äußerlichen Formen festzuhalten und etwa einen persönlichen Stil herauszuarbeiten, auf den man mich sofort abstempeln könnte. Die Vielseitigkeit der alten Meister lehrt mich auch heute noch so wie früher, daß eine solche Absicht nicht zur Qualität führt. –
[…]
Der Gastfreundschaft in Japan folgte die tiefer fundierte in der Türkei. […]
Hier im Lande Sinans 11Sinan, mit vollem Namen wahrscheinlich Yusuf Sinan bin Abdullah (ca. 1490‑1588) gilt als bedeutendster osmanischer Architekt der vorindustriellen Zeit. scheint mir die ganze Aufgabe in jener vorher geschilderten Synthese zu liegen.
Ich suche die türkische, mir äußerst sympathische Jugend für diese Aufgabe zu begeistern und habe nach den ersten Erfahrungen die Hoffnung, dass es mir zusammen mit meinen türkischen Kollegen gelingen wird.
Über die Jugend hat der Genius des Landes, Atatürk, 22Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) begründete die nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg aus dem zerfallenen Osmanischen Reich hervorgehende Republik Türkei und war von 1923 bis 1938 ihr erster Präsident. Bis heute wird er als Symbolfigur türkischer nationaler Selbstbehauptung mit einem starken und meist unkritischen Personenkult verehrt. Bekannt ist er vor allem für seinen kompromisslosen Modernisierungskurs, mit dem er die junge türkische Republik führte: Als Weg zur Modernisierung proklamierte er eine radikale Laizisierung und Europäisierung des Staates. ein schönes Wort gesprochen: ‚Ein großer Baum muss tiefe Wurzeln haben‘.
Lassen wir uns dieses Wort zur Richtschnur dienen! Unbefangen, aber erst soll die Jugend alles prüfen – in ähnlicher Weise, wie ich sie an der Technischen Hochschule in Charlottenburg dazu anleitete. Die Jugend soll ihre eigenen Wurzeln finden, damit als große Bäume aus ihr einmal die neuen türkischen Meister hervorgehen können.
“[…] But our art, architecture, is closely related to the rational elements of technology, construction and function. Consequently, we architects must also think a lot, we must constantly seek the way in which the truth does not suffer and at the same time the feeling does not starve.
The time of the World War, when all the foundations of European culture were questioned, was even more thought-provoking, and during this time I began to write about architecture and urban planning, to sketch theoretically, etc., so that, in addition to countless essays, fourteen books of mine have been published so far, which will soon be followed by a fifteenth one entitled “Theory of Architecture” in Turkish translation. […]
What we must seek is the synthesis between the ancient tradition and modern civilization. This should exclude any one-sidedness. Personally, I went so far in this opinion, and still do, that I had no interest in sticking to certain external forms and, for example, to work out a personal style to which one could immediately stamp me. The versatility of the old masters teaches me even today, as it did in the past, that such an intention does not lead to quality. –
[…]
The hospitality in Japan was followed by the more profound one in Turkey. […]
Here in the country of Sinan 11Sinan, with full name probably Yusuf Sinan bin Abdullah (ca. 1490-1588) is considered the most important Ottoman architect of the pre-industrial period. the whole task seems to me to achieve that previously described synthesis.
I am trying to inspire the Turkish youth, who are extremely sympathetic to me, for this task and after the first experiences I have the hope that I will succeed together with my Turkish colleagues.
The genius of the country, Atatürk, 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. spoke a beautiful word about the youth: ‘A great tree must have deep roots’.
Let us use this word as a guideline! Unbiased, but first the youth should examine everything – in a similar way as I instructed them at the Technical College in Charlottenburg. The youth should find their own roots, so that one day the new Turkish masters can emerge from them as great trees.
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. 11See: Burcu Doğramacı (2016): Kollegen und Konkurrenten: Deutschsprachige Architekten und Künstler an der Akademie der schönen Künste in Istanbul. In: Kubaseck, Christopher; Seufert, Günter (Hrsg.): Deutsche Wissenschaftler im türkischen Exil : die Wissenschaftsmigration in die Türkei 1933 – 1945. Istanbuler Texte und Studien, Bd. 12. Würzburg: Ergon. S. 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 1938, a retrospective of Taut’s architectural work was held at the Academy of Arts in Istanbul. In the opening speech, he reflected on his career as an architect and urban planner and outlined the intellectual foundations and principles of his work – probably also as an appeal in the dispute with his more conservative opponents at the Architecture Institute.
Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts) Berlin, Bruno-Taut-Sammlung 40 (Bruno-Taut-Collection 40).
Translation from German into English: Minor Kontor / We Refugees Archive team.
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The German architect and urban planner Bruno Taut had come to Turkey from his first exile in Japan in 1935 as the head of…
The German architect and urban planner Bruno Taut had come to Turkey from his first exile in Japan in 1935 as the head of…
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