We Refugees Archive

Prof. Dr. Ing. Martin Wagner, Stadtbaurat a.D.
Zur Zeit: Istanbul – Moda, Moda-Köskü

am 20 Mai 1938.

Herrn Prof. Ernst Jäckh,
20 Stockleigh Hall, Albert Road.
Regent Park.
N. W. 8. London.

Mein lieber Herr Jäckh,

Allah wird es Ihnen nie vergessen, dass Sie Ihrem “alten Kämpfer” und “Stambullen” – wie mich Poelzig immer nannte, wenn er mich in Istanbul besuchte,– auf seinen letzten Brief noch nicht geantwortet haben. Haben Sie denn Ihre 1000 und 13 Nächte in der Türkei so ganz vergessen? Oder sind Sie krank? Oder was fehlt dem Glückskind sonst in dieser so “herrlichen” Zeit, in der ihm immer die weissen (und den anderen immer die schwarzen) Lose zufallen?

In der Zeit meines letzten Briefes an Sie hatte ich auch eins jener schwarzen Lose erhalten. Inzwischen aber hat sich Jupiter die Sache anders überlegt und mich mit einigen weissen Losen bedacht, über die ich Ihnen noch berichten werde, wenn die Ziehung vorüber ist. Ich habe aber das Gefühl nicht vergessen, wenn man einen Kündigungsbrief in der Hand hält. Und weil es sich in diesem Falle nicht um mich, sondern um einen wertvollen Menschen mit seiner ganzen Familie handelt, darum übergehe ich Ihr Schweigen und trage Ihnen heute noch einmal eine dringende Bitte vor:

Es handelt sich um den mir hier gut bekannt gewordenen Prof. Merzbacher, der nach einem Vertrage mit dem Roten Halbmond die hiesige Gasmasken Fabrik organisiert und geleitet hat und nun nach dreijähriger Arbeit zum Herbst seine Kündigung erhielt. Die Gründe für diese Kündigung sind – so scheint mir – ausschließlich darin zu suchen, dass ein neuernannter Türke den Glauben von sich hat, die Fabrik nun ohne einen “Fremden” weiterleiten zu können. Einen solchen Glauben trifft man ja hier auf Schritt und Tritt an. Aber von diesem Glauben kann weder die Türkei, am allerwenigsten aber Prof. Merzbacher weiter leben, dem – als Jude – natürlich eine Rückkehr nach Deutschland ganz unmöglich ist.

Die Bitte, die ich nun an Sie richte ist die, ob Sie diesem, innerlich wie äusserlich so vornehmen Menschen nicht zu einer neuen Arbeit in England oder in Amerika verhelfen können. Nach meinem, vielleicht ganz unmassgeblichem, Urteil sollte Herr Prof. Merzbacher an einer Universität erfolgreich arbeiten können, als an einer Fabrik. Aber seine grossen Erfahrungen auf dem Gebiet der Gasmasken-Technik und der Gasmasken-Chemie würden ihm sicher auch die Möglichkeit geben, in diesem von Gott gewollten Lebenszweig seinen Mann zu stehen. Und Gott will doch nun einmal, dass die ganze Welt, und also auch die englische und amerikanische, hinter Masken leben soll. Sehen Sie nun da eine Möglichkeit, diesen Willen Gottes auch in dem Schicksal des Herrn Prof. Merzbacher weiter zu führen? Der beigefügte Lebenslauf gibt Ihnen über die Person und seinen beruflichen Werdegang wohl hinreichende Auskunft. Herr Prof. Merzbacher wäre Ihnen schon zu grossem Dank verpflichtet, wenn Sie ihm einen Fingerzeig für ein neues und fruchtbares Arbeitsfeld geben könnten.

Überlegen Sie sich doch bitte diesen Fall in der nächsten schlaflosen Bürostunde und Allah gebe, dass er Ihnen das Blitzlicht schenke, mit dem Sie den Platz ausfindig machen können, dem ein wertvoller Mensch in ehrlicher, würdiger und aufrechter Haltung ausfüllen kann.

Mit den herzlichsten Grüssen, auch an Ihre Frau

bin ich Ihr

Martin Wagner

Prof. Dr. Ing. Martin Wagner, retired city architect.
At present: Istanbul – Moda, Moda-Köskü
on 20 May 1938.

Prof. Ernst Jäckh,
20 Stockleigh Hall, Albert Road.
Regent Park.
N. W. 8. London.

My dear Mr. Jäckh,

Allah will never forget that you have not yet answered your “old fighter” and “regular” – as Poelzig always called me when he visited me in Istanbul – to his last letter. Have you completely forgotten your 1000 and 13 nights in Turkey? Or are you ill? Or what else is the lucky child missing in this so “wonderful” time, in which always the white (and the others always the black) lots fall to him?

In the time of my last letter to you I had also received one of those black lots. In the meantime, however, Jupiter has changed his mind and has given me some white tickets, which I will tell you about when the drawing is over. But I have not forgotten the feeling of holding a cancellation letter in my hand. And because in this case it is not about me, but about a precious person with his whole family, therefore I pass over your silence and present to you today once again an urgent request:

It concerns Prof. Merzbacher, who is well known to me here, who organized and managed the local gas mask factory according to a contract with the Red Crescent and who now, after three years of work, received his resignation in the fall. The reasons for this dismissal are – so it seems to me – to be found exclusively in the fact that a newly appointed Turk has the belief that he can now run the factory without a “stranger”. One encounters such a belief here at every turn. But neither Turkey nor, least of all, Prof. Merzbacher, for whom – as a Jew – a return to Germany is, of course, quite impossible, can continue to live on this belief.

The request I now make to you is whether you cannot help this man, who is so distinguished both inwardly and outwardly, to find a new job in England or in America. In my, perhaps quite inconclusive, opinion, Prof. Merzbacher should be able to work more successfully at a university than at a factory. But his great experience in the field of gas mask technology and gas mask chemistry would certainly also give him the opportunity to stand his ground in this branch of life intended by God. And God wants the whole world, including the English and the Americans, to live behind masks. Do you now see a possibility to continue this will of God also in the fate of Prof. Merzbacher? The enclosed curriculum vitae probably gives you sufficient information about the person and his professional career. Prof. Merzbacher would already be indebted to you if you could give him a hint for a new and fruitful field of work.

Please consider this case in the next sleepless office hour and Allah grant that he may give you the flash with which you can locate the place that a valuable human being can fill in an honest, dignified and upright attitude.

With the warmest greetings, also to your wife

I am your

Martin Wagner

A close confidant of Atatürk’s 11Mustafa 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. vehemently advocated the recruitment of foreign architects. Experienced architects and artists came to Turkey, including Martin Wagner (1885-1957), the former city architect of Berlin, who came to Turkey in 1935. He received an appointment as urban planning advisor to the city of Istanbul. There he prepared a series of urban planning reports and a general development plan for the city. Through his mediation, a year later the famous architect Bruno Taut was engaged from Japan to Turkey to the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul.

During his time in exile in Istanbul, Martin Wagner maintained (correspondence) contacts with many supporters and representatives of Neues Bauen (New Building), such as Ernst Reuter (Ankara), Walter Gropius (first London, later USA) Ernst May (emigrated to Tanganyika in East Africa), Martin Mächler, Hans Scharoun (Berlin) and Bruno Taut (Istanbul).

In the period before World War I until the time of the Weimar Republic (1910s to 1930s), Neues Bauen (New Bulding) emerged as a significant movement in German architecture and urban planning that confronted conservative and traditionalist trends. Neues Bauen was characterized by a rationalist approach and sociopolitical objectives: Housing for as many people as possible was to be created through a simple yet aesthetic architectural style.

Under National Socialism, Neues Bauen was suppressed and traditionalist architectural styles were enforced instead.

In this letter to Ernst Jäckh, who lives in London and is known for his commitment to liberal parliamentary democracy in Germany, Wagner asks for help in finding work for his Jewish friend Prof. Merzbacher, who has been laid off in Istanbul. Since he cannot return to Germany, Martin Wagner tries to find him a new job in London through Ernst Jäckh’s network. In doing so, he already alludes – cynically in retrospect – to the necessity of gas masks in what he sees as the approaching war, becauseMerzbacher had already gained professional experience in the poduction of gas masks in Istanbul. Moreover, Wagner’s letter reflects his ambivalent attitude toward his Turkish surroundings: while on the one hand he refers to them half-ironically – for example, by replacing “God” with “Allah” in his phrases – and describes his fate there as a happy one, on the other hand an arrogance toward the new surroundings, not atypical for German emigrated intellectuals, comes through.

Footnotes

• 1Mustafa 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.

Transcript of letter from Martin Wagner to Ernst Jäckh, London 1938, Landesarchiv Berlin, finding aids no. 168 and no. 172.

Translation from German to English: Minor Kontor / We Refugees Archive.