Istanbul-Moda, Moda-Köskü, am 2. Januar 1937.
Mein lieber Gropius, 11Walter Gropius (1883-1969), deutscher Architekt und Gründer des Bauhauses.
Gestern abend, am Schluss und als Krönung des ersten, und so freudig verlaufenen Tages im neuen Jahr, erhielt ich Ihren Brief vom 27 Dez. 36. Unsere Neujahrswünsche hatten sich gekreuzt. Wir dachten gegenseitig aneinander. Dass es Ihnen gut gehen werde, das wusste ich, dass es Ihnen aber so gut geht, wie Sie mir schrieben, das war für mich doch eine grossartige Überraschung! Sie glauben garnicht, wie ich mich darüber gefreut habe. Ich habe gleich eine halbe Flasche süssen Weines auf Ihr Wohl geleert. […]
Nun weiter so, lieber Gropius! Man kann uns nicht Glück genug wünschen! [Bruno] Taut hat ganz Recht, wenn er in Erinnerung an eine japanische Epoche der Kunstgeschichte immer wieder betont, dass auch ganz wenige Köpfe eine grosse historische Mission ausüben können, nämlich die Mission, angefangene Entwickelungen in bessere Zeiten hinüber zu retten. In der Sintflut baute sich Noah eine Arche. Wir aber haben die Aufgabe, die neue Baugesinnung in eine neue Zeit hinüber zu retten. Und ich zweifle nicht daran, dass es uns gelingen wird. Unser Schicksal ist Beweis genug dafür.
Wie ich Ihnen wohl schon schrieb, ging es unserem Bruno Taut in Japan körperlich sehr, sehr schlecht. Er konnte das feuchte und neblige Klima nicht vertragen. Gearbeitet hatte er kaum noch. Die Tagebuchblätter, die er mir schickte, waren schon mit Gedanken an ein Abkrazzen gefüllt. Da aber machte ihm Poelzig Platz. Es gelang mir, die Regierung davon zu überzeugen, dass Taut und nicht Breuhaus der Nachfolger von Poelzig sein müsse. Ich liess mir von Taut Vollmacht geben und unterschrieb hier den Vertrag für ihn. Das war für mich ein grosses Wagnis, weil ich garnicht wusste, ob Taut die Reise überstehen werde. Aber er überstand sie. Ob es die Freude auf wirkliche Arbeit oder der Klimawechsel war, das weiss ich nicht. Jedenfalls kam er hier, wenn auch schon mit angegrautem Haar ganz munter an und ist nun wieder ganz aufgelebt. Bei seinen 1500 R.M. Gehalt im Monat kann er schon ganz sorgenlos leben. Wenn nun morgen noch sein alter Freund Belling 22Rudolf Belling (1886-1972), deutscher Bildhauer, der ebenfalls ins türkische Exil ging und dort an der Kunstakademie Istanbul und ab 1952 an der TU Istanbul lehrte. hierher kommt, dann wird es ihm wohl noch besser gefallen. Wir haben hier überhaupt einen sehr netten Kreis von Deutschen und Türken beisammen. Leben lässt es sich schon. Nur Arbeitserfolge werden wir nicht viel sehen. Der Türke ist immerhin 6 mal ärmer, als der Deutsche. Das wäre aber nur ein Jugendfehler. Sein Altersfehler ist aber seine fast kindliche, und spielerische Auffassung vom Leben und von der Arbeit, die ihn alles anfassen und nichts vollenden lässt.- Ich glaube darum nicht daran, dass der Orientale jemals mit den “Maschinen-Menschen” des Westens in Konkurrenz treten kann. Wer das Leben aber vollkommener lebt, das möchte ich ganz offen lassen.
Wie ich Ihnen schon schrieb, habe ich an Tauts Schule selbst eine Professur für Städtebau übernommen, die es bisher noch nicht gab. Diese Arbeit leiste ich aber nur im Nebenamt. Im Hauptamt bleibe ich der technische Berater der Stadt Istanbul. Mein Vertrag mit der Stadt läuft aber im Herbst dieses Jahres ab, und was dann aus mir wird, dass weiss ich noch nicht. Ich mache mir aber auch sehr wenig Sorge darum. Insofern bin ich schon ein richtiger Türke geworden, erfüllt von dem unverwüstlichen Optimismus, dass dieses Jahr ohnehin ganz grosse Entscheidungen bringen wird, die uns selbst nicht killen werden. Unsere Mission besteht weiter.
[…]
Sie herzlichst grüssend, bin ich Ihr
Martin Wagner
NB: Wenn Sie einmal an Bruno Taut schreiben wollen, dann nehmen Sie folgende Adresse: Istanbul-Ortaköy, Divanyolu, Bay Emin Vafi Köskü.
Istanbul-Moda, Moda-Köskü, on January 2, 1937.
My dear Gropius, 11Walter Gropius (1883-1969), German architect and founder of the Bauhaus school.
Yesterday evening, at the end and as a crowning of the first and so joyful day in the New Year, I received your letter of 27 Dec. 36. Our New Year’s wishes had crossed. We thought of each other. I knew that you would be well, but that you would be as well as you wrote me was a great surprise for me! You can’t believe how happy I was about it. I immediately emptied half a bottle of sweet wine to your health. […]
Now keep it up, dear Gropius! One cannot wish us luck enough! [Bruno] Taut is quite right when, in memory of a Japanese epoch in the history of art, he emphasizes again and again that even a few heads can carry out a great historical mission, namely the mission of saving developments that have already been started for better times. In the Flood Noah built himself an ark. We, however, have the task to save the Neues Bauen (New Building) spirit into a new time. And I have no doubt that we will succeed. Our fate is proof enough of that.
As I have probably already written to you, our Bruno Taut was physically very, very badly off in Japan. He could not tolerate the damp and foggy climate. He had hardly worked at all. The diary pages that he sent me were already filled with thoughts of a scrape. But then Poelzig made room for him. I succeeded in convincing the government that Taut, and not Breuhaus, should be Poelzig’s successor. I had Taut give me power of attorney and signed the contract for him here. That was a big risk for me, because I didn’t know whether Taut would survive the trip. But he survived it. Whether it was the joy of real work or the change of climate, I don’t know. In any case, he arrived here, albeit already with graying hair, quite lively and is now completely revived. With his 1500 R.M. salary per month he can live quite carefree. If his old friend Belling 22Rudolf Belling (1886-1972), German sculptor who also escaped to the Turkish exile and taught at the Academy of Arts in Istanbul and from 1952 at the city’s Technical University. comes here tomorrow, he will like it even better. We have a very nice circle of Germans and Turks here. Life is good. But we will not see much success in our work. The Turk is 6 times poorer than the German. But that would be only a youth defect. His age defect, however, is his almost childlike and playful view of life and work, which lets him touch everything and complete nothing. – I therefore do not believe that the Oriental can ever compete with the “machine people” of the West. But who lives the life more perfectly, I would like to leave completely open.
As I have already written to you, I myself have taken on a professorship for urban planning at Taut’s school, which did not exist before. But I do this work only as a part-time job. In the main office, I remain the technical advisor to the city of Istanbul. My contract with the city expires in the fall of this year, and I don’t know what will happen to me then. But I am not very worried about it. In this respect, I have already become a real Turk, filled with the indestructible optimism that this year will bring very big decisions anyway, which will not kill us ourselves. Our mission continues.
[…]
Sincerely greeting you, I am your
Martin Wagner
NB: If you ever want to write to Bruno Taut, please use the following address: Istanbul-Ortaköy, Divanyolu, Bay Emin Vafi Köskü.
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.
“The architects of the Neues Bauen are united beyond all national borders by a warmly felt heart for all people in need; they are unthinkable without a social sensibility; indeed, one might even say that this crowd consciously places the social moments in the foreground of the Neues Bauen.” (Ernst May in: Das Neue Frankfurt 1928)
Under National Socialism, Neues Bauen was suppressed and traditionalist architectural styles were enforced instead.
In this letter from January 1937 to the architect Walter Gropius, Martin Wagner reflects on how the Neues Bauen (New Building) can be rescued into better times and describes his successful mediation work in Istanbul to bring Bruno Taut from Japan to Istanbul. He constructs a Eurocentric dichotomy between the “Orientals” and the “machine-people from the West” that reflects the prevailing hegemonic view and paternalistic arrogance of the recruited German-speaking professors towards Turkish society.
Correspondence Martin Wagner – Walter Gropius
Harvard Univ., Houghton Library, Walter Gropius Archive: MW an Gropius, HL 40/526x
Translation from German to English: Minor Kontor / We Refugees Archive.
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