Lecture: “The Istanbul Branch of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in the Years 1933 until 1944,” Dr. Daniel Bauer (Ernst Reuter School, Ankara), H-132, 5:40PM December 11 (EN)

Dr. Daniel Bauer
Ernst Reuter School, Ankara

« The Istanbul Branch of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in the years 1933 until 1944 ».

Time: Tuesday, December 11, 17:40
Place: FEASS, H-132

The Istanbul Branch of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in the years 1933 until 1944.

With the beginning of the National Socialist “seizure of power” in 1933, all state institutions of the Germany were to be reorganized in accordance with National Socialistic principles. This so-called period of “Gleichschaltung” affected the scientific institutions abroad, such as the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul, as well. The analysis of the branch’s authority records for the years 1933 to its closure in 1944 – based on archive material – allows interesting insights into the concrete events on the ground and provides an in-depth understanding of the institutes’ changing foreign cultural policy; conditioned by National Socialist propaganda. The National Socialists tried to instrumentalize the Branch in Istanbul as well as the scientific discipline for their inhumane ideology. With the years the archaeologists arranged with the Nazi-Rule as extensive correspondence prove. Even abroad, the local actors showed – in close consultation with the headquarter in Berlin – an ambivalent behavior between resistance and reluctant loyalty to the National Socialist regime.