Bosporus Germans

Bosporus Germans are those ethnic Germans living and settled in Istanbul since the second half of the 19th century.

The first generation came a few decades before and especially during the three political visits of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Constantinople (Istanbul), the capital city of the Ottoman Empire (on October 21, 1889, and on October 5, 1898, as the guest of Sultan Abdülhamid II; and on October 15, 1917, as the guest of Sultan Mehmed V.) The Taksim German Hospital was opened in 1852. Most of the initial German settlers in Istanbul were craftsmen, industrialists and soldiers. Baron Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, also known as Goltz Pasha, who was the chief advisor of the Ottoman Army for many years; and General Otto Liman von Sanders, who was a successful commander of the Ottoman Army during World War I, may be the most famous of them in the military field.

Some of the most beautiful Bosporus villas, such as the Krupp and Huber Villa; or the German Fountain (1900) and Haydarpaşa Railway Station (1908) in Istanbul are still a relict of the German influence in the late Ottoman Empire. Most of the German engineers and craftsmen who worked at the construction site of the Haydarpaşa Train Station later established a small German neighbourhood in the nearby Yeldeğirmeni quarter of the Kadıköy district, on the Asian side of Istanbul. Previously, the German architect August Jachmund had designed the Sirkeci Train Station (1890) on the European side of Istanbul, and the nearby Deutsche Orient Bank Headquarters (1890) in the Sirkeci quarter, within the boundaries of the Eminönü district, during the last year of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in office. Both of these train stations would play an important role in the Berlin-Istanbul-Baghdad Railway project which would enhance the economic and political ties between the German and Ottoman empires, and allow Germany to by-pass the British-controlled Suez Canal for reaching the lucrative markets and resources of the Orient by extending the railway line further south to the port of Basra on the Persian Gulf.

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