Robert College

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Robert College
Entrance to the College's Gould Hall
type of school independent private college
founding 1863
address

Kuruçesme Cad. No.87
34345 Arnavutköy - Beşiktaş - İstanbul

place Arnavutkoy ( Istanbul )
province Istanbul
Country Turkey
Coordinates 41 ° 5 '2 "  N , 29 ° 3' 5"  E Coordinates: 41 ° 5 '2 "  N , 29 ° 3' 5"  E
student 1032
management Anthony Jones
Website www.webportal.robcol.k12.tr

The Robert College ( RC , Turkish Robert Kolej ) is a US- American high school and boarding school founded in 1863 in Istanbul . In 1971, when private universities were banned in Turkey , it was spun off from what is now Boğaziçi Üniversitesi and left the location that had been common until then. Robert College graduates include numerous figures from Turkish and Bulgarian history, including several prime ministers.

history

Robert College is in the tradition of several American missionary educational institutions, such as the American University of Beirut or the American University of Cairo . In 1860 the preacher Cyrus Hamlin went on a mission to the Ottoman Empire . His request to set up Ottoman educational institutions under his guidance was rejected by the Ottoman authorities at the influence of the established Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, since the latter disliked the missionary concerns of the American preachers. When Hamlin put aside his missionary concerns in order to still be allowed to found schools, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions , his original employer, withdrew his support. Hamlin's efforts to take advantage of the ties of his cousin, American Vice President Hannibal Hamlin , failed after his return to the United States in May 1861. After leaving for Istanbul again, Cyrus Hamlin met philanthropist Christopher Rhinelander Robert in Paris , who, out of enthusiasm for his cause , transferred him $ 30,000 , which was followed by further donations over time. A friend of Hamlin's from his time in Cairo, the Ottoman Admiral Farragut, secured him permission to build Robert College in Bebek .

In the founding phase of Robert College it was useful that the American founders were Unitarians who rejected the Trinity and were therefore closer to Islam than other Christian groups. There was close cooperation between the Americans and the native dervishes of the Bektashi order, whose Tekke was located right next to the campus in Bebek.

In the first few decades, most of the students at Robert College were non-Muslims, who then made up the majority of Istanbul's population, mainly Greeks , Armenians and Bulgarians . 197, including prominent personalities from Bulgaria , liberated after the Russo-Ottoman War (1877–1878), had received their training at the RC.

It was not until 1900 that Muslim Turks began attending Robert College. In 1914, in contrast to British and French institutions in Constantinople, Robert College was able to continue its work because America was initially neutral. After World War I, American professors were able to continue their work as the college continued to be a US educational institution under Massachusetts state law until the late 1960s .

In 1971 the Robert College moved from the old campus in Bebek to Arnavutköy and merged with the American College for Girls (ACG), which is also steeped in tradition , and whose most important student was the writer and feminist Halide Edip Adıvar , a political companion of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Ataturk , was. After that, Robert College was no longer a university in the true sense of the word, but rather a higher school in the sense of an American high school or a German grammar school. At the same time, co-education was introduced in the new Robert College. University operations, on the other hand, continued on the old campus in Bebek in the newly established Bosporus University . The state university, which continues the academic tradition of Robert College, is now one of the leading educational institutions in Turkey .

Towards the end of the 19th century, German lecturers were also active at the American colleges in Istanbul. Friedrich Schrader , who later became known as a journalist and writer, taught there from 1891 to 1900, Paul Lange (died 1920 in Istanbul), later as "Lange Bey", court conductor of the last Turkish sultan and father of the well-known US conductor and orchestra leader Hans Lange , taught European classical music at the ACG. In an article for the German-language literary magazine Nord und Süd in the autumn of 1919, Schrader dealt extensively with Robert College, in particular with its role as a “cadre forge” for young nation states like Bulgaria.

Quotes

“The history and the spirit of Robert College can also be instructive for us Germans with regard to our school efforts in the Orient. One should not forget that Turkish soil is an essentially democratic, freedom-loving country that has less understanding for German militarism and German war history than for the struggle of a people for basic human rights. Therefore, by showing the great figures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to their students , the Americans found a more fertile and grateful soil than we have found with all our educational wisdom and scientific depth ”

- Friedrich Schrader : Robert College , North and South, November 1919, pp. 165–169

Prominent figures from Robert College

Lecturers

Alumni

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oren, Michael: Power, Faith and Fantasy - America in the Middle East 1776 to Present. New York: W. W. Norton 2007, pp. 215f.
  2. ^ A b Friedrich Schrader in: Robert College , North and South, November 1919, pp. 165–169