Max Rudolf Kaufmann

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Max Rudolf Kaufmann (born April 29, 1886 in Basel , † 1963 in Bonn ) was a Swiss journalist , writer and translator from Turkish . He also published under the pseudonyms "Bey Oghlu", "H. Oghlu Bey ”, and“ Hassan Oghlu Bei ”. Kaufmann was from 1952 head of the Orient department of Inter Nationes in Bonn and until his death in autumn 1963 was editor of the communications of the German-Turkish Society .

Life

Max Rudolf Kaufmann came from a long-established Basel bourgeois family. In 1909, after his bank went bankrupt, his father August Kaufmann-Merkle founded the Zürcher Orientverlag, which, during the First World War, distributed propaganda from the German news agency for the Orient through Switzerland . The son of Max Rudolf studied at the University of Bern philology and was there in 1907 when Oskar Walzel with a thesis on the merchant class in German literature Dr. phil. PhD.

Activity in Constantinople from 1910 to 1916

After working as a freelance journalist in Paris , Kaufmann was a correspondent for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Constantinople from 1910 to 1916 and until 1912 an employee of the Ottoman Lloyd , the local German-language daily newspaper. Just like his mentor at Ottoman Lloyd , the German social democrat Friedrich Schrader , Kaufmann was aloof from the imperial gestures of the German military and government representatives in Turkey (exemplified by the then naval attaché Hans Humann ). Both Schrader and Kaufmann were also employees of the Frankfurter Zeitung , whose leading correspondent Paul Weitz (also an employee of Ottoman Lloyd) is known for his relentless eyewitness accounts of the Turkish genocide against the Armenians in Anatolia. Because of his critical stance, Kaufmann was initially dismissed from the Ottoman Lloyd in 1912, but was reassigned to the editorial team at the time of the Dardanelles in the summer of 1915. In March 1916, Kaufmann was arrested as an “unpopular foreigner” on flimsy allegations of espionage, then interned in Angora (Ankara) and deported a short time later. The already mentioned German naval attaché Hans Humann, who was very well connected with Enver Pascha and the Young Turkish junta , had rejected an intervention in favor of Kaufmann with the words that “in these times when so many people have to believe in it, more or less that is placed on the wall does not arrive. ”.

1916–1952: Worked in Germany, the USA and Switzerland

Nevertheless, from 1916 onwards, due to the personal advocacy of Eugen Wednesday, he worked at the “News Center for the Orient” in Berlin and later worked for the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung ; From 1918 onwards, the Alsatian-German writer Otto Flake , whom Kaufmann already knew from Constantinople, was the head of the arts section. From 1920, Kaufmann's former boss Schrader also worked for the DAZ. Kaufmann was temporarily deputy editor-in-chief of the DAZ, but was dismissed in 1920 after Hugo Stinnes took over the DAZ and appointed Kaufmann's old adversary from Istanbul's days, Hans Humann, as the publishing director.

Kaufmann worked in New York from 1925 to 1929 as a correspondent for the Hamburger Fremdblatt and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , as well as the editor of a German-American daily newspaper, the New Jersey Freie Zeitung in Newark , NJ. During the “Third Reich” and the Second World War, Kaufmann was back in Switzerland and worked for various newspapers and at the university library in Basel.

In 1934 Kaufmann wrote a film script " Ahasver " in German, which he registered for copyright in the USA.

Bonn, 1952–1963: Commitment to German-Turkish relations

In 1952 Kaufmann was appointed head of the Orient department at Inter Nationes in Bonn and worked there until his death in 1963 a. a. as editor of the communications of the German-Turkish Society. During the time of Kaufmann's activity, the Turkish Republic became an important economic and cultural partner of the young Federal Republic, a highlight was certainly the German-Turkish recruitment agreement for guest workers of October 1961, which laid the foundation for the migration of over three million Turks to Germany .

Personal life, awards

Max Rudolf Kaufmann was married to Eta, a daughter of the German writer Walter Bloem .

On September 24, 1956, Kaufmann received the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class, for his services to German-Turkish relations . He also received the Medal of Merit from the Turkish Red Crescent for his humanitarian activities during the First World War, in particular for his commitment to the wounded on the Turkish-Russian Caucasus Front during the First World War.

Works

  • Max Rudolf Kaufmann: The merchant class in German literature. Grunau, Bern 1908 (dissertation, University of Bern, 1907).
    • article: Max Rudolf Kaufmann: The merchant class in German literature up to the end of the seventeenth century. In: Die Grenzboten : magazine for politics, literature and art (1841-1922). Vol. 69, pp. 110-121 Link
  • Max Rudolf Kaufmann: Pera and Stambul. Kiepenheuer, Weimar 1915.
  • Bey Oghlu: Turkish women. Your life in the harem and in the mirror of Turkish tales. Delphin, Munich 1916.
  • H. Oghlu Bey: German grammar for Turks. Hartleben, Vienna 1918.
  • Hassan Oghlu At: Turkish-German talks. With a grammatical introduction. At the same time a textbook of the Turkish colloquial language. Hartleben, Vienna / Leipzig 1919.
  • Max Rudolf Kaufmann: Ahasver - a film poem. New York 1934 (entry in the US Copyright Register, Library of Congress) Link

editor

literature

  • Dr. Max R. Kaufmann 75 years old. In: German-Turkish Society eV Bonn: Communications. No. 40 (June 1961), p. 5 ( digitized version ).
  • Dr. Max R. Kaufmann †. In: German-Turkish Society eV Bonn: Communications. No. 54 (November 1963), p. 1 ( digitized version ).
  • Max Rudolf Kaufmann: Experiences in Turkey 50 Years Ago: Journal for Cultural Exchange, Volume 12, Institute for Foreign Relations, pp. 237–241 (1962)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b La Section de Renseignements de l'Etat-Major général de l'Armée suisse au Département politique, Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland , 1919, 7a, Doc. 146, January 30, 1919, pp. 291-293 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ a b c Max Rudolf Kaufmann: Experiences in Turkey 50 years ago: Journal for Cultural Exchange, Volume 12, Institute for Foreign Relations , pp. 237–241 (1962)
  3. ↑ Max Rudolf Kaufmann: A literary discovery. In: German-Turkish Society eV Bonn: Communications. No. 17 (August 1957), p. 15 f. ( Digitized version ).
  4. ↑ On the antagonism of the networks of Hans Humann and Paul Weitz at the German Embassy: see Gust, p. 105 (Wolfgang Gust, ed., The Armenian Genocide: Evidence from the German Foreign Office Archives: Berghahn Books, New York, 2014, ISBN 978-1-78238-143-3 )
  5. ^ Library of Congress: Link
  6. ↑ Max Rudolf Kaufmann: Ahasver -eine Filmdichtung, New York 1934 (entry in the US-American copyright directory, Library of Congress) Link
  7. Jump up ↑ Rodler F. Morris: From Weimar Philosemite to Nazi Apologist: The Case of Walter Bloem - Volume 7 of Studies in German Thought and History, Vol 7: Edwin Mellen Press, 1988 (Ph D. thesis U of California), p. 197, ISBN 978-0889463493
  8. ↑ Office of the Federal President
personal data
SURNAME Kaufmann, Max Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss journalist, writer and translator
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH 1963
Place of death Bonn