Friedrich Schrader

Friedrich Schrader (* November 19 1865 in Wolmirstedt (Prussia), Germany; † August 1922 in Berlin) lived from 1891 until 1918 in Constantinople (today Istanbul). He was a German Philologist of Oriental Languages, Orientalist, Art Historian, Writer, Social Democrat, Translator and Journalist (Pseudonym Ischtiraki = arabic/Ottoman for "the socialist").

Life

Studies in Magdeburg and Halle (1865-1891)

Friedrich Schrader passes his Abitur (A level) at Domgymnasium Magdeburg, a prestigious public school close to the Magdeburg cathedral, which also had been attended by e.g. Martin Luther and Mehmed Ali Pasha, the former Ottoman Chief of Staff. After studies of Oriental Languages and art history at the University of Halle he writes his Ph. D. thesis on a translation of the "Karmapradipa" (an important vedic sutra) into German. The work is done under the supervision of Professor Richard Pischel, at that time the most eminent scholar on vedic languages who was also very well known and admired in India.

Teacher in Constantinople (1891-1907)

In 1891 Schrader takes a position as a lecturer at Robert College in Bebek close to Constantinople, where he lives with his family on the campus. Around 1900 he is "professeur" at a French-Armenian lycée in Pera, the European quarter of Constantinople (today Istanbul-Beyoglu) and later at the German School (Alman Lisesi). Already during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II Schrader begins to translate contemporary Turkish literature and to write about it in German journals and Newspapers such as "Das Literarische Echo" and "Frankfurter Zeitung".

Beginnings as a journalist

Beginning in 1900 Schrader works as a foreign correspondent for different German newspapers and journals.

Around 1900 he publishes several articles in the official newspaper of the German SPD (Social Democratic Party lead August Bebel ), "Vorwärts" (editor at the time: Wilhelm Liebknecht) and in the theoretical journal of SPD, "Die Neue Zeit" (editor: Karl Kautsky). In the articles, which he publishes under the pseudonym "Ischtiraki", he strongly criticizes the official German policy in the Ottoman Empire, especially the focus on exploitation of economic and military-strategic interests while neglecting cultural exchange between the two nations and not engaging in the development of a modern civil society in the Ottoman Empire. In the "Kautsky Archive" at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, an accompanying letter to Karl Kautsky is preserved where Schrader complains about the repression of Turkish authorities (checking suspicious mail etc.) against intellectuals at that time.

Teacher in Baku (1907-1908)

From 1907 until 1908 Schrader works as a lecturer at the Russian Commercial College in Baku, and undertakes field studies in the Caucasus region. One of his research topics are the Persian temples close to Baku located at natural gas sources, which are used for ritual flames.

Deputy Editor in Chief „Osmanischer Lloyd“ (1908-1917)

From 1908 until 1917 Schrader works as co-founder and deputy Editor-in-chief for the bilingual Constantinople-based daily newspaper "Osmanischer Lloyd" (french title "Lloyd Ottoman"). The paper is co-financed by the consortium running the Baghdad Railway project, the German Foreign Office, and the Berlin-based Bleichröder Bank. Schrader gets famous for his Feuilleton contributions about literature, arts, monuments and history of Constantinople, which are re-printed in many leading German daily newspapers (Frankfurter Zeitung, Kölnische Zeitung, Magdeburgische Zeitung) and published in a book in 1917 ("Konstantinopel in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart", Tübingen).

Beginning in 1908 Schrader lives with his British wife and his three sons in an apartment in the Dogan Apartmani in Beyoglu, which is still existing and even today popular with European residents of Istanbul.

Expert for the protection of monuments in Istanbul (1917-1918)

In 1917 Schrader resigns from his post at Osmanischer Lloyd (because of an internal conflict with other editors, and his increasing frustration about the German Middle East Policy) and focuses on his historical and architectural interests. He becomes member of the Constantinople Municipal Commission for the Registration and Listing of Islamic and Byzantine monuments (which included the well-known Armenian photographer Hagop Iskender, at that time owner of the photography company "Sabah and Joaillier" ). With a team of Turkish experts Schrader systematically catalogizes monuments in the city threatened by the impact of war activities. Using archeological investigations, research, and interviews with locals, informations about the monuments are systematically gathered. The monuments are photographed by Iskender. Valuable artefacts are recovered and preserved in the Archeological Museum of the city. Since Schrader has to leave Constantinople after the German - Ottoman capitulation in November 1918, the work cannot be finished. In 1919, Schrader published a brief summary of the activities in a German journal (see below), the whereabouts of the recorded and collected material is unknown.

Journalist in Berlin (1919-1922)

In 1918 / 19 Schrader escapes from internment by the Allies by ship to Odessa. He leaves his ill British-Bulgarian wife and a male child in Constantinople. His two older sons, who are serving in the German-Turkish navy, are both demobilized to Germany. From Odessa he travels in a Railroad freight car through the war-ravaged Ukraine to Brest-Litovsk, where he reaches the German front line. In his diary, later published in Germany in 1919, he describes several dangerous situations in connection with the various civil war factions, but also the very warm reception and strong support the refugees receive by the local Jewish population.

In Berlin, Schrader tries in vain to obtain employment in academia or diplomacy. 1919 to 1920 he works for the SPD-owned theoretical journal "Die Neue Zeit", since the 1880s the internationally most important Socialist and Marxist publication, which has been published by the antropologist and Marxist theoretician Heinrich Cunow after Karl Kautsky, the founder, had left the SPD in 1917. In several articles Schrader voices his criticism of the failed German Middle East policies before and during the First World War, especially in relation with the support for the Young Turkish regime and its attitude towards non-muslim minorities. In an article published in 1920, "Die Ägyptische Frage" (The Egyptian Question), Schrader warns prophetically about possibly fateful and negative results of the Anglo-French colonial politics in the former Ottoman provinces Egypt, Palestine and Syria after the First World War.

The last two years of his life Schrader spends in Berlin as freelance journalist, mainly writing for "Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung" (DAZ), which was in the early years of the Weimar Republic still a liberal centre-right publication supporting the consolidation of Germany in the Weimar Republic (the foreign policy editor and later editor in chief at that time was Paul Lensch, a former SPD politician and associate of Parvus and Rosa Luxemburg).

Schrader dies in August 1922, only 57 years of age, in Berlin, after DAZ had published his historic novel "Im Banne von Byzanz" some weeks earlier.

Literature

Works (in German)

• Konstantinopel in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen, 1917
• Eine Flüchtlingsreise durch die Ukraine - Tagebuchblätter meiner Flucht aus Konstantinopel: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen, 1919
• Im Banne von Byzanz, Roman, Berlin, DAZ, Juni 1922

Articles in journals (selection)

• Neutürkisches Schrifttum: Das Literarische Echo, Band 3, 1900, S. 1686-1690
• Ischtiraki, 1900, Das geistige Leben in der Türkei und das jetzige Regime: Die Neue Zeit, Jahrgang 18, Band 2, pp. 548-555
• Ischtiraki, 1900, Vom Goldenen Horn: Vorwärts, Unterhaltungsbeilage, 31. Mai 1900 – 1. Juni 1900
• Die Kunstdenkmäler Konstantinopels: Der Neue Orient, 1919, Band 5, S. 302-304 und 352-354
• Politisches Leben in der Türkei: Die Neue Zeit, 1919, Jahrgang 37, Band 2, pp. 460-466
• Das Handwerk bei den Osmanli-Türken: Die Neue Zeit, 1919, Jahrgang 38, Band 1, pp. 163-168
• Die Lage der ackerbauenden Klasse in der Türkei: Die Neue Zeit, 1920, Jahrgang 38, Band 1, pp. 317-319
• Das Jungtürkische Lausanner Programm: Die Neue Zeit, 1920, Jahrgang 38, Band 2, pp. 6-11, 31-35
• Die ägyptische Frage: Die Neue Zeit, 1920, Jahrgang 38, Band 2, pp. 172 - 177

For a more complete list of works of Friedrich Schrader, kindly refer to the German Wikipedia page on Friedrich Schrader.

References

• Martin Hartmann, 1910, Unpolitische Briefe aus der Türkei: Leipzig, Verlag Rudolf Haupt
• Otto Flake, 1914, Aus Konstantinopel: Neue Rundschau, 15. Jg., Bd. 2, S. 1666 - 1687 (reprinted in: Das Logbuch, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt, 1917 ''
• Max Rudolf Kaufmann, Eine literarische Entdeckung - Schraders „Konstantinopel“: Mitteilungen der Deutsch-Türkischen Gesellschaft, Heft 17, 1957, S. 13-14
• Çelik Gülersoy, Bibliographie: „Istanbul“ de Friedrich Schrader: Touring Et Automobile Club de Turquie: Janvier 1959, pp. 31-32
• N.N., Nachruf auf Dr. Friedrich Schrader, Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 30. August 1922
• And, Metin, Mesrutiyet Döneminde - Türk Tiyatrosu 1908-1923: Türkiye Is Bankasi Kültür Yayinlari - 108, Ankara, 1971 (erwähnt die Gedenkfeier Schraders zum 150. Todestag von Schiller im Jahre 1909)

External links

• Karl Kautsky Papers at the IISG Amsterdam: Letter of Friedrich Schrader to Karl Kautsky, dated July 1900, D XX 441