Wie die Türken in unsere Köpfe kamen. Das Türkei-Bild in der deutschen Pädagogik zwischen 1820 und 1930

The article reconstructs the image of Turkey and the Turks that German education portrayed between 1820 and 1930. The analysis is based on educational periodicals and reference works from the historical eras of the German Confederation, the German Empire and the First World War, tracing the way old stereotypes persisted and new stereotypes arose. The study especially focuses on the opinions of German educationalists about schools in Turkey, Turkish women, Islam, the question of whether Turkey was part of Europe, and last not least on whether Ottoman educational policies were appropriate. Closely following the historical sources, the article shows how the opinions of German educationists changed according to the shift of Germany’s geopolitical interests, how their outlook went hand in hand with the views of the general press, and how they gradually came to a professional self-concept that contrasted ‘their’ educational system with what they believed was a ‘backward’ system in Turkey. At the same time they began to develop an interest in doing professional work in Turkey. The article can also be regarded as a contribution to the history of educational thinking in Germany in the course of the nineteenth century.