Friedrich Dessauer Transferred Leading-Edge Western Radiology Knowhow to the Young Turkish Republic While a Refugee from Nazism

Abstract:

Starting in 1933, Turkey reformed its health care delivery system as well as its system of higher education using refugees fleeing the Nazis and given a safe haven by way of formal government invitations. For these souls America was out of reach because of restrictive immigration laws and wide spread anti-Semitic hiring bias at its universities. One of radiology’s pioneers Friedrich Dessauer was not able to emigrate to the US even with Albert Einstein’s personal quests and recommendations. However he was invited to Turkey along with a team of radiological doctors, physicists, engineers, and nurses where he played a large role in westernizing the new republic’s education and practice of radiology. Dessauer’s contributions to knowledge (radiology, philosophy in general, and philosophy of technology, social justice, and political science) are well documented; this paper concentrates on his saga in fleeing the Nazis and his years in exile.

Key words:

Turkey; Medical History; History of radiology: Educational Policy; Government Policy; Nazi persecution; Nazism; Holocaust; Migration; Diaspora; Exile.

Contact authors: ainnamal2002 (at) yahoo.com; arnoldreisman (at) sbcglobal.net

INTRODUCTION: Historical Background

In 1923 the newly declared Republic of Turkey inherited a ruined country from the Ottoman Empire with a backward system of health care delivery and the teaching of the same. This was totally incompatible with the tenets of the modern state that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s (1881–1938) and his collaborators wanted to establish. At the time Turkey was exhausted and poor. Atatürk knew full well that the country had to go through a fast metamorphosis. The Young Republicans were full of idealism and enthusiasm and while there was a myriad of constraints to achieving their ideals, their means of doing that were limited.

In order to make a new and modern country out of the ashes of the Ottoman state a series of daring changes were instituted. Moving Turkey from a theocratic to a secular state had the greatest urgency. In 1924 the Office of the Khalif was abolished. Another reform came about with respect to education and attempted to change the attitude and mores of Turks. The medreses (religious colleges)[1], tekkes (dervish lodges) and zaviyes (dervish cells) were closed and the trikats (religious orders of sufis) were banned. In 1927 the law of unification of education was enacted eliminating all religious teaching.[2] Then in 1928 came the change in the alphabet from the Arabic script to a Latin-based one[3], and the old legacy of the fez and charshaf (a kind of chadoor) was banned as apparel. These reforms did not require a well-prepared cadre to execute them.

A much more difficult task was to change the medical education and practice inherited from the Ottomans. This was especially acute in the emerging field of Roentgenology/ Radiology. There were not enough medical doctors, physicists, engineers, nurses, and supporting staff in the academic community with the appropriate knowledge and dexterity to carry out the structural changes that Atatürk and his colleagues were contemplating.

While reforms in the primary and secondary eduction were relatively easy, tertiary education required special attention. In the early thirties there were three higher learning institutions of some substance, Darülfunun (the House of Knowledge), a Higher School of Engineering, and the School of Public Administration, which was designed strictly to train the civil servants and was set up in the late 19th century. The Darülfunun was almost a medieval institution where sinecure teachers repeated the same lectures year after year from their worn-out notebooks. They rarely carried out research or published scientific books. Atatürk knew full well that in order to carry out his reforms he needed not only a well-prepared cadre, but at the same time an academic institution, at par with those in western European, that would prepare such cadres. A man of action and fond of radical decisions, Atatürk knew that university reform, the reform of Darülfunun, had to be quick and fundamental. With one order on July 31, 1933 the Darülfunun was closed, all teachers with tenure were fired the University of Istanbul was established on August 1, 1933 with its doors opening to the students in November of 1933. The new university, which was fashioned on the prevailing German university model, was heralded in all the existing media of the country, not only in big cities but even in a small town like Yozgat in the center of Anatolia, whose weekly newspaper carried in its front page the title “Darülfunun Assigned to History, New University Founded”. [4]

(image) Front page of an August 2 1933 edition of Yozgat, a provincial town’s newspaper. “Based on new legislation passed by the National Assembly, the Istanbul Darülfunun was closed and Istanbul University established in its place. Reşit Galip Bey, [Minister of Education] notified the Anadolu Agency on this occasion, about the manner and circumstances of Istanbul Darülfunun’s having been assigned to history as of yesterday. He went on to say that the Istanbul University had nothing to do with the Istanbul Darülfunun; the University is a new institution. Its tradition will begin with itself. The institution will carry the name “üniversite” until the Turkish language research society will find a suitable authentic Turkish name for it. Above all, Istanbul University will be a gathering place commensurate with the meaning of its name. It will be an institution that will sustain and create superior science and specialization within its mission. The new university will be composed of the Faculties [schools] of medicine, law, science, and humanities. The Faculty of theology has been converted into a Research Institute on Islam. All conditions have been created to facilitate cooperation in science and culture among different science constituencies. Besides the Research Institute on Islam, there are seven other institutes which are instititions of Turkish revolution, national economy and sociology, Turkish geography, morphology, chemistry and electromechanics. Neşet Ömer Bey has been appointed to lead the university. The faculty of medicine will be headed by Tevfik Salim Paşa, humanities by Köprülüzade Fuat and law by Kerim Bey.”[5]

The new university rehired a number of the Darülfunun professors who had proven themselves to be worthy of teaching in the new institution. However 157 of Darülfünun’s 240 professors were relieved of their duties and retired.[6] Many positions, especially in disciplines such as medicine, the hard sciences, economics and law needed new teachers that were difficult, if not impossible, to find in the country. What was to be done?

While Atatürk and his collaborators were moving about in the maze of impossibilities, Germany self-destructively was eliminating the employment of hundreds of university professors, simply because they were Jewish or had Jewish connectivity, were socialists or communists, or were people of honor who could not and would not accept Nazism. Germany in one coup barred some 1200 men of science from its learning institutions in 1933-1934. Of these about 650 managed to emigrate.[7] While the action of the Nazis was a disgrace for Germany, it was a window of opportunity for Turkey. Dr. Reşit Galip, the Minister of Education, called Atatürk’s attention to the fact that there was a shortage of qualified teachers at the University of Istanbul, while there was a great number of unemployed German professors whose future was perilous in their own country. Could Turkey find a mechanism to bring them and place some of them at the University of Istanbul and others as advisors in various ministries? Atatürk’s response was positive.[8] After a quick needs assessment the government began to negotiate with the German professors who were willing to come to Turkey.

A select group of Germans with a record of leading-edge contributions in their respective disciplines was invited with the Reichstag’s backing to transform the new Turkish state’s entire infrastructure including its legal and higher education systems. Occurring before the activation of death camps this arrangement, served the Nazis’ aim of making their universities, professions, and arts not only Judenrein, cleansed of Jewish influence, but also free from intelligentsia opposed to fascism. Because the Turks needed the help, Germany could use this fact as an exploitable chit on issues of Turkey’s neutrality during wartime.[9] Thus, the national self-serving needs of two disparate governments served humanity’s ends during the darkest years of the 20th century. In that process the Minister Reşit Galip (1893–1934) was helped by Swiss professor Albert Malche (1876-1956) and Frankfurt pathologist Philipp Schwartz (1894-1977).

The Hungarian born Frankfurt pathologist, Dr. Philipp Schwarz fled with his family to Switzerland. Schwartz’s father-in-law, Professor Sinai Tschulok (1875-1945) had taken refuge in Switzerland after the 1905 Russian Revolution and was a close friend of Albert Malche a Swiss professor of pedagogy who in 1932 was invited to Turkey to prepare a report on the Turkish educational reform. Malche’s Rapport sur l’universite´ d’Istanbul was submitted on May 29, 1932. Malche recognized the double opportunity of saving lives while helping Turkey, contacted Schwarz. In March 1933, Schwarz established the Notgemeinschaft Deutscher Wissenschaftler im Ausland (The Emergency Assistance Organization for German Scientists) to help persecuted German scholars secure employment in countries prepared to receive them.[10]

The closure of old Ottoman schools had several objectives, one of which was to provide a means of canceling all existing good-for-life faculty contracts.[11] As indicated Istanbul University was opened the very next day using Dar-ül Fünun’s physical plant, a small fraction of the original faculty, and more than thirty world-renowned émigré German professors who were on their way to Turkey.

Incredibly, courses began on November 5, 1933, as reported in various media:

“New professors invited from Europe to teach at the University have started to arrive in Istanbul. Professor Hirsch who will teach Commercial Law at the Law Faculty arrived the day before at the university where he had talks with the dean and his colleagues. He stated that he will reside in a Turkish milieu in Istanbul so that he can learn Turkish within three years and that he considered Turkey as his own country. All the foreign professors will be at their posts by 25th of October.”

(image)

-Le Journal d’Orient, October 20, 1933.

The Role of the Emigré professors

The emigré professors who chose to live and teach in Turkey show a wide spectrum. On the one hand there were renowned musicians and stage directors like Paul Hinderminth (1895-1963) and Carl Ebert (1821-1885), on the other eminent physicians and surgeons like Rudolf Nissen (1896–1981), inventor of the Nissen fundoplication procedure that is still widely used, well known philosopher of science, and logical positivist Hans Reichenbach (1891-1953), mathematician Richard von Mises (1883-1953), Physicist Arthur R. von Hippel (1898 - 2003) the father of Nanoscience and Nanotechnlogy, among others.

Ultimately some 190 eminent intellectuals were rescued [12] – a fact hardly known outside of Turkey. [13] Among them was a small contingent of radiology professionals. Their collective impact on all aspects of Turkey’s radiology education, and practice was monumental. On reflection, “in its essence, the affair that we call or understand as Atatürk’s Üniversite Reformu was not merely a university reform, but the ultimate apex of the Atatürk cultural movement started in the years 1925 to 1926.” [14]

This article does not pretend to give an account of all the émigré professors, since that was done elsewhere. [15] The weight of this article is on drawing the portrait of but one of the émigrés who was very influential in bringing cutting edge western knowhow to Turkey.

Turkey’s Health Care Delivery Reforms

By contemporaneous western standards circa 1930s, the Ottomans’ medical legacy left much to be desired. Much of the medical “practice” was not based on recent science or on science at all. Infant mortality was known to be high and longevity short. Epidemiologic “data” were rudimentary and based primarily on anecdotal information. There were public health issues, such as concern for local water quality standards. In the countryside, and much of Turkey was just that, all food distribution, preparation, consumption were quite traditional having remained the same for many genarations.

In an agrarian society where meat was scarce or predominantly consumed by the upper class, protein was limited unless one lived on a seacoast. There were too few doctors and too few clinics for the rural population. Those who attempted to establish a practice did not have access to the latest technology, especially in in radiology. It was obvious that Turkey desperately needed medical schools based on Western medical standards. She needed major infusions of western medical technology, the know-how to use it and her doctors needed to be educated in modern medical methods.

From Roentgenology to Radiology

In the early 1930s, radiology was still in its infancy. Media everywhere were fascinated with its potential for diagnostics and even more so as a cure. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845-1923) received his Nobel award in 1901 and Madame Curie (1867-1934) received her second such prize in 1911. In 1933, the latest medical X-ray technology in all of Turkey involved two machines which “were brought in 1902 and 1904 and used in Istanbul.” [16] Among the physicists and engineers invited to Turkey, several had worked in the emerging field of “roentgenology.” They were invited to Istanbul to set up the university’s Institute of Radiology and Biophysics. Turkey’s founding fathers were keenly aware of the usefulness for X-rays in medical diagnostics. Naturally it would have been folly to simply invite physicians who knew something about the extant X-ray techniques. As a result of their fast paced scientific developments in the West, these techniques each had short lifespans as they were being constantly improved. It would have also been folly to bring the best and the latest equipment to a country without the infrastructure to maintain and upgrade it. This wisdom proved to be more critical during the ensuing wartime years.

THE INDIVIDUALS INVOLVED

It was decided to invite research physicists and experienced engineers along with knowledgeable doctors and nurses. Friedrich Dessauer (1881–1963) was the most senior of the “Roentgen machine” pioneers and was the first physicist invited with Carl Weissglass (1898-?) Nikolaus Wolodkewitsch, and Kurt Lion (1904-1980) as his engineers. Additionally, Erich Uhlmann, born in 1901 was a radiologist with a record of scientific publications in radiotherapy dating back to 1923. He was brought from Frankfurt University in November 1934. [17] Uhlmann and Dessauer were the first instance of a physicist/physician collaboration in the field of radiotherapy in Turkey. Later on, Dr. Hans Salomon participated in this team as a physician. The “Frankfurt” team also included Grete Lindenbaum, a nurse who was experienced in radiology.

THE RADİOLOGY INSTİTUTE

For his Institute, Dessauer was given a pre-war [WWI] constructed building located near the Gureba Hospital and on the European side of the city. It had been used as a tobacco warehouse. The building was restored starting April of 1934. Dessauer said that they used the smaller machine to take the simple X-rays while for the complicated X-ray examinations they used the Titanos unit made by Koch & Sterzel in Dresden (Germany). [18] Opposite the roentgen diagnostic department there was the deep therapy hall. Both locations had the 200kV and 400kV machines and both were equipped with full protection units. In addition to the built-in protection systems, a 4mm-thick lead protection was added to the 200 kV machine, and the 400 kV machine had a 6mm-thick lead protection for safety of its users. The room prepared for the operators was also arranged to enable 20 students to observe the treatments. The building contained a room for the Chaoul method close-range radiation, a skin treatment room and a darkroom for endoscopic examinations. Dessauer made sure that the majority of the patients under radiation therapy were admitted to the hospital, and this notion was incorporated into the layout of the clinic. Resting areas were reserved for those patients who because of the effects of radiation had to spend long periods of time in the clinic during the day due to but went home in the evenings. The basement had a room for storing radium and two radium laboratories with the necessary equipment. Dessauer had the transformer unit, laboratories, a measurement hall, and a research room placed in the basement. Patients had no access to the basement floor. The first floor housed the Finsen unit made by Finsen-Lombholt, and the diathermy room. The electrodiagnostic, electrotherapy and light therapy units were located in proximity of the waiting room as well as a laboratory for patient tests and microscopic examinations were also on the first floor. In space reserved for those who were going to specialize in radiology, students would be engaged in various applications, starting with simple electrical circuit connections and electric current measurements to building their own X-ray machine, evaluating spectrograms and doing absorption analysis. From a scientific and environmental point of view it is interesting to note that Dessauer also mentioned his future plans for conducting climatologic research on the large balcony of the clinic.[19] According to the Dessauer curriculum, for two hours a week the students in the 4th preclinical term were educated on matters of physics that they would encounter in their upcoming clinical work. For example; the student had to provide an opinion about an electrocardiogram, diathermy and obtaining ultraviolet rays. When shown an X-ray film the student would not only have to recognize the normal shadow of an X–ray but also how it was obtained. The students were taught medical physics, especially radiation physics. The students in the 6th and 8th terms had to take a one hour lesson every week in order to learn what the staff physician (not a radiology specialist) should know about radiology. [20]

This Institute would also train specialists who passed an exam following two years of residency. Post graduate education in radiology was offered as well and towards this end, yearly course programs were planned. The evening conferences at the Radiology Association were among the planned activities. Technicians were assigned for the maintenance and repair of the X-ray equipment and other related equipment, in the Institute importance was given to the training of X-ray nurses. [21]

Dessauer and colleagues decided that Institute operations had to be carried out in cooperation with the clinics so in accordance with that decision [22] he planned treatments in cooperation with the clinic physicians and described his activities at the Institute as follows: “As the Institute was beginning to be famous, patients from all over the world began to come. We had established an institute which had no peer in Europe. Sometimes there were 80 people waiting in the queue for treatment. All of them had cancer.”

(image) Istanbul University Institute of Radiology and Biophysic – 1935 [24]

FRIEDRICH DESSAUER

Born in Aschaffenburg, Germany, Friedrich Dessauer studied at the Goethe university in Frankfurt am Main where his design of high-energy X-ray power supplies earned him a doctorate in 1917. Dessauer was also famous for his work on the philosophy of technology, defending it and describing it as “a new way for human beings to exist in the world”. As an inventor and entrepreneur Dessauer developed techniques for deep-penetration X-ray therapy in which weak rays are aimed from different angles to intersect at a point inside the body where their combined energy can be lethal to a tumor while having less of an effect on the surrounding tissues. He dedicated most of his life to the study of radioactivity. [25]

Interested in politics, Dessauer registered as a member of the Catholic Central Party in the year 1918. As an intellectual businessman arguing catholic and social policies, he gained prestige in a party to which everyone was welcome. In 1923 he started the Rhain-Main Public Gazette, in which he published articles on economy under the umbrella of the Carolus Publishing House. He was elected a deputy to Reichstag in 1924 and served there as the representative of the left wing. Due to the various accusations by the National Socialists, he was under political arrest for 104 days. He was articulate in defending himself in court and was released. Because of the decree establishing restrictions upon civil servants [26] implemented on April 7, 1933 he was suspended from his office. Late one February 1934 night, he was assaulted in his home; the door and windows of his house were broken. He was informed that an investigation on him would be carried out although he was a practicing Catholic because his roots went back to Judaism. He was banned from issuing publications and declared persona non-grata by the Union of Nazi Professors. It is supposed that while Dessauer was under arrest, he applied to the Notgemeinschaft in Switzerland for a position in Istanbul. [27]

As a leading member of the Catholic Central Party, he had taken part in negotiations between the Weimar Republic and the fledgling NS Party (Hitler, Göring, Strasser, Frick und Goebbels). He thought that a coalition might be established with the Nazis, thus holding them in bounds (in retrospect a very naïve assessment of the situation). The only result of the negotiations was Dessauer’s arrest. It appears that his imprisonment was terminated because of his appointment and invitation by the government of Turkey.[28]

On December 3, 1933, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to David L. Edsall, Dean of the Harvard Medical School. [29]

“I take the liberty to write to you, because I feel strongly a need to do what I possibly can to relieve the misery of those in Germany who are suffering despite being innocent. I am referring to Prof. Dr. Friedrich Dessauer, University of Frankfurt who has made a name for himself in the field of experimental physics applied to Medicine. The man is in prison on a trumped up charge, in reality because of his activity in the Center Party. I consider it our human responsibility to do the utmost to save this esteemed individual. I think it would help the man’s fate if the Hitler regime would learn that people abroad were interested in this man. Of course there is no hope that he would be released soon or permitted to leave the country but it would be a loud and human gesture on his behalf, if one could send some letter of interest from an American university.”

Einstein concluded his letter to Dean Edsall by asking him to write such a declaration for Dessauer. By design or happenstance, Edsall misinterpreted the plea [30] and responded by pointing out that there were no positions open at Harvard at that time. Undaunted, Einstein replied: “It seems that I have not properly expressed my intentions. I was not talking about a real invitation for Professor Dessauer, just a pretended one. The idea is to show that there is an interest abroad for this person. The aim is to stop the legal proceedings against him which were intiated on spurious grounds. It is known that these things often occur for political reasons.” [31]

(image) A 1923 Dessauer Monograph on Radiotherapy

(image) Friedrich Dessauer, 1937

(image) Dessauer informs the Dean of Medical Faculty that Workshop chief Gerneth and Dr. Lion had arrived. İstanbul University Istanbul Medical Faculty Personnel Department’s Archive. Gerneth, File Nr: 58

(image) F. Dessauer, T. Berkman, Röntgen şualarıyla derin tedavinin hal ve istikbali [About the current state of the art and the future of deep therapy with x-rays]. Tıb Dünyası 1936 (IX) 11-103: 3313-3319

DEPARTURE FROM TURKEY

For reasons not fully known Dessauer left Turkey in 1937 having been appointed professor of experimental physics at Fribourg, Switzerland. His entire “Frankfurt” team left as well and was quickly replaced by a team from Austria [32] headed by Max Sgalitzer (1884-1974). According to fellow emigre eminent surgeon Rudolf Nissen (1896-1981): “Dessauer was an X-Ray pioneer during the period when no protection was applied against rays in the field of radiography. All of these persons were exposed to more or less heavy burns. There were burns on Dessauer’s hands, face and feet. These men lost their lives because of cancers caused by the rays, as the victims of their occupations, almost without exception. I don’t know whether this was the reason for the death of Dessauer, who died in 1963. But I suppose it was.” [33] Friedrich Dessauer died in Frankfurt am Main. From archival documents it is possible to conclude that during 1940 Dessauer was again attempting to immigrate to the US. The New School for Social Research in New York City was his standard bearer this time around. In July of that year the School prepared the following dossier and Alvin Johnson its Director sent out a number of letters of inquiry requesting funding, placement opportunities, and references.

(image) A July 27, 1940 letter of inquiry from the New School requesting funding, placement opportunities, and references for Dessauer. Courtesy Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives in Albany, New York.

On November 23, 1940 a response was received from Otto Glasser of the Cleveland Clinic:

(image) A November 23, 1940 response from Otto Glasser of the Cleveland Clinic. Courtesy Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives in Albany, New York.

And on December 30 1940 Alvin Johnson wrote the following letter to Thomas Appleget at the Rockefeller Foundation. The sentence in the middle of the paragraph bears special significance: “He has a chair at Friburg but he is in grave danger of dismissal and perhaps of a worse fate.” As the handwritten annotation in the right hand corner indicates the Rockefeller Foundation rejected the request. A good assumption based on other evidence was the age issue. In those times age discrimination in hiring was a matter of university policies. [34]

(image) A December 30 1940 letter from Alvin Johnson to Thomas Appleget at the Rockefeller Foundation. Courtesy Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives in Albany, New York.

In his last letter to Albert Einstein Dessauer congratulated the “Master” on his Day of Honor and expressed sorrow that the two did not have many opportunities to meet since the pre war years. However Dessauer assures Einstein that he has been following his work with intense interest.

(image) A March 29, 1954 letter from Dessauer to Albert Einstein Einstein Archives Document No. 301148

PERCEPTIONS OF THE ÉMİGRÉS IN TURKEY TODAY

Memories of the émigré professors and the appreciation of their contributions to Turkey’s modernization linger on in that country and among the educated Turkish Diaspora. Recently several symposia were devoted to keeping the memories alive. One conference organized by the Turkish Academy of Science (TÜBA), was devoted to “The Evolution of the Concept of University in Turkey (1861-1961)” (November 18, 2006).. Much of the discussion focused on Atatürk’s university reforms, the realization of which was attributed to the émigrés from Germany.

On April 7, 2006, the University of Istanbul conducted a symposium on the 1933 University Reform. The conference opened with a welcoming speech by Dr. Mustafa Keçer, the dean of the Istanbul Medical Faculty, who reiterated that “Turkey owes a great debt to the émigrés. They did great work here, although some jealous colleagues tried to denigrate them.” Reiner Möckelmann (b. 1941), Germany’s recently retired Consul General in Istanbul, organized a symposium at the Consulate conducted on August 6, 2006, dealt with the contributions of the medical contingent. [35]

Additionally Turkish media have recently published a number of articles on the larger subject of the émigré professors. One of these was carried as a first-page article by Hürriyet, a high-circulation secular, centrist, nationalist, Turkish daily, on October 29, 2006, when Turkey celebrated its 83rd anniversary as a Republic. The headline by Murat Bardakçı read: “A Request From the Great Genius to the Young Republıc.” The article described Einstein’s appeal to İsmet İnönü to accept 40 German intellectuals who were ready to come and work for one year at no pay,[36] and went on to juxtapose the spirit contained in Einstein’s letter to Turkey’s current body politic and its preoccupations with those prevalent during the early ideological Republican years:

“Now, here is the difference between the Turkey of the time when the Republican regime was only 10 years old and the Turkish Republic now aged 83. The first one is a young state with great promise for the future from which Einstein requests jobs for his friends; the other is where the daily agenda is shaped only by discussions about parks restricted to women, and wearing of the ‘cübbe’[37] by sect members, or whether shaking women’s hand is sinful or not….” [38]

This article kindled renewed interest in the 1933 émigrés and their reception in Turkey. Within a week of the Bardakçı article, Melih Aşık published an article in Milliyet, another mass-circulation Tukish paper, which juxtaposed the attention given by Turkish media to the Einstein letter stressing the lack of awareness of this episode outside of Turkey. This discussion was continued in an article published in yet another large circualtion Turkish daily.

“[In 1933] about 50 scientists, close to 1000 German (Jews) in total, began taking refuge in Turkey. Mustafa Kemal [Ataturk] was in the process of having the ‘University Reform’ implemented. In rebuttal to those who think that ‘all Mustafa Kemal accomplished was of native origin’, the reform was prepared by Swiss Professor Malche. Darülfünun was abolished, along with some of its teachers, and Istanbul University was founded. Refugees such as Neumark, Hirsch, Hinderminth established faculties and made laws. They trained great numbers of good students. This was ‘a wonderful country where the Western plague of fascism had not penetrated’.” [39]

The History and Mission statements as posted on the web by the original three Turkish universities document the prevailing national pride in the legacy that was left by the émigré professors. [40]

Concluding remarks

“Professor Dessauer came to Istanbul when the X-Ray Institute of the Faculty of Medicine was moved to the Gureba Hospital and was reestablished there. He was one of the professors who came from Europe, we met him there. He was not a medical doctor; he was a worldwide famous, and esteemed physicist. I worked with him for a while. Especially on Tuesdays, he used to follow the x-ray treatments of cases performed in my clinic. He was closely interested in skin cancer. We benefited from his knowledge very much. Due to early exposures he had wounds on various parts of his body which turned to cancer. He used to have them removed from time to time by means of surgeries. He did not stay long. He received invitations from Europe and he left.”[41]

Dessauer’s colleague, Turkish national, Prof. MD Tevfik Berkman, who worked on deep treatment as part of Dessauer’s team, assessed Dessauer’s studies for Turkey as follows:

“The history of actual radiotherapy in Turkey began with Atatürk’s university reform and the foundations of this history were laid by Friedrich Dessauer. He showed the principles of organization, theoretical, practical and academic studies and created a scientific atmosphere in our country in the field of radiotherapy in a short time. We worked with him for three years in a sense of a family. Our debt of gratitude to him is great.” [42]

Dessauer began to write about philosophy while in Switzerland. His German citizenship was revoked in 1941 as was his “Dr” title. He was granted Swiss citizenship in 1949. Dessauer was invited to manage his former department in Frankfurt University in 1947 but he rejected this offer. He moved to Frankfurt in 1953 where he lectured on the basis of philosophy and on the philosophy of science between the years 1954-60, using the title of Retired Professor. He became so ill in 1960 that he could not get up from his bed. Though he continued to read and talk with people around him about scientific issues until he died in 1963.

Epilogue

Decades later, taking a more detached look at Turkey it is fair to say that while the émigrés’ sojourn in Turkey was definitely an episode, their impact on that country and their legacy is much closer to being an epoch. Significantly, it is so recognized by knowledgable people in Turkey and among the educated in the Turkish Diaspora today. When the émigrés arrived, Turkey had two fledgling universities one having no Faculty of Medicine. It now has over seventy and most offer medical curricula. At least two generations of educated Turks owe their status to the implementation of those reforms and all of Turkey’s population owes its health status to those reforms. Unfortunate as it may be for Turkey its brain-drain has had its impact on medical eduaction and practice in all western countries.

(image) F. Dessauer, the year he came to Turkey (1934) in the courtyard of Şişli Etfal Hospital with T. Berkman and M. Gökmen. [43]

(image) Dessauer and his treatment staff (Photograph courtesy Dr. Seyfettin Kuter archives).

Notes

⊕ This paper is partially based on Arnold Reisman, Turkey’s Modernization: Refugees from Nazism and Atatürk’s Vision. New Academia Publishers, Washington, DC (2006). Many of the quotes, photos and correspondence however are from more recently discovered documents obtained from Istanbul University Personnel Office Archives, The Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives in Albany, New York and from the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

1 ) Medreses were considered higher learning institutions where law and canonical jurisprudence were taught in addition to religion. The Republic had inherited no less than 300 medreses. See E. Ihsanoglu, “The Medreses of the Ottoman Empire,” Publication 4055, Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation, Manchester, UK (2004).

2) Until that date there were separate religious schools as well as secular ones. However, secular schools included religion in their curriculum as a separate subject. The law not only closed religious schools, but also eliminated the teaching of religion in the secular schools. See O.S.Bahadir and H.A.G. Danisman, “Late Ottoman and Early Republican Science,” in Turkish Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, ed. G.Irzik and G.Guzeldere (Boston Studies in Philosophy of Science, Berlin & New York: Springer, 2005), p. 290.

3) M.O. Williams, “Turkey Goes to School,” The National Geographic Magazine, January (1929), pp. 94-108 offers 17 photos and an essay depicting the process of implementing the legislation.

4) Anonymous, Yozgat Newspaper, No. 603, (city weekly printed on Wednesdays) August 2, 1933, No. 603.

5) Ibid.

6) Ilhan Elmaci, “Dr. Rudolph Nissen” Journal of Neurological Sciences (Turkish), NOROL BIL D 18: 4, 2001, http://www.med.ege.edu.tr/norolbil/2001/ NBD17901.html.

7) Norman Bentwich: The Rescue and Achievement of Refugee Scholars: The Story of Displaced Scholars and Scientists, 1933-1952, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1953.

8) It is impossible not to remember that Bayazıt II had invited all the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 to come and settle in the realm of the Ottomans. Reputedly he had said: “Let’s bring them here; Spain’s loss is our gain.” . Viewed Nov. 9, 2005.

9) The Bosphorus and the Dardanelles held strategic importance. So did an uninterrupted supply of chromium and other scarce materials needed by Germany’s munition factories.

10) F. Neumark, Zuflucht am Bosphorus: Deutsche Gelehrte, Politiker und Künstler in der Emigration 1933-1953 [Escape to Bosphorus: German scholars, politicians, and artists in exile 1933-1953], Frankfurt: Knecht, 1995: p. 13, noted that three revolutions came together to make the 1933 “miracle” happen in Turkey: Russian in 1905, Turkish in 1923, and Nazi in 1933.

11) On September 26 1933, Lorrin A. Shepard M.D. Director of the American Hospital of Istanbul wrote to R. A. Lambert at the Rockefeller Foundation European Office: In order to have an effective reorganization however it was necessary to abolish the old University because according to law all the professors held office for life. With the abolition of the University the old Arabic name “Dar-ülfünun” has also been abolished. (emphasis added) Rockefeller Archives Center.

12) Of the 190 who found their way to Turkey a small number came from Austria after the 1938 Anschluss, and one each came from Czechoslovakia and France.

13) See A. Reisman “Turkey’s Invitations to Nazi Persecuted Intellectuals Circa 1933: A Bibliographic Essay on History’s Blind Spot.” Working paper, 2007. Available on request from its author.

14) A. Kazancıgil, A., I. Ortaylı, and U. Tanyeli, “Türkiyenin Yabancıları,” Cogito, Istanbul:Yapı Kredi Yayınları, Üç Aylık Düşünce Dergisi, Sayı:23, 2000, pp. 119-132.

15) See Reisman (2006) op cit.

16) N. Bilge, History of Radiotherapy in Turkey. International Journal of of Radiation Oncology and Biologic Physics, 35(5) pp 1069-1072. (1996).

17) Some of Uhlmann’s publications at the time of his invitation to Turkey are shown below. [Uhlmann specified only the titles of the articles in the publication list he submitted to Istanbul University. He did not specify in what periodical the articles were published.] “Soll man in der Röntgenoberflächentherapie filtern oder nicht” (1928), “Über die sogenannten Grenzstrahlen”(1928), “Histologische Untersuchungen über die Wirkung der Grenzstrahlen auf die Haut” (1929), “Über die Abhängigkeit der Pigmentbildung von der Wellenlaenge der Strahlung” (1929), Indikationen und Methodik der Strahlenbehandlung bei Hautkrankheiten. Verlag Georg Stilke 1930, “Zur Behandlung der Röntgenspätschäden” (1930), “Über die Möglichkeit der Vermeidung von Strahlenschäden der Haut” (1930), Wesen und Bedeutung von Grenzstranlen” (1931).

18) F. Dessauer, 1936: 389-396.

19) Ibid.

20) Ibid.

21) Ibid.

22) T. Berkman Atatürk’ün Yüzüncü Doğum Yılında Türkiye’de Radyoterapi Tarihine Genel Bakış (1933-1982). Istanbul 1982, p. 37.

23) F. Dessauer, F Auszug des Geistes, (Hrsg. Radio Bremen) Bremer Beiträge Bd. 4 (Hrsg. Lutz Bresch) 1962, p. 101.

24) Seyfettin Kuter’s Archive.

25) Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics on Dessauer, Friedrich.

26) The Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums or the Reestablishment of the Civil Service Law.

27) C. Kleinholz-Boerner, Friedrich Dessauer 1881-1963. Bibliographie eines nichtärztlichen Röntgenpioniers. Inaugural Dissertation aus dem Institut für Geschichte der Medizin der Freien Universität Berlin, 1968, pp. 7-21.

28) There are other examples. In 1933 the Nazis had taken Public Health Dentist Alfred Kantorowicz “into ‘Protective Custody’ and had kept him for four months in the prison at Bonn. He was then transferred to the Gestapo, S.A., and S.S. run Boergermoor hard labor concentration camp near Papenburg. There he spent another four months after which he was transferred to the concentration camp for prominent socialists, Jews, and intellectuals in Lichtenburg.” A. Reisman, Turkey’s Modernization: Refugees from Nazism and Atatürk’s Vision. New Academia Publishers, Washington DC. (2006) p 167.

29) Courtesy Albert Einstein Archives, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Document 49 476-1 and 2.

30) At the time Harvard University had very strong ties with Nazified Germasn universities under the leadership of its president James Bryant Conant. Reisman (2006) op.cit. p. 515-516. Also, A. Reisman, “Harvard University’s Tercentenary celebrations and Albert Einstein: 1936.” Working Paper (2007).

31) Courtesy Albert Einstein Archives, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Document 49 477.

32) See Reisman (2006) op. cit.: pp 208-209. Also see Namal, A. and Reisman A. (2007) They Introduced Modern Radiology into Turkey: Refugees from Nazism 1933-1945, Working paper.

33) R. Nissen, Helle Blätter-Dunkle Blätter. Stuttgart 1969, pp. 215-216.

34) The first sentence of the letter states “despite the fact that he is 59 years old” indicating a sensitivity on the part of Johnson in having to state that fact up front. For additional evidence on the matter of age discrimination see Reisman, Turkey’s Modernization: Refugees from Nazism and Atatürk’s Vision. p. 316-317.

35) Reiner Möckelmann, Discussionsabend im Generalkonsulat am 06.08.2006 zum Thema Exil und Gesundheitswesen: Deustche Mediziner in der Türkei ab 1933. Generalkonsulat der Bundesrepublik Deutchland in Istanbul.

36) See A. Reisman, “What a Freshly Discovered Einstein Letter Says About Turkey Today” HNN, http://hnn.us/articles/31946.html, posted November 27, 2006. For a clearer image of the letter see http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2006/11/ 1243-what-freshly-discovered-einstein.html. Also see: A. Reisman “Saving German Intellectuals: Albert Einstein’s 1933 Attempt to Influence Turkey’s Prime Minister” Forthcoming in History News Network.

37) Loose kımono-lıke garment worn by Moslem clerics for prayer.

38) See M. Bardakçı “A Request From the Great Genius to the Young Republıc.”Hürriyet, October 29, 2006.

39) U. Talu, “On University Reform” Sabah Newspaper, October 30, 2006.

40) Reisman (2006) op. cit.: 471-473.

41) A. R. Altogan, Deontology and History of Medicine, University professors archives, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, 13.1.1956.

42) T. Berkman, Atatürk’ün Yüzüncü Doğum Yılında Türkiye’de Radyoterapi Tarihine Genel Bakış (1933-1982). Istanbul 1982: p. 38.

43) T. Berkman, Engelli-Engebeli Uzun yollar. Bir Hayat Anıları 1900-1987.Selar Ofset, Istanbul 1988: p. 155