Very Good English Original types document with autograph scripts. 4to. (30 x 21 cm). In English. 1 p. A typed document for the registration to the Congress of Sociology at Istanbul in 1952. Dated 31. IX. 1952. His autograph notes are his name and surname, his address, date, title of communication (his proceeding's title) and signature. His proceeding entitled 'Osmanlica'nin inkisafinda içtimâî faktörler' [i.e. Social factors in the development of Ottoman Turkish]. German Turkologist; educated in Switzerland; member of the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD); traveled widely in Turkey together with the Austrian Turkologist and fellow party member Andreas Tietze; settled in Turkey in 1939; after the Second World War director of the German cultural institute, later Goethe Institute (1961-68), in Istanbul and lastly of the Goethe Institute in Amsterdam. Anhegger was born in Vienna in 1911, the son of a German trader. After World War I (much of which he spent in Switzerland), Anhegger moved with his parents to Rotterdam. In 1923 the family moved to Zürich. In Zürich, Anhegger started to read Law, History and Literature at the university, before moving to Vienna in 1932. There he continued his studies, this time reading Economic History, Slavonic studies and Islamic studies. He also started to learn Turkish. It was during his studies in Vienna that he befriended Andreas Tietze. They not only shared scholarly interests, but also a passion for left-wing politics. Anhegger made his first trip to Turkey in 1935. In 1939 he received his Ph.D. degree at the University of Zürich and in 1940 he moved (and as it turned out emigrated) to Istanbul. He had several motives for doing so: quite apart from his scholarly interest in Turkey, his background in the Communist movement and the fact that he shared his life with a Jewish woman, made him feel unsafe so close to Germany. In Istanbul he worked at the German Archeological Institute until he was dismissed in 1942 for refusing to join up when called to serve in the German army. After his dismissal he worked as a teacher of German language and literature in a number of places, notably Istanbul University. As a German with intimate knowledge of Turkey, who was untainted by any Nazi connections, Anhegger from the early fifties onwards became the lynchpin of German cultural activities in Istanbul, culminating in his directorship of the Goethe Institute after 1961. In 1958 Anhegger married the Turkish architect Muallâ Eyüboglu, the sister of the painter Bedri Rahmi. His connections with modern Turkish painters led him to found the first private art gallery in Istanbul in 1957. Robert and Muallâ Anhegger now live partly in Istanbul, partly in Amsterdam.
