Bosporus Germans

Baron Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, also known as Goltz Pasha, who was the chief advisor of the Ottoman Army from 1883 to 1896; and General Otto Liman von Sanders, who was a successful commander of the Ottoman Army during World War I, may[original research?]

Both these train stations played a vital role in the Berlin-Istanbul-Baghdad Railway project, which would enhance economic and political ties between the German and Ottoman empires and allow Germany to bypass the British-controlled Suez Canal to reach the lucrative markets and resources of the Orient.

From the circle around Naumann came Ernest Jäckh (1875–1959), a purveyor of Young Turk propaganda (and later professor at Columbia University.)

Another visitor to Constantinople during the First World War was Theodor Heuss, a friend of Naumann and Jäckh, who designed the German Cultural Centre there and later became the first Federal President of Germany (in office from 1949 until 1959).

The architect Bruno Taut arrived in Istanbul in 1936, settled in the city and built a pagoda-like house for himself in the hills above Ortaköy in 1938.

[1] Currently Istanbul is home to a "third generation" of German expatriates, including the football trainer Christoph Daum (1953- ).