Berlin of the 1930s Through the Eyes of the Young Turkish Girl

Abstract

Şirin Devrim (1926–2011), a prominent theater actress, director, and lecturer in the theater arts at universities in Turkey and the United States, traveled to Germany at the age of 10 and stayed there for two years. Her trip to Berlin, her studies in a French gymnasium, her international friendships, the entertainment of the Berlin diplomatic community, and her sometimes childish, but always very incisive observations about Germans and Nazi Germany are the main elements of this part of Şirin’s autobiography, which deals with the Berlin period of her life (1936–1938). Starting from the role of childhood and childhood memories in human life, the article goes on to describe Şirin’s impressions of her stay in Berlin. Her recollections of this period – the memories of an eyewitness to the growing power of Hitler’s state – are a valuable source of knowledge about 1930s Berlin. Human life can be thought of as a “road” and the passing of successive phases of life as a “journey.” In this sense, we can say that Şirin Devrim’s stay in Berlin was a very valuable intellectual journey for her. It awakened her passion for theater and thus influenced her entire life. Şirin Devrim’s biography is a perfect illustration of the fate of the Ottoman aristocratic families that managed to maintain their high social status and get involved in the building of the modern Republic of Turkey.