GERHARD KESSLER’İN TÜRKİYE’DEKİ KENT SOSYOLOJİSİ ÇALIŞMALARINA KATKILARI
CONTRIBUTIONS OF GERHARD KESSLER TO THE URBAN SOCIOLOGY STUDIES IN TURKEY

Summary/Abstract: Gerhard Kessler is one of the scientists who immigrated to Turkey due to living and working conditions becoming difficult in Germany after the National Socialist Party under the leadership of Hitler came to power. Before his immigration, with his social politician identity he strived to exhibit the economic-social problems caused by industrialization in Germany and produce solutions favoring balance among classes. Continuing his studies in Turkey as well, Kessler ‘imported’ his accumulation in subjects such as unionism, cooperative system and insurance business. One of the subjects he studied between 1933 and 1951, when he dwelt in Turkey, is the city. He provided guidance for Turkey which hadn’t focused on urban planning and implementation sufficiently ‘yet’. Addressing the city generally with regard to the housing issue, Kessler also address the condition of İstanbul, where he lived for 18 years, during 1930s and 1940s based on the housing issue and wanted to raise ‘urban awareness” of the public particularly of the local administrators. Within this framework, he expressed his observations concerning the districts of İstanbul and argued that a route should be mapped out. The aim of our article is to review the urban production made by Kessler mostly in relation to İstanbul during the time he lived in Turkey as well as his contributions to local urban sociology.

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