Books by Tobias Voelker
I. B. Tauris, 2024
This book examines the role of Europeans who settled in the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 1... more This book examines the role of Europeans who settled in the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries and assumed “Ottoman identity”, be it by way of conversion to Islam and assimilating to the host society or by becoming loyal servants or subjects of the Ottoman state, identifying themselves as Ottomans, but retaining their faith. Bringing together a variety of case studies that reflect a broad range of individual experiences in changing historical circumstances, the book provides a detailed study of the process of Ottomanization. The book draws upon a variety of archival and other sources such as travelogues, diaries and folk epics, including lesser known examples, from early-modern Czech, Venetian and Wallachian views of converts, to case studies of 19th century British, German and Austrians who switched loyalty. They show that this process depended on a range of factors, from conversion, to integration into the culture of the ruling elites, fluency in the language, affiliation through family ties or marriage, and, most importantly, social status and professional rank.
Der Band präsentiert einen Querschnitt einer jungen, gegenwartsbezogenen Türkeiforschung. Im Zent... more Der Band präsentiert einen Querschnitt einer jungen, gegenwartsbezogenen Türkeiforschung. Im Zentrum steht dabei die Spannung zwischen repressiver Staatsideologie und kultureller und gesellschaftlicher Vielfalt, zwischen der Verfestigung autoritärer, neopatrimonialer Strukturen während der Regierungszeit der AKP unter Tayyip Erdoğan und vielfältigen Formen des Widerstands.
Viele der Beiträge reagieren direkt oder indirekt auf die gewaltsame Niederschlagung der Gezi-Proteste im Juni 2013 und beleuchten aus einer interdisziplinären Perspektive das Scheitern des neoliberalen Arrangements sowie die vehement geführten Auseinandersetzungen um Geschlechterrollen und ethnische und religiöse Identitäten.
Papers by Tobias Voelker
Becoming Ottoman: Converts, Renegades and Competing Loyalties in the Early Modern and Modern Ages, 2025
The article provides a case study of “Ottomanization” during the Tanzimat period, following the c... more The article provides a case study of “Ottomanization” during the Tanzimat period, following the career of the former diplomat Andreas David Mordtmann who in 1860 entered Ottoman state service as commercial judge and expert for European law. By exploring the legal, professional, and intellectual aspects of Mordtmann´s integration into the imperial elites, the article illustrates that becoming a member of the Ottoman elite in the nineteenth century was a complex process that took place on different levels. It involved diplomatic bargaining over notions of subjecthood, manoeuvring between power circles within the ruling class, and negotiating layers of cultural and political affiliation. The second half of the article takes a closer look at Mordtmann´s engagement with the nascent scientific community in Istanbul where he acted as intermediator between a broad spectrum of intellectuals from diverse social and ethnoreligious backgrounds. Taking his participation in two learned societies – the Cemʿiyet-i ʿİlmiye-i ʿOsmāniye and the Greek Philological Association Syllogos – as a case in point, the article traces the diversity and complexity of Mordtmann’s cultural environment in Istanbul and his self-invention as a transcultural scholar with multi-layered and multi-faceted patterns of intellectual identity formation.
Transforming Southeast Europe During the Long 19th Century, 2024
This article traces the career of Andreas David Mordtmann in Ottoman state service and as editor-... more This article traces the career of Andreas David Mordtmann in Ottoman state service and as editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based newspaper Phare du Bosphore. After 1860, Mordtmann reinvented himself as an active contributor to the late Ottoman engagement with Western frames of modernization during the Tanzimat period. This chapter traces his involvement in two central spheres in which reform concepts were being shaped and contested: legislation and the press.
Comparativ, 2022
This article highlights shifts and continuities in Ottoman-Germansphere relations by tracing the ... more This article highlights shifts and continuities in Ottoman-Germansphere relations by tracing the professional and intellectual activities of two generations of the Mordtmann family that lived in the Ottoman Empire between 1846 and 1918 and played an influential role in the Germanspeaking communities there due to their positions as diplomats, doctors, and Orientalist scholars. By comparing the experiences and attitudes of the family members before and after the foundation of the German Reich, the article illustrates how major political transformations were reflected in complex ways in individual life stories, and how they determined and shaped transimperial encounters on a diplomatic, academic, and interpersonal level.
The International History Review
This article unearths the little-known history of the Hanseatic legation in mid-nineteenth-centur... more This article unearths the little-known history of the Hanseatic legation in mid-nineteenth-century Ottoman Istanbul through a close reading of the career and writings of its head of mission Andreas David Mordtmann. A trained Orientalist, Mordtmann ventured well beyond the social and spatial boundaries that seemed to confine the select and inward-looking diplomatic milieu of Pera. He travelled extensively throughout Anatolia and had close relationships with notable Ottoman high-officials and intellectuals. After the legation was disbanded in 1859, these contacts secured him employment in the Ottoman state service. Applying a transcultural approach, the article examines Mordtmann's overlapping and often conflicting roles of diplomat and scholar in the light of recent scholarship on nineteenth century diplomatic culture and (German) Orientalism, paying particular attention to his complex position as an observer with multiple and shifting political, cultural, and professional affinities. Uncovering the mental and material worlds of this Orientalist-turned-diplomat-turned-Ottoman will not only shed new light on some of the intricacies of diplomatic life in Istanbul, but also show how it was ultimately more 'locally embedded' than previously presumed in the literature.
The International History Review, 2021
This article unearths the little-known history of the Hanseatic legation in mid-nineteenth-centur... more This article unearths the little-known history of the Hanseatic legation in mid-nineteenth-century Ottoman Istanbul through a close reading of the career and writings of its head of mission Andreas David Mordtmann. A trained Orientalist, Mordtmann ventured well beyond the social and spatial boundaries that seemed to confine the select and inward-looking diplomatic milieu of Pera. He travelled extensively throughout Anatolia and had close relationships with notable Ottoman high-officials and intellectuals. After the legation was disbanded in 1859, these contacts secured him employment in the Ottoman state service. Applying a transcultural approach, the article examines Mordtmann's overlapping and often conflicting roles of diplomat and scholar in the light of recent scholarship on nineteenth century diplomatic culture and (German) Orientalism, paying particular attention to his complex position as an observer with multiple and shifting political, cultural, and professional affinities. Uncovering the mental and material worlds of this Orientalist-turned-diplomat-turned-Ottoman will not only shed new light on some of the intricacies of diplomatic life in Istanbul, but also show how it was ultimately more 'locally embedded' than previously presumed in the literature.
The article traces the life of the 19th century German scholar and diplomat Andreas David Mordtma... more The article traces the life of the 19th century German scholar and diplomat Andreas David Mordtmann (1811-1879). Mordtmann came to Istanbul in 1845. Until 1959 he was the official representative of the Hanseatic Cities, afterwards he entered the Ottoman state service and worked at a commercial court as a judge, in his last years he worked as journalist and highschool teacher. In numerous articles and books he gave first-hand accounts of state and society in the Tanzimat period, he portrayed the politicians that were in charge of the reform process and analysed the political and societal upheavals that went with it. The article focuses on Mordtmann´s intellectual develoment as he changed countries, jobs and affiliations.
Contributions in edited volumes by Tobias Voelker
Osmanen in Hamburg – eine Beziehungsgeschichte zur Zeit des Ersten Weltkrieges, 2016
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Books by Tobias Voelker
Viele der Beiträge reagieren direkt oder indirekt auf die gewaltsame Niederschlagung der Gezi-Proteste im Juni 2013 und beleuchten aus einer interdisziplinären Perspektive das Scheitern des neoliberalen Arrangements sowie die vehement geführten Auseinandersetzungen um Geschlechterrollen und ethnische und religiöse Identitäten.
Papers by Tobias Voelker
Contributions in edited volumes by Tobias Voelker
Viele der Beiträge reagieren direkt oder indirekt auf die gewaltsame Niederschlagung der Gezi-Proteste im Juni 2013 und beleuchten aus einer interdisziplinären Perspektive das Scheitern des neoliberalen Arrangements sowie die vehement geführten Auseinandersetzungen um Geschlechterrollen und ethnische und religiöse Identitäten.