Tatars and the Tatar Language in Germany

Abstract

This article discusses the history of the presence of Tatar language in Germany which came into being as the result of political developments following World War I. The Germans captured Tatar soldiers from the Russian army and interned the captives in camps designated especially for them, in order to subject them to Pan-Islamic propaganda. The propaganda developed by a central at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs might be regarded as the start of Tatar language publishing in Germany. From 1928 the prominent exile politician Ayaz Iskhaki published a monthly journal directed at a global community of Tatar exiles.

After the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 Tatars became even more important for Germany. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Soviet Red Army were taken captive and the state was eager to make use of their presence. A Volga-Ural legion within the German army was founded and the military efforts were accompanied by a propaganda central which published a newspaper, journals and literary almanacs in Tatar. In the years following World War II the Tatar language also became part of US American propaganda efforts directed at the Soviet Union. In 1953 a Tatar-Bashkir branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was founded in Munich. Since the 1990s many Tatars have migrated individually to Germany, mainly from Russia, and they have gradually articulated a Tatar identity in which the language plays only a minor role. Only in the past few years a younger generation of Tatars, arriving in Germany for their studies, has started publicly expressing the importance of the Tatar language.

Keywords

• Tatar diaspora
• Germany
• World Wars
• propaganda
• identity-building

Almanya‘daki Tatarlar ve Tatar Dili

Abstract

Bu makale, Birinci Dünya Savaşı sonrası siyasi gelişmeler sonucunda ortaya çıkan Tatar dilinin Almanya'daki varlığının tarihini ele almaktadır. Almanlar, Tatar askerlerini Rus ordusundan esir almış ve pan-İslamist propagandaya maruz bırakmak için aldıkları esirleri özel olarak onlara ayrılmış kamplara hapsetmiştir. Dışişleri Bakanlığı'ndaki bir merkezin geliştirdiği propaganda, Almanya'da Tatarca yayıncılığın başlangıcı olarak kabul edilebilir. 1928'den itibaren, önde gelen sürgün politikacı Ayaz İskhaki, küresel Tatar sürgün topluluğuna yönelik aylık bir dergi yayınladı.

Haziran 1941'de Almanların Sovyetler Birliği'ne saldırısından sonra Tatarlar Almanya için daha da önemli hale geldi. Sovyet Kızıl Ordusu'ndan yüzbinlerce asker esir alındı ve devlet bu esirlerin varlığından yararlanmak konusunda istekliydi. Alman ordusu içinde bir Volga-Ural lejyonu kuruldu ve askerî çabalara Tatarca bir gazete, dergi ve edebi almanaklar yayınlayan bir propaganda merkezi eşlik etti. II. Dünya Savaşı'nı takip eden yıllarda, Tatar dili, ABD'nin Sovyetler Birliği'ne yönelik propaganda çabalarının da bir parçası oldu ve 1953'te Münih'te Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty'nin Tatar-Başkurt şubesi kuruldu. 1990'lardan bu yana, çok sayıda Tatar, genellikle Rusya'dan Almanya'ya bireysel olarak göç etti ve yavaş yavaş, dilin sadece küçük bir rol oynadığı bir Tatar kimliğini somut hale getirdiler. Yalnızca son birkaç yılda Almanya'ya eğitim için gelen genç Tatar nesil, Tatar dilinin önemini alenen ifade etmeye başladı.

Keywords

• Tatar diasporası
• Almanya
• dünya savaşları
• propaganda
• kimlik inşası

References

1. Cwiklinski, Sebastian (2016). “Germany”. Svanberg, Ingvar & Westerlund, David (eds), Muslim Tatar Minorities in the Baltic Sea Region. Leiden: Brill. p. 159–176.
2. Cwiklinski, Sebastian (2014). “Iz istorii tatarskoy pressy i knigoizdatel’skoy deyatel’nosti tatar v Germanii (XX – nachalo XXI vv.)” [From the history of Tatar press and the Tatar publishing activities in Germany (20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries)]. Tatarica 1 (2014), p. 176–181.
3. Cwiklinski, Sebastian (2008). “Between National and Religious Solidarities: the Tatars in Germany and Poland in the Inter-War Period”. Clayer, Nathalie & Germain, Eric (eds), Islam in Inter-War Europe. London: Hurst. p. 64–88.
4. Cwiklinski, Sebastian (2005). “Po sledam dvukh tatarskikh publikatsiy v Germanii” [Tracing two Tatar publications in Germany]. Gasyrlar Avazy/Ekho Vekov 1 (2005), p. 89–91.
5. Cwiklinski, Sebastian (2002b). “Tatars and Bashkirs in Berlin from the End of the 19th Century to the Beginning of World War II”. Güzel, Hasan Celâl; Oğuz, C. Cem; Karatay, Osman (eds), The Turks. Vol. 5. Ankara: Yeni Türkiye. p. 1004–1014.
6. Cwiklinski, Sebastian (2002a). Wolgatataren im Deutschland des Zweiten Weltkriegs: Deutsche Ostpolitik und tatarischer Nationalismus. (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, vol. 243). Berlin: Klaus Schwarz.
7. Cwiklinski, Sebastian (2000). Die Wolga an der Spree. Tataren und Baschkiren in Berlin. Berlin: Die Ausländerbeauftragte des Senats von Berlin.
8. Dawletschin, Tamurbek; Dawletschin, Irma; Tezcan, Semih (1989). Tatarisch-Deutsches Wörterbuch. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

9. Ersen-Rasch, Margarete I. (2009). Tatarisch. Lehrbuch für Anfänger und Fortgeschrittene. Unter Mitarbeit von Flora S. Safiullina. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
10. Gilyazov, Iskander. (1998). “Die Wolgatataren und Deutschland im ersten Drittel des 20.Jahrhunderts”. Kügelgen, A. von & Kemper M. & Frank, A.J. (eds), Muslim Culture in Russia and Central Asia from the 18th to the 20th Centuries. Vol. 2: Inter-Regional and Inter-Ethnic Relations. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag. p. 335–353.
11. Höpp, Gerhard. (1997). Muslime in der Mark. Als Kriegsgefangene und Internierte in Wünsdorf und Zossen (Studien 6). Berlin: Das Arabische Buch.
12. Argamak (2021). Website of the Argamak Youth Association (as of 24.01.2021) http://web.archive.org/web/20210124154738/http://argamak.tatar/
13. Badretdin, Sabirzyan (2001). “Broadcasting Tatar: My work for the Tatar-Bashkir Service of Radio Liberty.” The Tatar Gazette [online] N4–5, 07-05-2001, Parts I—III.
14. http://tatar.yuldash.com/eng_127.html
15. http://tatar.yuldash.com/eng_128.html
16. http://tatar.yuldash.com/eng_129.html
17. Berlin Tatar Youth (2021). https://m.facebook.com/pg/tatar.berlin/posts/?ref=page_internal&mt_nav=0
18. Bertugan (2020). Website of the Bertugan Verlag (Bertugan Publishing House) (as of 21.12.2020). http://web.archive.org/web/20210122114116/http://bertugan.de/Startseite
19. Diktant (2021). Website of Tatarča diktant Yaz [Competition in Tatar dictation]. https://www.diktant.tatar/
20. Hanim (2021). Website of the International Association of Tatar Women “Hanim”. https://tatarhanim.de/
21. ICATAT (2021). Website of the Institute for Caucasica, Tatarica and Turkestan Studies. https://icatat.wordpress.com/
22. Tatarlar (2021). Website of the Tatarlar Deutschland association. https://tatarlar-deutschland.de/wordpress/