‘Frank, Fresh, Frish, Free’ at the Bosphorus? Selim Sırrı and the German Model of Youth Mobilization in the late Ottoman State, 1908–1918

Abstract

This article focuses on Selim Sırrı [Tarcan]’s appropriation of some German concepts of physical education to mobilize Ottoman youth during the early twentieth century. He was an instructor of physical education and became famous for his writings and speeches in this field in the late Ottoman State and the early Turkish Republic. After a biographical sketch of Selim Sırrı, we review the origins of gymnastics and youth mobilization efforts in Germany, since these were role models in Selim Sırrı's writings. As in Prussia in 1813, after the Balkan Wars in 1913 secularly educated Muslim members of the Ottoman political elite, including Selim Sırrı, introduced some German concepts to the Ottoman structure in order to promote the proto-nationalist ideology. We investigate Selim Sırrı's role in this appropriation of German ideas and models.