1st Edition

Economic Ideas Across Borders A History of German Influence on Turkish Economics

Edited By Jakob Kapeller, M. Erdem Özgür Copyright 2026

Exploring the cross-cultural exchange of ideas between German and Turkish scholars, policymakers, and institutions, this book sheds light on how German theories were interpreted and applied in Turkey during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Situating the flow of ideas within broader patterns of economic globalization, the contributors to this edited volume explore historical, economic, and ideological developments in Turkey and Germany. Within economic thought, there is a particular focus on the influence of the German Historical School in Turkish economic thought; the contributions of German refugee scholars in the 1930s, through their publications, courses they offered, and their relations with the other members of academia; and Marxian Asiatic Mode of Production debates of the 1960s. In terms of economic policy, the book also discusses agrarian populism in the 1930s, German soft power in interwar Turkey, the first Gastarbeiter Agreement and its effects, German investments in Turkey after the World War II, and the role of sports in shaping relations between Germany and Turkey.

The book will be of great interest to readers in the history of economic thought, intellectual history, economic history, and the histories of Germany and Turkey more broadly.

 List of contributors

Acknowledgements

Introduction: The German Impact on Turkish Economic and Institutional Development

Jakob Kapeller and M. Erdem Özgür

Part I:  Ottoman Empire and Early Twentieth Century

1 The Effect of Cameralism on Ottoman Economic Thought Revisited

Mesut Sert

2 German Influence in Turn-of-the-century Ottoman Economic Thought: Efforts to Save the Empire

M. Erdem Özgür

3 Re-evaluating Human Capital in Turkish Economic Thought: Another Case of German Influence

Erkan Gürpınar

Part II:  Interwar Period and WWII Era

4 The Effects of Historismus and Staatswissenschaften on Kadro Thought and Policy

Eyüp Özveren

5 German Economists in Turkish Universities: Intellectual Migration and Institutional Transformation

Hakkı Bilen

6 German Refugee Economists and the Development of Turkish Economic Thought: A Study of Early Influences, Contributions, and Legacies

Nur Merve Kılıçkan

7 German Soft Power in Interwar Turkey: Economic Benefits and New Spheres of Influence

Mert Doğukan Perk

8 Blood, Soil, and Fertility: National Regeneration through the Rural Ideal in Interwar Germany and Turkey

M. Asım Karaömerlioğlu

9 Transforming Commercial Law in the Turkish Republic: The Legacy of Ernst Hirsch

Seven Ağır

Part III: Post-WWII to Contemporary Period 

10 The Asiatic Mode of Production Debates in Turkey

Alp Yücel Kaya

11 Sencer Divitçioğlu (1927–2014) and the Asiatic Mode of Production Revisited

Altuğ Yalçıntaş

12 The 1961 German–Turkish Gastarbeiter Contract: The Shifting Dynamics of Turkish Migration to Germany

Alisait Yılkın

13 Building Bridges Through Football: Migration, Identity, and German Influence in Turkish Football

Tolga Genç

14 Post-World War II Economic Relations between Germany and Turkey: A Study of Influence and Partnership

Cem Dişbudak

Index

Biography

Jakob Kapeller is Professor of Socio- Economics at the Institute for Socio-Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, University Duisburg- Essen, Germany. In addition, he is heading the Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy (ICAE) at Johannes Kepler University Linz.

M. Erdem Özgür is Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, Faculty of Business, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey.