Beyoğlu Reconsidered: A New Perspective on Cultural Communities and Placemaking in Istanbul's Central District between the 1950s and 1980s

This article investigates processes and representations of placemaking in Beyoğlu in the thirty years following the 1950s. Through an analysis of two case studies, the Galatasaray High School and the Germanophone Teutonia club, it helps to deconstruct the representation of Istanbul's central historical district Beyoğlu as a district in decay. This representation frames the district as subversive on the one hand and marked by trauma or loss of cosmopolitanisms on the other. The paper argues that processes of placemaking during this period made the district part and parcel of identity formation for a variety of communities in the city. While considering notions of Beyoğlu as a place of decay and vulgarity are important to comprehend broader historical representations of the area, these representations are contradicted or nuanced by both economic and demographic statistics and qualitative examples. This article shows that for the Galatasaraylı community and a part of the German-speaking community in Istanbul, this district has been of crucial significance as a place of social gathering. The article argues that these cases are symptomatic for broader trends in Beyoğlu as a place of social gathering, commerce and culture in the second half of the twentieth century.