St. George's Austrian High School (, ) is a private

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n- Turkish high school located in

Karaköy Karaköy (), the modern name for the old Galata, is a commercial quarter in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, Turkey, located at the northern part of the Golden Horn mouth on the European side of Bosphorus. Karaköy is one of the oldest and mo ...

Beyoğlu Beyoğlu (; ) is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 9 km2, and its population is 225,920 (2022). It is on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, separated from the o ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. It is one of several

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

s that were founded by

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an or American missions in

during the 19th century, but were then secularized after the founding of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923. Today, the school is subject to regulation by the Turkish Ministry of National Education, and almost its entire student body is Turkish, but a large part of its administrative and teaching staff remains Austrian (appointed by the

Ministry of Education, Science and Research The Ministry of Education ( German: ''Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung'', ''Bildungsministerium'', historically also ''Unterrichtsministerium'') is the government ministry of Austria in charge of public schools and aca ...

), and it offers a mixture of Turkish and Austrian curricula in a

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

environment.

History

Sankt Georg was founded in 1882 by Austrian Lazarists and was originally intended for German-speaking

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

children living in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. After the Ottoman (and Austrian) defeat in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the school was ordered closed by the occupying

Triple Entente The Triple Entente (from French meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was built upon th ...

forces in Istanbul, and all of its staff was sent back to Austria. The school was reopened shortly afterwards when the

Republic of Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

was founded (1923). After the annexation of Austria by the

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in 1938, the school turned into a "German school" and it was closed once again in 1944, due to the freezing of relations between Turkey and Germany. It was reopened in 1947. In 1995, the girls' and boys' schools were merged.

Curriculum

The school combines both the Austrian and the Turkish curricula to prepare its students for the Turkish and Austrian school leaving examinations and to enrich their general knowledge. Under the current curriculum, students at Sankt Georg can learn up to three foreign languages. German and English are the two compulsory foreign languages taught at Sankt Georg. Aside from these two languages, students can choose either

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

or French as their third foreign language. Most subjects (including math, sciences, philosophy and arts) are taught in German by Austrian teachers, but subjects related to Turkish culture and language (such as Turkish literature, history and geography) are taught in Turkish by Turkish teachers. Students learn German in a compulsory one-year preparatory program.

School-leaving qualifications offered

* Turkish high school diploma (''Lise diploması'') * Austrian

Matura or its translated terms (''mature'', ''matur'', , , , , ', ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...

: Students wishing to pursue their

tertiary education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

at universities in Austria, or in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, have the right to sit the Austrian ''Reifeprüfung'' examination at Sankt Georg. Once students pass the examination, they obtain the Matura certificate, which is equivalent to

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), more commonly known as the International Baccalaureate (IB), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the I ...

(IB).

School library

The current school library opened in 1988, after 2 small libraries within the school building were brought together. As of 2020, it contains more than 26,000 books, 20 periodicals/magazines in Turkish, German and English, and CDs/DVDs.

Alumni

Alumni of Sankt Georg gather every year in the last week of April at a re-union called "Strudeltag". Another annual re-union is organised around May in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, which is intended for the graduates of Sankt Georg living/studying in Austria or in other European countries.

Notable alumni

List sorted in alphabetical order of surnames: * Ian F. Akyildiz, Ken Byers Chair Professor in Telecommunications, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA. * Aret Güzel Aleksanyan, founder of Vienna Interkul Theater (Wiener Interkul Theater), 2008 Vienna City Gold Medal for Outstanding Service * Zerrin Arbaş, actress and Best Model of Turkey 1965 * Defne Ayas, Museum Director, Renowned Curator * Cenk Aydin, Young Global Leader, Banker and Entrepreneur * Rutkay Aziz, actor and director *

Zeyno Baran Zeyno Baran (born January 31, 1972) is a Turkish American scholar on issues ranging from US-Turkey relations to Islamist ideology to energy security in Europe and Asia. She was the Director of the Center for Eurasian Policy and a Senior Fellow at ...

, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute * Enis Berberoğlu, Chief editor of the

Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is a major List of newspapers in Turkey, Turkish newspaper, founded in 1948. it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' combines entertainment with news coverage and ...

daily * Gültekin Çizgen, photography artist * Cansu Demirci, actress * Kenan Ece, actor * Burak Elmas, president of the sports club Galatasaray S.K. * Ufuk Esin, archaeologist * Leyla Gediz, painter, arts exhibition curator * Ömer Göksel, composer, jazz musician * Meral Güneyman, musician and pianist * Mehmet Gürel, writer, singer * Zeynep Damla Gürel, Special advisor to the head of state in European affairs; former deputy of

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party (RPP; , CHP ) is a Kemalism, Kemalist and Social democracy, social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal ...

(CHP) * Tunç Hamarat, World Correspondence Chess Champion 1999-2004 * Ediz Hun, actor and MP * Mustafa Iscel, ÖVP MP * Mine Ayşe Karamehmet, founder of the art schools; Atölyedans and Atölyemüzik * Mustafa Koç, businessman * Alev Korun, the first Turkish MP in the

Austrian Parliament The Austrian Parliament () is the bicameral federal legislature of Austria. It consists of two chambers – the National Council and the Federal Council. In specific cases, both houses convene as the Federal Assembly. The legislature meets i ...

* Petros Markaris, Greek-Armenian author * Mehmetcan Mincinozlu, actor * Ulaş Moğultay, Board Member at Türkiye İş Bankası A.Ş. Group * İlber Ortaylı, historian * Fatih Ozguven, author, literary translator and columnist * Tezer Özlü, translator and writer * Murat Ses, musician and keyboard player, founding member of Moğollar * Nijad Sirel, writer * Ahmet Tulgar, writer and journalist * Merva Ulusoy, program editor and presenter for the show ''Headquarters'' on

CNN Türk Cable News Network Türk (known as CNN Türk) is a Turkish free-to-air television news channel, launched on 11 October 1999 as the local affiliate of American channel CNN. It broadcasts exclusively for Turkey and it is owned by Demirören Grou ...

news channel *

Mesut Yılmaz Ahmet Mesut Yılmaz () (6 November 1947 – 30 October 2020) was a Turkish politician. He was the leader of the Motherland Party (, ANAP) from 1991 to 2002, and served three times as Prime Minister of Turkey. His first two prime-ministerial term ...

, former prime minister of Turkey

References

External links

Sankt Georg Avusturya Lisesi Student's Portal

Official website of Sankt Georg Avusturya Lisesi
*
Other Austrian schools around the world
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint George's Austrian High School Austrian diaspora German diaspora High schools in Istanbul Educational institutions established in 1882 Beyoğlu 1882 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Foreign private schools in Turkey