Sümerbank, whose name was given by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, inspired by the Sumerians, one of the first civilizations of the Near East, turns 93. Today, Sümerbank’s archive is kept and preserved under the roof of Beykoz Kundura by Kundura Hafıza, and Nurtaç Buluç* tells its history.

“…For complete independence, there is this rule: national sovereignty must be supported by financial sovereignty. The only force that will lead us to this goal is the economy. No matter how great political and military victories may be, unless they are crowned with economic victories, they cannot endure.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (İzmir Economic Congress, February 17, 1923)

STATE-LED INDUSTRIALIZATION: SÜMERBANK IS FOUNDED

In the 10th year of the Republic, the First Five-Year Industrialization Plan was drawn up, together with plans for the industrialization drive to be carried out through State Industry Programs. Sümerbank was founded on July 11, 1933, “with the aim of serving the collective interests of the nation by carrying out banking activities and the establishment and operation of industrial facilities, wholly owned by the State, in such a way as to achieve the highest efficiency and profitability within a mixed economy.”** Distinguished as the first State Economic Enterprise of the Republic of Türkiye, Sümerbank was named by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk himself, inspired by the Sumerians, one of the first civilizations of the Near East, who had been identified through archaeological studies as sharing a common language and race with the Turks. Sümerbank would become the principal institution to put into practice the industrial plans and the social factory model of the Early Republican Period.

In the early years of the Republic, building a national economy and securing capital and raw materials were among the state’s founding, protective and promotional policy goals in the economy. In this context, industrialization was seen as one of the most important stages of development. Previously, the Law for the Encouragement of Industry, enacted in 1927, had granted incentives to private investors in industry, but the desired results could not be achieved because of the adverse effects of the 1929 Great Depression; under all these conditions, the principle of statism was adopted in the economy, and a model of factory building shaped by national needs was put in place. Among the enterprises founded in the Ottoman period and transferred to Sümerbank with the Republic were the Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası (Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory), the Feshane Textile Factory, the Bakırköy Cloth Factory and the Hereke Carpet and Woolen Weaving Factory. The handful of industrial legacies left over from the Ottoman era did not have the capacity to bring about the development of a newly founded country, so in addition to these factories, Sümerbank established the Kayseri Cloth Factory, the İzmit Paper Factory, the Ereğli Cloth Factory, the Nazilli Cloth Factory, the Gemlik Artificial Silk Factory, the Bursa Merinos Factory and the Karabük Iron and Steel Factory under the First Five-Year Industrial Plan (1934-1939). Over time, the network grew richer as factories opened in different cities producing a wide range of goods, from cotton, wool and silk woven fabrics, carpets, leather, ceramics, porcelain, bricks, iron, steel, cement and hemp to cellulose, sunflower oil and soy.

SÜMERBANK IN SOCIAL MODERNIZATION

This new “Sümerbank System” was more than a model of industrialization in the economic sense: it also embodied a model of modernization with socio-cultural aims, seeking to produce the “modern life/modern individual” that the Republic needed. Not only in the field of production, it also ensured that the culture and core concepts of the newly founded Republic took root and were embraced in the regions where it built its factories. As Turkish modernization took shape on the basis of building a nation-state and creating a new national identity, Sümerbank, beyond being a classic industrial enterprise engaged in production, also formed the very core of this new nation-building. Taking its name from the “Sumerians,” Sümerbank also incorporated the “traditional,” the fundamental source of local culture, into its own designs, carrying it into its modern identity and preserving it.

LIFE WITH SÜMERBANK

In industrializing, Sümerbank adopted a “human-centered” model aimed not only at economic development but also at socio-cultural progress. With this new model of factory building, which created a qualified, modern public through a system of modernization and enlightenment, it had the structure of a socio-cultural enterprise, providing its employees with shared spaces that met every kind of need, from nurseries to hospitals, from cinemas to festivals, and from staff housing to schools. With the training courses offered to factory workers, study trips at home and abroad and evening classes; with staff housing and dormitories for single workers to meet their housing needs; and with the volleyball, basketball and football teams set up within the factory units themselves and cultural activities such as cinema and theater, Sümerbank factories represented “A World Fit into a Factory”***. Every August at the Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası, mass circumcision ceremonies were held for the children of factory workers, and events such as World Children’s Day Week were celebrated. Offering a variety of practices of socialization, Sümerbank factories contributed to the development of social practices through the spatial context they provided, and came to represent the social state.

THE DOMESTIC GOODS MARKET

In 1929, the National Economy and Savings Society was founded with the slogan “national savings” to encourage the use of domestic goods and build awareness of saving. In line with the Society’s activities, Domestic Goods and Savings Week and conferences were organized, and efforts were made to promote domestic goods and spread their use through exhibitions at home and abroad. After its founding, Sümerbank carried on this mission through its own factories and production sites, announcing the campaign to the public in the 1930s and ’40s with slogan-style posters and advertisements. The new national identity that the Republic set out to create was realized simultaneously in the fields of economy and culture, following a model that was national and domestic in production and international in technique and design.

*Nurtaç Buluç: Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research Lead

**Kamil Oba, “Sümerbank’ın Kuruluşu ve 32 Yıllık Çalışmaları” [The Founding of Sümerbank and Its 32 Years of Work], Sümerbank Dergisi, 49/52 (1965): 161.

***The exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory,” opened to visitors by Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research in 2021, brings together traces from the memory of the Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası.