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History

The History of Bosch in Türkiye

In the spirit of friendship

Yellow sign with Bosch lettering from the 1970s on a construction site

The story of Bosch in Türkiye is also the story of a friendship. It began in 1910, when Robert Bosch started selling his magneto ignition in Istanbul. The resulting friendly contacts formed the foundation for the good cooperation between Bosch and Türkiye, where the company has also been manufacturing since 1973.

Close-up photo of the face of Robert Bosch.
Robert Bosch was a lifelong friend of Türkiye, 1925.

On 1 April 1917, Robert Bosch's heartfelt wish came true. On this day, the foundation stone was laid for the "House of Friendship" in Istanbul, for which he had donated a large sum of money. Robert Bosch felt a lifelong friendship with Türkiye. In addition to the beauty of the country, he was particularly impressed by the people.

Robert Bosch had had business interests in Türkiye ever since he reached an agreement with a commercial agency in Istanbul in 1910. The first setbacks in the relationship between Bosch and Türkiye came during the First World War, while contact between the two ceased altogether during the second.

Not one single German vehicle

After the war, Bosch did everything in its power to revive its business relations with Türkiye, sending representatives in the country on the Bosporus.

“(…) the streets of the main cities (Istanbul and Ankara) are flooded with thousands of the very latest American cars, generating a volume of traffic that would be impossible to imagine back home. I did not see one single German vehicle in the entire 14 days I was there,” reported an astonished Karl Zehender in 1948. He was confident that a Bosch sales office in Türkiye would be a success and he was to be proved right: in 1948, Bosch appointed the Turkish businessman Ahmet Veli Menger as its sole commercial agent in Türkiye. In the following years, Menger further expanded the Bosch customer service network. In addition to imported supplier products for the automotive industry, Bosch refrigerators were very popular in Türkiye at the time. Sales of Bosch products flourished in the country.

A shop with a shop window and Bosch sign on a street in the 1950s.
The company operated several Bosch sales offices in Türkiye, as here in Izmir (formaly Smyrna) in 1954.

From nozzles to complete diesel injection pumps

In order to meet the growing demand for nozzles for diesel injection systems in the country itself, Bosch founded its own regional company for local production in 1970. A location was soon found in the industrial district of Bursa. When the first Bosch plant on Turkish soil was dedicated in May 1973, it covered an area of just 4,500 square meters. However, next to the plant was a plot of land measuring some 90,000 square meters — an ideal site for future expansion. This forward planning paid off, and in the years that followed, numerous other diesel products were added to the manufacturing portfolio. The 1990s even saw the construction of a second plant in Bursa devoted primarily to diesel injection systems.

Workshop with glazed transport rails, screens and workers sitting one behind the other
From 2000 onwards, Bursa plant also produced Common Rail injectors.

Today, Bosch manufactures a wide range of automotive technology products for diesel and gasoline engines in Bursa. In addition, the company produced gas-fired heating systems, automation technology, household appliances, and other equipment in Istanbul and Manisa, and has also established a presence in Türkiye selling a wide selection of Bosch products, such as power tools and security systems. Bosch employs a total of 18,000 associates in Türkiye today.

A street name remains

Robert Bosch would no doubt have been pleased to see how successful this business relationship had become. One of his goals had always been to use global business relationships to establish closer links between people of different nations and create an atmosphere of peaceful cooperation and collaboration. This vision was to be reflected in the “House of Friendship” in 1917. Sadly, the course of the first world war put an end to these plans, and construction work got no further than the foundation walls. Today, at least a street name in Istanbul remains to commemorate the project: Dostluk Yurdu Sodak — House of Friendship Street.

Author: Vera Dendler

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