Greeks in Germany

Greek Germans

Constantin Carathéodory • Susan Sideropoulos LaFee • Ioannis Masmanidis • Artemis Gounaki
Total population
294,891-380,000 (2007 est.)
Regions with significant populations
Frankfurt Rhine Main Region, Munich, Stuttgart Metropolitan Region
Languages
German, Greek
Religion
Greek Orthodox Christianity

The place where the Griechenhaus stood, a court of Greek merchants in Leipzig

The Greek Salvator church in Munich

The Greeks in Germany form a significant community with a population of 294,891 people according to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, on December 31, 2007.

History

The first Greeks came during the time of the Roman Empire to Central Europe.

Significant immigration from Greece to Germany started around 1700, when the Ottoman Empire opened its borders. The first community was found in Leipzig at this time.

The second wave of immigration was when Otto of Wittelbach became King of Greece as Otto of Greece. Many Greeks came as students to Bavaria.

Early Greek workers in Germany, in 1956

The Greek population of today came mostly after World War II. West Germany needed employees for their expanding industry. In East Germany, Greek communists came as political refugees until 1973.

Many Greeks were relocated to German Democratic Republic during the Greek Civil War.

Greek Schools in Germany

The first Greek schools were created because of the amount of Greeks immigrating over to Germany. Since the first Greek school built in 1960 and up until 1990, over 1 million Greeks had immigrated to Germany. About 800,000 of those Greeks had after either a long-term or a short term stay had gone back to Greece. Nowadays, every fifth of an estimated 47,000 students of Greek origin attends one of 35 Greek schools in Germany.

Educational Attainment of Greeks in Germany

See also: Academic achievement among different groups in Germany

The Greek are a successful minority. Second Generation Greek students were more likely to attend a Gymnasium (college preparatory school) than their ethnic German counterparts.

Demographics

The population of the Greek community in Germany was estimated by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany to be 294,891 people on December 31, 2007. The number increases significantly in other estimations, as the Federal Foreign Office of Germany gives an estimated population of 320,000 people, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece steps it up to 380,000.

Year	1967	1970	1973	1976	1979	1982	1985
Persons	200.961	342.891	407.614	353.733	296.803	300.824	280.614
Year	1988	1991	1994	1997	2000	2001	2003
Persons	274.973	336.893	355.583	363.202	365.438	362.708	354.600

Greek Muslims

See also: Turks in Germany, Turks of Western Thrace, and Muslim minority of Greece

There are some members of the Muslim minority of Greece among the some 350,000 Greeks living in Germany who are ethnic Turks or who espouse a Turkish identity. The majority of Turks immigrated from Western Thrace. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Thracian tobacco industry was affected by a severe crisis and many tobacco growers lost their income. This resulted in many Turks leaving their homes and immigrating to Germany with estimates suggesting that today there are now between 12,000 and 25,000 residing in Germany.

Notable Greek-Germans

A Greek tavern was found 1882 in Neckargemuend near Heidelberg

• Daniela Amavia - actress and model
• Adam Bousdoukos- from Soul Kitchen
• Constantin Carathéodory - mathematician
• Miltiades Caridis - conductor
• Costa Cordalis - singer/songwriter
• Giorgos Donis - footballer
• Margaritis Dimitsas (1830-1903) - geographer
• Artemis Gounaki - singer/songwriter
• LaFee - singer/songwriter
• Georg Anton Jasmatzi (1847-1922) - founder of the Jasmatzi tabac factory (later sold to British American Tobacco)
• Vicky Leandros - singer
• Pierre Mavrogordatos (1870-1948) - archaeologist
• Ioannis Masmanidis - footballer
• Kostantinos Mitroglou - footballer
• Argyris Nastopoulos - singer
• Demis Nikolaidis- footballer
• Joseph Pilates - inventor of Pilates
• Antonis Remos - singer
• Susan Sideropoulos- singer and actress
• Despina Vandi- singer
• Anastasia Zampounidis - broadcaster
• John Argyris-pioneer of the Finite Element Method

See also

• German-Greek relations
• Greek diaspora

References

• Your Link to Germany

Bibliography

• Clogg, Richard (2002). Minorities in Greece: Aspects of a Plural Society. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 185065705X .
• Council of Europe: Parliamentary Assembly (2007). Parliamentary Assembly: Working Papers 2007 Ordinary Session 22–26 January 2007. Council of Europe. ISBN 9287161917 .
• Westerlund, David; Svanberg, Ingvar (1999). Islam Outside the Arab World. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0312226918 .

Further reading

• Troebst, Stefan (September 2004). "Evacuation to a cold country: child refugees from the Greek Civil War in the German Democratic Republic, 1949-1989". Nationalities Papers 32 (3): 675–691. doi:10.1080/0090599042000246442.