Assyrians/Syriacs in Germany

Syrians / Assyrians ( Syriacs proper name ) in Germany are the people living in Germany Aramaic ethnicity.

Their number is estimated at about 100,000; most live in North Rhine -Westphalia, Hesse, Bavaria and Baden- Württemberg (especially in the cities of Wiesbaden, Paderborn, food, Augsburg and Gütersloh ). You speak as a native language Syriac, an Aramaic dialect, as well as Turkish; as a second or foreign language they speak mostly also Arabic and German. They are mostly members of the Syrian Orthodox Church ( 100,000 ), the Chaldean Catholic Church ( 5000 ) and the Assyrian Eastern Church (about 20,000 ).

Origin and History

As a result of the oppression and persecution of the Syrians in the countries of their ancestral homeland (Turkey, Iraq and Syria) during the 20th century (see also the genocide of the Aramaic ) came many Syrians as asylum seekers to Germany.

The majority, however, came in the 1960s and 1970s from Turkey in the wake of the German economic plan, which sought foreign workers as labor immigrants. Syrians worked in restaurants or as a construction worker and also began to operate their own businesses. The first Aramaean immigrants in Germany organized themselves into associations for the preservation of culture and the construction of their own churches.

Today, many Syrians gather in Germany in churches and associations, particularly at the traditional feast days, and at Easter or Christmas.