Bulgarians in Germany

Bulgarians in Germany are one of the largest communities of the Bulgarian diaspora in Western Europe.

According to official figures from the year 2011 95.956 Bulgarians were counted in Germany. 2007 were still about 46,800 Bulgarians counted according to unofficial estimates, the figure is 80,000-100,000. Estimates of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria quantify the number of Bulgarians in Germany on more than 90,000, of which half has acquired German citizenship.

Approximately 7 percent of Bulgarians living in Germany (2011), or 7997 are students at German universities. They constitute the largest group (Great Britain 3000, Austria around 2000, USA 1957, Netherlands 1170 ) of studying abroad Bulgarians.

History

Already in the Middle Ages, the Bulgarian Empire with the German-speaking countries in contact until the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the 14th and 15th centuries separated this band. From the 16th century Bulgarian Orthodox clerics are known, which came into contact with German Lutherans, and in the 18th century were distinguished Bulgarian merchants in Leipzig by merchants other balkan - Christian denominations.

Only in the 19th century, however, as the German - Bulgarian relations had become intense again, was worked back stronger in the education field. In the years 1825-1831 the Bulgarian Petar Beron reconnaissance studied at the University of Heidelberg, was during 1845-1847, the journalist and linguist Ivan Bogorov student at the University of Leipzig. From 1846 to 1847 published Bogorov of Leipzig from the first Bulgarian newspaper called Bulgarian eagle.

After the liberation of Bulgaria from five centuries of continuous end Turkish rule in 1878, the newly established German Empire was more a center of higher education for Bulgarians, and hundreds of Bulgarian students were sent to Germany with government grants of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia ( before 1885 ). German universities were for the Bulgarians, together with universities in Switzerland, the most popular in Western Europe and were standing in the popularity of all foreign educational institutions only to those from the Empire Russia and Austria - Hungary after. In the late 19th and early 20th century club ups Bulgarian students fell in Leipzig, Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Heidelberg, Erlangen, Halle and Freiburg im Breisgau. Only the University of Leipzig from 1879 to 1899 had 101 Bulgarian students, and in the years 1900 to 1918, in Germany a total of 194 dissertations of Bulgarian students passed.

The Bulgarian - German Association was founded on 16 February 1918 in Berlin and had branches in many German cities. After the Wars, the pedagogical relations were maintained: studied in the years 1926 to 1927 alone, 302 people from Bulgaria to Germany.

Also in the GDR remained close relations with Bulgaria exist, and many Bulgarians studied at East German universities. Some remained thereafter in the GDR, while after 1990, more people from Bulgaria migrated and today find relatively large Bulgarian communities in the new federal states.

Religions

Today, there are Bulgarian Orthodox parishes in Berlin, Leipzig, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Bonn, Munich, Stuttgart, Regensburg and Passau, with a bishopric and a cathedral in Berlin.

Bulgarians of Turkish origin in Germany

From the early 1980s, the repression against the Muslim and Turkish minorities in Bulgaria is reinforced. 1986 forced the Bulgarian authorities, the Turkish minority to accept Slavic names and banned the education in Turkish language. Around 380,000 ethnic Turks were forced to take drastic measures to emigrate to Turkey, or got into a labor camp. This lasted until the early 1990s.

From the early 1990s on began to recruit Bulgarians of Turkish origin in Western Europe, for the first time in their social history. Migration to Germany was particularly initiated by those Bulgarian Turks, who were unable to attend the first massive waves of migration to Turkey in 1989 for various reasons or the part of the later returnees wave were, which resulted from the lack of social integration perspective in Turkey. The majority of Bulgarians of Turkish origin are drawn in the 1990s as asylum seekers to Germany, where they favorable social benefits should be granted.

Bulgarians of Turkish origin are predominantly in the less safe sectors of the German labor market with ethnic businesses that require higher flexibility and tougher working conditions to meet. They seem to rely for employment predominantly on the cooperation of ethnic networks that were founded by German - Turks. The majority of this group of Turks are relatively new in Germany and now often consists of regular migrants. Legalize their status frequently through marriages with German citizens, while a smaller number of children brought into Germany to the world.

Well-known German - Bulgarian

• Ari Leschnikoff (1897-1978), musician and lead singer of the Comedian Harmonists
• Ivan Stranski (1897-1979), physical chemist
• Janko janeff (1900-1945), Nazi poet and philosopher
• Slatan Dudow (1903-1963), film director and screenwriter
• Philippow Eugen (1917-1991), Professor of Electrical Engineering in Ilmenau
• Saschko Gawriloff (born 1929), violinist
• Dimitar Inkiow (1932-2006), writer
• Dimiter Gotscheff (1943-2013), theater director
• Georgi Gogow (born 1948), musician
• Ilija Trojanov (born 1965), writer
• Samuel Finzi (born 1966), actor
• Mirco Nontschew (born 1969), comedian
• Emil Ivanov ( born 1970), archaeologist
• Lucy Diakovska (born 1976), singer