Turkish Shops in Berlin's Kreuzberg Neighborhood (1983)

By 1971, Turks were the largest foreign group in the Federal Republic (see statistics), and by 1972 most of the country’s guest workers were also Turkish. After the recruitment of guest workers stopped in 1973, Turks returned home in high numbers, but the Turkish population in the Federal Republic continued to grow, since many long-time guest workers started bringing family members over, and others came in search of asylum. At the beginning of the 1980s, approximately 1.5 million Turks were living in West Germany. In 1983, there were almost 27,000 Turks living in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighborhood alone; there, they represented almost 21% of the population and built up their own subculture.

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Courtesy of the German Information Center