Indians in Germany

Indians in Germany

Distribution of Indian citizens in Germany (2021)
Total population
273,000[1] 0.325% of the German Population
Regions with significant populations
Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Rhein-Ruhr, Rhein-Neckar, Braunschweig, Nuremberg, Leipzig
Languages
German, English, Other Indian languages
Related ethnic groups
Indian diaspora

The Indian community in Germany includes Indian expatriates residing in Germany, as well as German citizens of Indian origin or descent. In 2009, the German government estimated that the number of people of Indian descent residing in Germany at 110,204, of which 43,175 people were holding an Indian passport, while 67,029 were holding a German passport.^[2] In 2023 the number stood at about 273,000 of Indian descent of which 198,000 had a migration background.^[3] According to the Federal Statistical Office the number of nationals from India is the second largest in Germany from either South, South East, East or Central Asia, only below the number of nationals from Afghanistan.^[4]

History

Small numbers of Indian students resided in Germany before and during the Second World War. In early to late 1960s and 1970s, many Malayali Catholic women from Kerala were recruited by the German Catholic institutions to work as nurses in German hospitals.^[5] According to the documentary ‘Translated lives’, around 5,000 women migrated from Kerala during the 1960s and 70s to become nurses there.^[6] Since the 2010s, the Indian population also grew in former East Germany due to Indian students who study mostly in technical universities. Unlike other minorities, there are many Indians in cities like Chemnitz and Leipzig and the state of Saxony has the largest population of federal state in former East Germany with about 9,000 Indians.

Number of Indians in larger cities
#	City	People	Notes
1.	Berlin	37,120	As of June 2024 [7]
2.	Munich	17,004	As of August 2024[8]
3.	Frankfurt	10,692	As of December 2023[9]
4.	Hamburg	8,923	As of December 2023[10]
5.	Stuttgart	6,166	As of December 2023[11]
6.	Düsseldorf	5,987	As of December 2023[12]
7.	Erlangen	3,822	As of December 2023[13]
8.	Cologne	3,639	As of December 2023[14]
9.	Aachen	3,622	As of July 2024[15]
10.	Braunschweig	3,087	As of March 2024[16]
11.	Mannheim	3,018	As of December 2023[17]
12.	Leipzig	2,756	As of December 2023
13.	Bonn	2,459	As of December 2022[18]
14.	Dresden	2,408	As of December 2023[19]
15.	Karlsruhe	2,347	As of December 2023
16.	Augsburg	2,122	As of July 2024
17.	Bochum	2,044	As of December 2023
18.	Wuppertal	2,008	As of December 2023
19.	Duisburg	2,001	As of December 2023
20.	Nürnberg	1,992	As of December 2023
21.	Hannover	1,856	As of March 2024
22.	Wiesbaden	1,766	As of September 2024
23.	Bremen	1,738	As of December 2023
24.	Darmstadt	1,633	As of December 2023
23.	Magdeburg	1,657	As of December 2023

Modern era

Germany has become a popular destination for higher learning, and of the total student population in Germany about 12% are International students.^[20] Hundreds of schools in India have signed up to teach students German as their primary foreign language as part of an effort by Germany's top technical colleges to attract more Indian students.^[21] As a result, there has been a steady increase in the Indian student population in Germany which has quadrupled in 7 years since 2008.^[22][23] Of these, more than 80% Indian students pursue their studies or research in the STEM fields i.e., Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.^[24]

Academic year	No. of Indian students enrolled in German universities
2008–09	3,516[22]
2011–12	5,998[23]
2012–13	7,532[22]
2013–14	10,000[25]
2014–15	11,860[24]
2015–16	13,740[23]
2017–18	17,570[26]
2018–19	20,810[27]
2019–20	25,149[28]
2020–21	28,905[29]
2021–22	34,134[29]
2022–23	42,997[29]
2023–24	49,483 [30]

Notable people

• Rahul Kumar Kamboj, first Indian City Parliament Member of Frankfurt^[31]
• Dhruv Rathee, Youtuber
• Aditya Kripalani Filmmaker
• Evelyn Sharma, Bollywood actress
• Mink Brar, actress
• Ayesha Kapur, actress
• Sandeep Bhagwati, composer
• Rahul Peter Das, South Asianist (Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg) and President of the German Association for Asian Studies
• Robin Dutt, football club manager
• Sebastian Edathy, member of the German parliament (Social Democratic Party)
• Collien Fernandes, media person
• Shanta Ghosh, sprinter
• Manjou Wilde, footballer
• Gujjula Ravindra Reddy, member of the state parliament of Brandenburg and former mayor of Altlandsberg (Social Democratic Party)
• Joybrato Mukherjee, Professor of English Linguistics and the President of the University of Giessen.Youngest university president ever appointed in Germany. President of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
• Judith Lefeber, singer
• Subrata K. Mitra, political scientist (Heidelberg University, retired)
• Xavier Naidoo, singer
• Anita Bose Pfaff, economist, daughter of Subhas Chandra Bose
• Kamala Reddy, Hindu guru
• Sabrina Setlur, singer and ex-girlfriend of Boris Becker
• Shweta Shetty, singer
• Ashok-Alexander Sridharan, Ex-Mayor of Bonn
• Indira Weis, singer
• Josef Winkler, member of the German parliament (Alliance '90/The Greens)
• Atul Chitnis, open-source software developer
• Tino Sehgal, Berlin-based artist of Indian and British descent
• Irshad Panjatan, Berlin-based actor and mime artist of Indian descent
• Anuradha Doddaballapur, Germany National Women's cricket Team captain^[32][33]
• Sharanya Sadarangani, Germany National Women's cricketer
• Karthika Vijayaraghavan, Germany National Women's cricketer

See also

• Germany–India relations
• Romani people in Germany
• Tamil Germans
• Pakistanis in Germany
• Mauritians in Germany
• Afghan Germans
• Sri Lankan Germans
• Iranian Germans
• Maldivians in Germany
• Indians in Sweden
• Pakistanis in Sweden
• Mauritians in Sweden
• Afghans in Sweden
• Sri Lankans in Sweden
• Iranians in Sweden
• Maldivians in Sweden

References

1. "Population in private households according to migration background in the broader sense according to selected countries of birth". DeStatis (Federal Office of Statistics). Retrieved 8 October 2024.
2. Bundesamt für Flüchtlinge und Migration, Dr. habil. Sonja Haug Stephanie Müssig, M.A. Dr. Anja Stichs (Hrsg): Muslimisches Leben in Deutschland, 2009: page 76, chart 5
3. "Bevölkerung in Privathaushalten nach Migrationshintergrund im weiteren Sinn nach ausgewählten Geburtsstaaten".
4. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bevoelkerung/Migration-Integration/Publikationen/Downloads-Migration/auslaend-bevoelkerung-2010200207004.pdf?__blob=publicationFile ^{[bare URL PDF]}
5. Goel, Urmila (2008), "The Seventieth Anniversary of 'John Matthew': On 'Indian' Christians in Germany", in Jacobsen, Knut A.; Raj, Selva J. (eds.), South Asian Christian Diaspora: Invisible Diaspora in Europe and North America, Ashgate Publishing, p. 57, ISBN 978-0-7546-6261-7
6. "A Kerala touch to German nursing". The Hindu. 5 March 2014.
7. "Statistischer Bericht A I 5 – hj 1 / 24 Einwohnerregisterstatistik Berlin 30. Juni 2024" (PDF). Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg. 1 October 2024. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
8. "Monatszahlen-Monitoring München". Retrieved 1 October 2024.
9. "Asiatische und australische Staatsangehörigkeiten". Retrieved 1 October 2024.
10. "Ausländische Bevölkerung in Hamburg am 31.12.2023" (PDF). Retrieved 1 October 2024.
11. "Ausländer in Stuttgart seit 1995 nach Staatsangehörigkeit und Altersgruppen". Retrieved 8 October 2024.
12. "Ausländer*innen nach bevölkerungsstärksten Nationen aus dem Einwohnermelderegister". Retrieved 1 October 2024.
13. "Herkunft der Ausländer*innen in Erlangen am 31.12.2023". Retrieved 8 October 2024.
14. "Statistisches Jahrbuch 2023" (PDF). Retrieved 1 October 2024.
15. "Melderegisterauswertung Stand 30.06.2024" (PDF). Retrieved 8 October 2024.
16. https://www.braunschweig.de/politik_verwaltung/fb_institutionen/fachbereiche_referate/fb01/ref0120/stadtforschung/Infoline_StaFo_BS_2024-07_MigraPro_2023_ee.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
17. https://mannheim.de. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
18. "Melderegisterauswertung Stand 30.06.2024" (PDF). Retrieved 8 October 2024.
19. "Zuwanderung". Retrieved 8 October 2024.
20. "Germany welcomes record number of Indian students: Study in Germany". Careerindia.com. 15 September 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
21. "Germany to Indian students: Willkommen!". Washington Post. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
22. "Indian students' enrolment in German universities up more than 100% in 5 years". Times of India. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
23. "Number of Indian students in Germany doubles". Timeshighereducation.com. 2 June 2017. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
24. "Germany scores high for students; record growth in Indians studying in Germany for 2014–15". Blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/. 14 September 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
25. "'In last 5 years, intake of Indian students in German universities has doubled'". Indianexpress.com. 22 August 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
26. "'Germany welcomes record number of indian students in 2018–2019'". daad.in. 22 August 2015. Archived from the original on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
27. "2018–19 record number of Indian students". Archived from the original on 28 July 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
28. "Germany welcomes Record Number of Indian Students | DAAD India in 2019–20". Archived from the original on 7 June 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
29. "Indian Student Numbers touch a Record High in Germany". www.daad.in. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
30. "'Indians form largest group of international students in Germany'". thepienews.com. 9 September 2024. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
31. "Rahul Kumar becomes first Indian-origin man to win city parliamentary election in Germany – Times of India". The Times of India. 3 April 2021.
32. "Anuradha-Doddaballapur". Deutscher Cricket Bund (in German). Archived from the original on 2 May 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
33. "Frauen-Nationalmannschaft auf England-Tour". Deutscher Cricket Bund (in German). 4 July 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2019.

Further reading

• Van Hoven, Bettina; Meijering, Louise (2005), "Transient Masculinities: Indian IT-professionals in Germany", in Van Hoven, Bettina; Hörschelmann, Kathrin (eds.), Spaces of masculinities, Critical geographies, vol. 20, Routledge, pp. 75–85, ISBN 978-0-415-30696-6
• Meijering, Louise; Van Hoven, Bettina (2003), "Imagining difference: The experiences of 'transnational' Indian IT-professionals in Germany" (PDF), Area, 35 (2): 175–182, Bibcode:2003Area...35..174M, doi:10.1111/1475-4762.00253
• Lal, Brij V.; Reeves, Peter; Reeves, Rajesh, eds. (2006), "Germany", The encyclopedia of the Indian diaspora, University of Hawaii Press, pp. 358–362, ISBN 978-0-8248-3146-2
• Goel, Urmila (2007), "'Indians in Germany': The imagination of a community" (PDF), UNEAC Asia Papers, 20, archived from the original (PDF) on 9 May 2010, retrieved 15 September 2009
• Goel, Urmila (2008). "'Half Indians', Adopted 'Germans' and 'Afghan Indians'. On Claims of 'Indianness' and their contestations in Germany". Transforming Cultures eJournal. 3 (1). doi:10.5130/tfc.v3i1.676.
• Goel, Urmila (2008), "The German Internet Portal Indernet: A Space for Multiple Belongingness", in Goggin, Gerard; McLelland, Mark (eds.), Internationalizing Internet Studies: Beyond Anglophone Paradigms, Routledge advances in internationalizing media studies, vol. 2, Taylor & Francis, pp. 128–144, ISBN 978-0-415-95625-3

External links

• Indians in Magdeburg - a student initiative that helps and provides useful information to non-German speakers, especially Indian students
• Magdeburg Indians- Magdeburg Indians e.V. – a private organization registered in Magdeburg, Germany, Saxony-Anhalt
• Deutsch-Indische Gesellschaft
• Indians in Germany
• Indians In Germany
• Indien-Institut in Munich/Bavaria; attached to Völkerkundemuseum
• Escape from East Germany 1972, autobiographical account of an Indian Ph.D. student in Dresden who married an East German woman
• Marathi Katta Germany, Frankfurt – A Marathi Indian Community, a non-profit organization serving Marathi/Maharashtrian Indian community living in Germany for many years.