Arab Germans are German citizens of Arab descent. They form the second-largest predominantly Muslim immigrant group in Germany after the large German–Turkish community. There is an estimated number of 400,000 to 500,000 people of Arab origin residing in Germany in 2013. In the following years, the numbers doubled as they are an estimated 1,000,000+ people. As of 31 December 2017, the total of people reached 1,234,365. Most Arabs moved to Germany in the 1970s, partly as Gastarbeiter from Morocco, the Turkish Province of Mardin and Tunisia. Later many came from Kuwait, Lebanon, and recently many came from Syria and Iraq. The majority of Arabs are refugees of the conflicts in the Middle East. The first notable Arab-German was Emily Ruete, originally Salama bint Said, a Princess of Zanzibar who became pregnant by a German man who was her neighbor. Fearing retaliation, she eloped with him to Germany, converted to Christianity, and married him. She later published her autobiography, “Memoirs of an Arabian Princess”.
Geographical distribution
The largest concentration of Arab people in Germany, can be found in Berlin, where they make up 2%–3% of the population. The percentage is significantly higher in the Berlin neighborhoods of Neukölln, Kreuzberg and Gesundbrunnen. Other significant centres of Arab populations in Germany can be found in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, Frankfurt, Munich, Hanover and Hamburg. Most Arabs reside in urban areas and cities in former West-Germany. The only place in former Eastern Germany with a sizeable number of Arabs is Leipzig, where people of any Arab descent make up 0.8% of the total population. Among the German districts with the highest shares of Arab migrants in 2011 were especially cities in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region and the Rhineland with large groups of Moroccan migrants.
No
Country of birth
Population
Population
Population
1.
366,556
637,845
698,950
2.
136,399
227,195
237,365
3.
72,129
75,855
75,620
4.
37,160
41,445
41,375
5.
23,350
33,900
38,675
6.
30,696
32,900
34,140
7.
22,979
26,915
29,600
8.
20,505
21,320
19,845
9.
13,123
14,265
14,805
10.
10,041
10,755
11,520
11.
7,145
7,715
7,760
12.
4,150
4,870
5,540
13.
6,207
5,835
5,350
14.
2,531
3,470
3,770
15.
3,551
4,185
3,715
16.
3,043
3,845
3,310
17.
1,047
1,085
1,060
18.
704
750
740
19.
620
600
540
20.
390
435
480
21.
104
125
135
22.
68
80
70
Σ 22
Total
762,498
1,155,390
1,234,635
Clans involved in crime
In Berlin, clans of Arab descent have organised parallel societies in Berlin and Bremen where they sustain themselves by crime. In Berlin, 20 extended families with each having up to 500 members are established according to estimates of the police, but not all family members are involved in crime. According to the Landeskriminalamt, a third of all court proceedings against organized crime concerns members of the clans. About half of the clan suspects had a German passport. In January 2019, 1300 police took part in an effort against Arab crime clans in Essen, Duisburg, Bochum, Dortmund, Recklinghausen and Gelsenkirchen. It was the largest police operation in the history of North Rhine-Westphalia.
