Alevi

/Alevi

TODAY

2016 | 8 | 4|

Germany’s Alevi community is made up of around 500,000 members.

2002-2006

2002 | 8 | 4|

The Berlin Senate recognised the Alevis as a religious community, as defined by the Education Act. Following this, the Alevi belief system was introduced into religious education lessons at some primary schools in Berlin. Since 2006, the Alevis have participated in Berlin’s Social City project and in neighbourhood management schemes.

1999

1999 | 8 | 4|

The Alevi Community of Berlin moved into the former building of the New Apostolic church in Kreuzberg. The community centre it had used previously at Lindower Straße in the district of Wedding was by then too small for its 1,500 members, and the new building was bought for 1.7 million deutschmarks. It was redesigned and has been used since then as a "cemevi" (meeting house or community centre). With its religious-cultural programme, it was the first of its kind in Germany.

1979

1979 | 8 | 4|

In 1979 the Alevi Community of Berlin (Turkish: Berlin Alevi Toplumu) was founded.

1961

1961 | 8 | 4|

In Bad Godesberg in West Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany and Turkey signed a "recruitment agreement". Similar agreements with Italy, Spain and Greece had already been made. Turkish workers were now able to apply for jobs in Germany and enter the Federal Republic as "guest workers". Their stay was initially limited to two years. Among those arriving were Alevis. This was the beginning of the Turkish diaspora in Germany.

1958

1958 | 8 | 4|

On the site of a former factory (now Waldemarstraße 20 in Berlin-Kreuzberg), a building was converted into a Christian meeting place. In December, the inauguration of a new Apostolic Church took place. Forty years later, the church was closed.

1923

1923 | 7 | 31|

Founding of the Turkish Republic. Suppressed during the Ottoman Empire, the Alevis put their hopes in the new president, Atatürk, and the new secular state. Although the Alevi religious community, a branch of Shi‘a Islam, held equal legal status, its members still faced persecution and discrimination.