German Chancellor Merz says at Berlin anniversary ceremony Turkish guest workers helped build Germany and warns ‘remigration’ threatens that legacy

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Turkish guest workers helped build Germany’s industrial prosperity and warned that the current debate over “remigration” amounted to an attack on the modern country shaped by 65 years of Turkish migration.

Merz made the remarks Tuesday, October 20, at a ceremony in Berlin marking the 65th anniversary of the 1961 German-Turkish recruitment agreement.

He recalled that the first generation often lived in workers’ colonies and separate dormitories near factories, sometimes in converted industrial halls with shared kitchens, multi-bed rooms and curfews. “Work, sleep, work, sleep,” Merz said, describing the daily rhythm of many early arrivals.

“Turkish guest workers helped build the industrial substance of our country,” he said, adding that the Ruhr region would not have become as prosperous without that first generation.

Merz also pointed to Turkish-German contributions in literature, film, football, science and medicine, naming Aras Ören, Deniz Utlu, Fatih Akin, Sibel Kekilli, İlkay Gündoğan, Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci.

He said Germans and Turks had become more open and tolerant through decades of contact and credited teachers, colleagues and neighbors who helped the first generation and their children learn German and integrate into everyday life.

Merz then warned that social progress could be reversed. Referring to the increasingly prominent term “remigration,” he said: “Behind it lies an attack on the modern Germany that we have built together over the past 65 years.”

Germany and Türkiye signed the recruitment agreement on October 30, 1961. Nearly 870,000 people came from Türkiye to Germany under the program by 1973, while about half later returned; today, more than three million people in Germany have a Turkish migration background.