There is a small community of Germans in India consisting largely of expatriate professionals from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

and their families as well as

international students International students, or foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their tertiary education in a country other than their own and move to that country for the purpose of studying. In 2019, there were over 6 million internati ...

Indian universities The higher education system in India includes both private and Public university, public university, universities. Public universities are supported by the Government of India and the State governments in India, state governments, while privat ...

History

Early immigration

The first Germans to arrive in India were missionaries.

Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (10 July 1682 – 23 February 1719) was a member of the Lutheran clergy and the first Pietist missionary to India. Early life Ziegenbalg was born in Pulsnitz, Saxony, on 10 July 1682 in a devout Christian family. His f ...

, sent by

Frederick IV of Denmark Frederick IV ( Danish: ''Frederik''; 11 October 1671 – 12 October 1730) was King of Denmark and Norway from 1699 until his death. Frederick was the son of Christian V of Denmark-Norway and his wife Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel. Early l ...

, came to eastern India for the propagation of the Gospel in the early 1700s. He along with Heinrich Plütschau became the first

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

missionaries to India when they arrived at Tranquebar on July 9, 1706. In the late 1800s V. Nagel came to the

Malabar Coast The Malabar Coast is the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing ...

. He learned the

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

language and wrote several hymns.

Hermann Gundert Hermann Gundert (Stuttgart, 4 February 1814 – 25 April 1893 in Calw, Germany) was a German missionary, scholar, and linguist, as well as the maternal grandfather of German novelist and Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse. Gundert is chiefly know ...

(1814-1893) also worked as a missionary scholar in Malayalam-speaking areas, where he translated the Bible into Malayalam. He also prepared a grammar of Malayalam and a bilingual dictionary and established two periodicals in Malayalam.

Modern Era

In recent years, many German expatriates have either permanently moved or established long-term residence in India. Today, German expatriates have a strong presence in India, mainly in the mining and heavy engineering sector. The availability of skill and the importance of intellectual property rights is well established in India at all levels – statutory, administrative and judicial. Therefore, doing business in India in comparison to China is considered a safe bet by some Germans in small and medium scale industries which intend to go global.

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

has a significant German community of around 8,000 people and they have integrated well with the local population. They mainly work in the banking, information technology, automobile, leather trading, education and food production industries.

IIT Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. As one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it is recognized as an Institute of National Importance and has b ...

, a leading engineering and research institution located in Chennai, was established in 1959 with German assistance. Some higher educational institutions in the city have significant numbers of German students and teachers.

Notable people

- Missionary, scholar and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

Suzanne Bernert Suzanne Bernert (born 26 September), is a German-born Indian actress living in India who works primarily in Indian films in various languages. She has acted in '' Ramdhanu - The Rainbow'', '' Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.'' and television serials ...

- Actress in Bollywood films and television serials *

Ayesha Kapur Ayesha Giulia Kapur (born 13 September 1994) is an Indian-German actress, who is best known in the Bollywood movie Black. Kapur became the recipient of many Awards in the "Best Supporting Actress" category. In doing so, she became the second yo ...

- Actress *

Bob Christo Robert John Christo, was an Australian-Indian civil engineer and actor in Hindi films. Starting with Sanjay Khan's ''Abdullah'' (1980), he went on to act in over 200 Hindi films in the 1980s and 1990s, including '' Qurbani'' (1980), ''Kaalia'' ( ...

- actor, originally from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, mother was German * V. Nagel - German missionary in Malabar * Sister Mary Prema - Superior General of the

Missionaries of Charity The Missionaries of Charity ( la, Congregatio Missionariarum a Caritate) is a Catholic centralized religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women established in 1950 by Mother Teresa, now known in the Catholic Church as ...

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...

Ferdinand Kittel Reverend Ferdinand Kittel was a Lutheran priest and indologist with the Basel Mission in south India and worked in Mangalore, Madikeri and Dharwad in Karnataka. He is most famous for his studies of the Kannada language and for producing a Kannada ...

- Priest and Indologist *

- German missionary in Tranquebar *

Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel (18 December 1865 – 8 February 1956) was a German botanist and garden designer who was best known for his work at the Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens in Bangalore and for the planning of the avenues of Bangalore. He also ...

- German botanist and garden designer who was best known for his work at the Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens in Bengaluru and for the planning of the avenues of Bengaluru. He was also the first to establish a horticultural training school in India

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Germans In India Europeans in India

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

Diasporas in India

History

Early immigration

Modern Era

Notable people

See also

References