Afghan Hindus came to Germany fleeing the civil war during the 1980s. Of the about 66.000 Afghans in Germany, a minority of some 5.000 refugees are Hindus. They maintain four nicely constructed temples in Hamburg, Frankfurt and two in Cologne. The temples are often visited by Indian Hindus and Sikhs too. Finally, there is the group of Germans who have converted to a Hindu tradition. These western Hindus in groups such as the Hare Krishna, Ananda Marga, Transcendental Meditation or the Osho Movement might be estimated to some 7.000-8.000 people. . They come together in numerous local groups to pursue devotional acts or meditation, no more provoking public debates as had been the case during the 1970s and 1980s (detailed numbers on-line available at Remid 2000).
A much smaller though much better organised group of Hindu people can be found among refugees from Afghanistan. They fled the war and arrived from 1980 onwards. Among the almost 100,000 Afghan people living in Germany, a minority of about 5,000 are Hindus. In Afghanistan, the approximately 35,000 Hindus formed a prosperous, urban minority, many of them working as traders in Kabul. Their skill to survive in the Afghan diaspora was successfully transplanted to Germany, even more so as the forced migration occurred in whole family and kinship units. These migrants established several cultural societies and spacious, marvously decorated temples in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Cologne (2 temples). Occasionally Indian Hindus and Sikhs visit the temples too.
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