Asians in Germany orGerman Asians (German:Deutsch-Asiaten) areGermancitizens of full or partialAsiandescent. The termAsian German is also applied toforeign residents of Asian origin living in theFederal Republic of Germany. German Asians have been present inGermany in small numbers since the 19th century and originate primarily from countries likeVietnam,China,Thailand,India,Afghanistan,Kazakhstan,Sri Lanka,South Korea,Japan or thePhilippines. Although Germany's official census data does not collect specific data on ethnicity or race, but rathernationality, the number of people with an Asian "migrant background" is listed in statistical reports.

As of 2011, there were approximately 1,890,000 people from or descendants of peoples fromSoutheast Asia,East Asia,Central Asia orSouth Asia living in Germany. However, these numbers do not includeWestern Asians such asAnatolian Turks,Kurds,Assyrians,Mizrahi Jews,Arabs orIranians. If West Asian peoples were to be included, the numbers would be significantly higher as there are over 2.5 millionGerman Turks alone.

In lateAntiquity and theearly Middle Ages, there had been in parts of what is now Germany a periodical presence of nomadic tribal groups of either partial or full Central Asian/East Asian stock, like theHuns and theAvars. Besides, in the 13th centuryMongol military detachments carried out plunder and scorched-earth operations in the easternmost parts of German territory. However, the first mentioned Asians in Germany proper were Chinese. In 1822 twoCantonese-speaking seafarers, Feng Yaxing and Feng Yanxue came to Berlin.^[3] They were employed asstoker onsteamships in Hamburg andBremen. During the mid to late 19th and early 20th century many seamen and students resided in the Hamburg district ofSt. Pauli, forming aChinatown.^[4] Due to theNazi regime, most of the Chinese population had to leave in the 1930s to escape discrimination.

In western Germany, many Vietnamese people arrived in the 1960s or 1970s as refugees from theVietnam War. The comparatively larger Vietnamese community in eastern Germany traces its origins to assistance agreements between theGDR and the North Vietnamese government. Under these agreements, guest workers from Vietnam were brought to East Germany, where they soon made up the largest immigrant group and were provided with technical training. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, many stayed in Germany. Since the early 1990s there has been an influx ofThai people,South Koreans,Indonesians andFilipinos coming to Germany as nurses,au pairs or employees. In addition, illegal immigration from Vietnam via Eastern Europe is increasing significantly in theEast German states.^[5] Furthermore, there are far more Thai and Filipino women than men in Germany, while the reverse holds true for Chinese and Indians. The Vietnamese community which now forms the largest group of Asians in Germany has a more equal male-female ratio.

According to the German "Mikrozensus 2011" there were about 1.8 million people with an Asian migrant background living in Germany. Of those about 600,000 were ofSoutheast Asian descent (primarily fromVietnam orThailand).^[6]

The distribution of German Asians by federal state is as follows:

• Demographics of Germany
• Chinese people in Germany
• Indians in Germany
• Iranians in Germany
• Iraqis in Germany
• Japanese people in Germany
• Koreans in Germany
• Kurds in Germany
• Lebanese people in Germany
• Syrians in Germany
• Turks in Germany
• Vietnamese people in Germany
• East Asian British
• Asian American
• Asian Canadian

• Gütinger, Erich (2004),Die Geschichte Der Chinesen in Deutschland: Ein Überblick über die ersten 100 Jahre ab 1822, Waxmann Verlag,ISBN 978-3-8309-1457-0

• Hillmann, Felicitas, "Riders on the storm: Vietnamese in Germany's two migration systems", in Spaan, Ernst; Hillmann, Felicitas; van Naerssen, Ton (eds.),Asian Migrants and European Labour Markets, pp. 80–100,ISBN 978-0-415-36502-4

• Asian diaspora in Germany
• Asian diaspora in Europe

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing German-language text