Just blocks South from the Central Train Station is the neighborhood of Ludwigsvorstadt, one known as the international section of the city. And when I say International in Munich, it generally means the Arabic part of town. It is estimated that Munich has a Muslim population of approx. 100,000, representing about 7.5% of the total Munich population of 1.34M (and well above the 5% German average - which is second highest in Western Europe behind France & the Netherlands). Munich's largest ethnic group is Turkish with 43,000 residents, and Albanian with 30,000 residents. I find this neighborhood (pictured here with St. Paul's Church in the background) fascinating because it is something you will not find in most US cities. To contrast this with the US, Muslims represent less than 1% of the total population. While there, you can find all the Middle Eastern foods and craft products, as well as hundreds of other businesses that cater primarily to the Muslim world of Munich.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
A Bit of Istanbul in Munich
Just blocks South from the Central Train Station is the neighborhood of Ludwigsvorstadt, one known as the international section of the city. And when I say International in Munich, it generally means the Arabic part of town. It is estimated that Munich has a Muslim population of approx. 100,000, representing about 7.5% of the total Munich population of 1.34M (and well above the 5% German average - which is second highest in Western Europe behind France & the Netherlands). Munich's largest ethnic group is Turkish with 43,000 residents, and Albanian with 30,000 residents. I find this neighborhood (pictured here with St. Paul's Church in the background) fascinating because it is something you will not find in most US cities. To contrast this with the US, Muslims represent less than 1% of the total population. While there, you can find all the Middle Eastern foods and craft products, as well as hundreds of other businesses that cater primarily to the Muslim world of Munich.
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6 comments:
I love your street scene composition! Interesting information about the Muslim population of Munich. I guess you can find some very delicious, different foods there!
I love this picture. Thanks for the context as well.
Maybe you're mistaken with Albanian - the count is 468. Second largest group is Croatian (25,000), followed by Greek, Italian and Austrian (app 21,000 each). See http://www.mstatistik-muenchen.de/themen/bevoelkerung/jahreszahlen/jahreszahlen_2007/p_jt080111.pdf.
I love "Little istanbul" – best lamb chops in town and "gül receli", which is a very sweet rose jam.
Small correction, Turks are not Arabic; part of that being the fact that they don't speak Arabic, but Turkish.
Munich is nothing like Istanbul, check this out to discover more about this magnificent city; http://www.best-of-istanbul.com
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