Alevis make up around 13% of Muslims living in Germany today. Members of this religious community once predominantly lived in rural Anatolia, Turkey, passing on their spiritual beliefs and rites orally.

When Turkey began experiencing a rural exodus from the 1950s onwards, along with increasing urbanization and migration to Europe, many Alevi village communities disappeared — and with them the knowledge of their faith in many places.

Alevism developed from the 13th century onwards. Today, Alevis constitute the second largest religious community in Turkey after Sunni Islam. Alevis include Turks, Kurds and members of other ethnic minorities such as the Zaza.

The Alevi faith grew out of a combination of Central Asian shamanism, Shiite Islam and Muslim mysticism. Alevis venerate the Prophet Muhammad, alongside his cousin and son-in-law, the first Imam Ali, and the Twelver Shiism, while also emphasizing ethical and mystical teachings.

Alevis practice their faith in Alevi cemevi, the central space of Alevi worship. Their religion honors values such as humanism, equality and tolerance, which are traditionally passed on to the community through parables, stories and songs.

Alevism differs from Sunni Islam in its rituals, which include the Cem ceremony, celebrated by both men and women, as well as the Semah ceremony, where believers dance in circles to the sounds of a long-necked lute. These differences from Sunni Islam caused Alevis to suffer persecution in the Ottoman Empire (1299 to 1922), the predecessor state of today's Turkey.

Today Alevis still face mistrust in modern-day Turkey, which is dominated by Sunni Islam. This also applies to the Bektashi, the followers of one of the largest mystical Alevi dervish orders from Anatolia, whose philosophy is strongly influenced by the veneration of Caliph Ali. Tens of thousands of Alevis were killed and their villages destroyed in the 1937/38 Dersim massacre perpetrated by the Turkish army.

A turning point for Alevis

Numerous pogroms against Alevis throughout the 1990s — especially the 1993 Sivas arson attack which killed 35 people — marked a turning point in Alevi self-organization, sparking a surge in political associations being established in Istanbul but also in German cities like Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin, which are home to many migrant workers from Turkey.

Today, there are around 200 Alevi organizations across Germany. Most are subsumed under the Alevi Community Germany (AABF, Almanya Alevi Birlikleri Federasyonu) umbrella organization. The Alevi religious community is fully recognized in the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin, which grants it certain rights and obligations. The Alevi-Bektashite Cultural Institute in North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, is a non-governmental organization seeking to create a space to practice science and honor cultural traditions.

Gülizar Cengiz, member of the Bektashi order, chairs the institute.

"Our leitmotif is the saying of Muslim mystic Haji Bektash," Cengiz told DW. Bektash stated that "the end of every path is darkness if it is not the path of knowledge."

Cengiz says unfortunately, much of the knowledge surrounding this religious philosophy and Alevi culture has been lost over the centuries. That is why, she added, "we want to counteract this with celebrations and ritual gatherings."

A particularly important aspect of the work of the institute, which opened in early 2026, therefore consists of building and maintaining an archive of historical manuscripts, as well as video and audio recordings of Alevi religious rites and gatherings.

Preserving and promoting Alevi culture

"A community that has no history and no memories of the past runs the risk of disappearing," Cengiz told DW, pointing out that many Alevis had burned or buried handwritten documents like letters and diaries out of fear they could spark hostility or downright attacks.

Today, the academic study of Alevism is greatly welcomed among Alevis in Germany. Cem Kara, a professor of Alevi Theology at the University of Hamburg, says "there is a great need for concrete knowledge, and scientists have a special role to play here."

His Institute for Alevi Theology, founded in 2024, is one of the first academic bodies in the world dedicated to this faith. It trains teachers engaged in Hamburg's special program for interdenominational religious education and other religious educators elsewhere. From 2027 on, it is also expected to train theology students.

So far, little research has been devoted to Alevism.

"There has been isolated research, mostly in the context of Ottoman and Turkish history," Markus Dressler, a professor of modern Turkish studies at Leipzig University's Institute of Religious Studies, told DW.

Dressler heads a long-term research project on the ethnohistory of Alevi communities in Anatolia between the 16th and 20th century, which was launched in 2026.

"We try to collect data from different sources, bring it together and make it legible," he says. "This includes historical data from Ottoman registers, but also Alevi manuscripts and documents, inscriptions from mausoleums and gravestones, as well as ethnologic data, which belongs to oral history."

Databases compiled in this way provide a long-term perspective making it possible to examine Alevi settlement areas in Anatolia and the actors involved. This data can also be utilized to deconstruct major narratives and analyze the oppression and discrimination experienced by the Alevi.

"The Alevi faced discrimination and oppression in the Ottoman Empire," Dressler says. "It still exists today, but it did not happen uninterrupted and did not apply to all groups that call themselves Alevis today. You have to look at the specific historical context, region and groups."

This article was translated from German.