Commemoration of racist riots against Algerian labour migrants in Erfurt in 1975

The events from 10 to 13 August 1975 in Erfurt are considered to be the first massive racially motivated riots in Germany since 1945. Around 300 young Erfurt residents chased around 25 Algerian workers from the “Domplatz”  through the city centre to the main railway station, beating several of them until they were hospitalised. In the days that followed, the racist attacks on Algerian labour migrants continued. The violence was triggered by racist rumours that had been spread in Erfurt in the previous days. The charged atmosphere escalated in public at a festival on the Domplatz on 10 August.

Algerian labour migrants were employed in various Erfurt companies at the time, and their total number in the GDR between 1974 and 1984 was over 8,000 people. Their stay was limited to four years and was regulated by an intergovernmental labour agreement. The life stories of this group of labour migrants in the GDR are hardly known to the public today.

The Oral History Research Centre is organising public commemorative events:

10.08.2025, 5 p.m.
Commemorative event in public space with all invited guests (“Domplatz”)

11.08.2025, 16-6 p.m.
Panel on the background to Algerian labour migration  (town hall)

11.08.2025, 19-9 p.m.
Public discussion with three former labour migrants (town hall)


This event is sponsored and supported by

Amadeu Antonio Foundation
Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship
Commissioner for Migration and Integration of City of Erfurt
Decolonise Erfurt
Place of remembrance “Topf & Söhne”
Friedrich Ebert Foundation
Catholic Forum in the State of Thuringia
State Centre for Political Education Thuringia
MigraNetz Thuringia
"Sparkassenstiftung" Erfurt