Overview
- The ceremony took place at Düsseldorf Airport on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, where North Rhine‑Westphalia Minister‑President Hendrik Wüst publicly thanked former guest workers and time witnesses for their role in the region's postwar recovery.
- Wüst said guest workers from Turkey and other countries helped build NRW's prosperity through work in steel, mining, factories, trades, textiles and electronics and called on politics, media and civil society to fight prejudice.
- Government figures presented at the event said roughly 867,000 people from Turkey arrived in the twelve years after the 1961 recruitment agreement and that NRW today is home to about one million people with Turkish roots, about 500,000 of whom still hold Turkish citizenship.
- The program combined survivor testimony and culture, including Renan Demirkan's video project 'Augenhöhe' and the presence of first‑generation witnesses and a Genç family descendant, linking public recognition to memory and ongoing concerns about racist violence.
- Coverage differed by outlet: Stern and t‑online framed the day as formal recognition and social memory, while BILD highlighted how Wüst's public engagement with German‑Turkish communities may also serve broader political ambitions.