Sixty years of sending — and a currency that keeps changing the calculation
The first Gastarbeiter — guest workers — arrived in West Germany from Turkey in 1961, under a bilateral recruitment agreement designed to fill the labour shortage of the German economic miracle. They came to stay for two years and go home. Most stayed longer. Many never left. Their children were born in Germany. Their grandchildren grew up speaking German as a first language, holding German passports, building German careers — while remaining, in culture and family and the direction of the monthly transfer, deeply connected to cities and villages in Anatolia, in the Aegean coast, in the outskirts of Istanbul and Ankara.
Germany is now home to approximately 3 million people of Turkish origin — the largest Turkish diaspora in Europe and one of the oldest established migrant communities on the continent (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2023). They are the sending side of a corridor that has run continuously for more than sixty years. And in 2024, that corridor is sending money into a Turkish economy where the lira has lost more than 80% of its value against the euro over the past decade — a fact that changes the nature of every transfer in ways the quoted fee does not capture.
What Turkey receives — and what the lira does to it on arrival
Turkey received approximately USD 10 billion in remittances in 2024, with Germany its largest single source (Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, 2025). The flows from Germany represent sixty years of settled diaspora maintaining family ties, supporting older relatives, contributing to family property, and sometimes sending to family members who still work in Turkey or are running businesses there.
The Turkish lira has depreciated significantly against the euro in recent years — a pattern that has affected not just the headline cost of sending but the rational decision about whether to convert on arrival at all. A family in Izmir that receives EUR-S and converts immediately to lira captures the rate at that moment. A family that holds in EUR-S — keeping the value in a stable-currency token until they need to spend in local currency — protects against further lira movement between the moment of the send and the moment of spending.
This is not speculation. It is the ordinary financial logic of a family living in a high-inflation economy, applied to the infrastructure available to them. Spondula's multi-currency wallet makes that logic practical: EUR-S sits in the wallet alongside lira-equivalent tokens, converted at the moment the recipient chooses — not at the moment the sender confirms.
Germany is home to approximately 3 million people of Turkish origin — the largest Turkish diaspora community in Europe. Turkey receives approximately USD 10 billion in annual remittances, with Germany as its largest source. The corridor spans more than sixty years of continuous economic and family connection between the two countries.
— Statistisches Bundesamt, 2023; Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, 2025
The Turkish lira and the case for holding EUR-S
The standard remittance model converts at the moment of the send: the sender in Frankfurt initiates EUR, the recipient in Ankara receives Turkish lira. The exchange rate is whatever the provider offers at the moment of the transaction — a rate that includes the provider's margin, applied once, at the sending end. If the lira weakens between the send and the spend, the family absorbs that movement without any mechanism to avoid it.
On Spondula, the recipient holds EUR-S in their wallet until they choose to convert. If they need lira today, they convert today at a Local Operator and receive the current rate. If they prefer to wait — because the lira has been moving unfavourably and they expect it to stabilise — they wait. The EUR-S sits in the wallet, stable, until they decide. The timing of the conversion is the recipient's decision, not the corridor's constraint.
For a family that has watched the lira decline consistently over a decade, the ability to receive in EUR-S and convert on their own terms is not a financial product. It is practical control over a decision that previously was made for them by the infrastructure.
What changes on the sending side
For the sender in Berlin, Hamburg, or Munich, Spondula operates the same way as every other corridor: type the recipient's Shandle, confirm the amount and the 0.2% exchange spread, and the EUR-S is in the recipient's wallet in seconds. No IBAN required. No SWIFT code. No bank transfer form. The form that asks the sender for a beneficiary address and a reason for payment is a different kind of infrastructure — and Spondula's handle-based settlement replaces it entirely.
No cut-off times. A sender who finishes their shift at a factory in Stuttgart at 10 p.m. on a Thursday and wants to send before the weekend does not wait until Friday morning when the bank processes overnight instructions. The send is confirmed at 10 p.m. on Thursday. The EUR-S is in the wallet in Turkey at 10 p.m. on Thursday.
Sixty years of sending from Germany to Turkey built the corridor. The infrastructure that runs it has not kept pace with either the senders who use it or the economic reality of the families receiving on the other end. A flat 0.2%, instant settlement, and the option to hold EUR-S rather than convert immediately — that is the corridor rebuilt for the people it serves.
Spondula is pre-launch. If you send from Germany to Turkey — to parents in Istanbul, to siblings in Ankara, to the family property in a coastal town — and the cost or the lira timing has always felt like something you accepted rather than chose, the waitlist is where that changes.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to send money from Germany to Turkey on Spondula?
Seconds. EUR-S sent from a German wallet arrives in a Turkish wallet instantly — no correspondent-bank clearing, no cut-off times, no next-business-day delays. A send initiated at 10 p.m. on a Thursday arrives in Turkey at 10 p.m. on Thursday.
What does it cost to send money from Germany to Turkey on Spondula?
The exchange spread is a flat 0.2%, shown before the send is confirmed. The global average cost of sending USD 200 internationally was 6.49% in 2025 (World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide, 2025); traditional banks average 9.50% (World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide Issue 53, 2025). Spondula's spread is a fraction of either.
Can the recipient in Turkey hold EUR-S rather than convert to lira immediately?
Yes. The received EUR-S sits in the recipient's Spondula wallet until they choose to convert. They can convert to local currency at a Spondula Partner Location or Local Operator at the time and rate of their choosing — the timing is their decision, not the corridor's constraint.
Does the recipient in Turkey need a bank account?
No. The recipient needs a Spondula wallet and an Shandle. The balance lands in the wallet and can be held in EUR-S, converted to lira at a Local Operator, or used at a Spondula Partner Location. No bank account is required on either end of the transaction.
Is Spondula available in Germany and Turkey?
Spondula is pre-launch and building its Operator network across European-to-Turkey corridors, including the Germany-to-Turkey route. Early users in priority corridors are among the first to receive access. The waitlist is how users in Germany and Turkey secure their place before the network opens.
Spondula is a global payments network. It is not a bank, exchange, investment platform, or broker. Availability, pricing, and Operator coverage vary by country. Bitcoin rewards depend on real network activity and are not guaranteed. See our terms and conditions for full details.
