A ceremony was held in Germany to mark 50 years since South Korean workers including miners and nurses went to Germany in the early 1960s to look for jobs.

Some one thousand people attended the event held in the city of Essen including South Korean Ambassador to Berlin Kim Jae-shin, the mayor of Essen, and Korean workers living in Germany, the U.S. and Canada.

Following an agreement between the Korean and German governments, the first group of 123 South Korean miners went off to Germany in 1963 followed by 20-thousand more miners and nurses throughout the '60s and '70s.

From their work in Germany, these Koreans played a big part in bringing in foreign income into Korea.

German officials who attended the ceremony expressed gratitude for Korea's labor.