Many Turkish people migrated to Germany between 1955 and 1975. This study was carried out in Göttingen, Germany. Fifty Turkish people (described as patients) were asked about the care they had received from German health care personnel, and 50 German nurses and 50 German physiotherapists were questioned about care they had given to Turkish patients. Significant findings were the needs of the Turkish patients for good communication, physical contact and understanding of their culture-based expressions of illness. The German nurses and physiotherapists expressed the need for language barriers to be minimized and for education in the specific culture of Turkish patients. Our findings are discussed from an ethical viewpoint. The International Council of Nurses' code of ethics is used to guide the ethical debate about the findings within the context of transcultural and multicultural care. Suggestions for better transcultural health care paradigms are made for relating to patients from different cultures when patients and care providers have little understanding of each other's needs and expectations.