Four members of the Islamist network the man set up, also faced court.
Prosecutors identified the main suspect as 33-year-old preacher Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A.
It's alleged he recruited at least seven individuals who ended up travelling to the Middle East, where they fought alongside Islamic State militants.
Two of the recruits died in two separate suicide bombing attacks against Iraqi army positions in 2015, according to prosecutors.
"The federal prosecutor accuses the defendant essentially of membership or support for a terrorist, foreign association," court spokeswoman Jessica Lass said.
"They allegedly established a Salafist, jihadist network, with the aim of sending people to the dominion of the so-called IS in Iraq and Syria."
The four other members are a Turk, a German, a Serbian-German dual citizen and a Cameroonian national.
They were arrested, along with the main suspect, in November raids in the states of Lower Saxony and North-Rhine Westphalia.
The main suspect was known by the nickname Abu Walaa, which in Arabic means Father of Loyalty.
Prosecutors believe he preached at the Fussilet Mosque in Berlin, the same mosque which was attended by a failed asylum seeker that killed 12 people at a Christmas market in the German capital last year.
