The orientation dependence of recrystallization in aluminum (99.99%) was studied by means of experimental methods and computer simulation. Samples with columnar grain morphology were deformed in plane strain compression in a channel die setup up to a technical thickness reduction of 50% in several defined steps. After the last deformation step the samples were recrystallized at different temperatures. After each of the deformation steps and each of the recrystallization steps the samples were analyzed by means of electron backscattering diffraction. With the orientation data gained from the last deformation step an input file was generated for a recrystallization simulation based on a probabilistic cellular automaton.