German nationality law

German nationality law is the law governing the acquisition, transmission and loss of German citizenship. The law is based on a mixture of the principles of jus sanguinis and jus soli. In other words, one usually acquires German citizenship if a parent is a German citizen, irrespective of place of birth, or by birth in Germany to parents with foreign nationality if certain requirements are fulfilled. Naturalisation is also possible for foreign nationals after six to eight years of legal residence in Germany.[1] However, non-EU and non-Swiss citizens must usually renounce their old citizenship before being naturalised in Germany. Citizens of other EU countries and of Switzerland usually can keep their old citizenship (see section "Dual citizenship"). Some EU countries do not allow dual citizenship even with other EU countries.

A significant reform to the nationality law was passed by the Bundestag (the German parliament) in 1999, and came into force on 1 January 2000. The reformed law makes it somewhat easier for foreigners resident in Germany on a long-term basis, and especially their German-born children, to acquire German citizenship.[2]

The previous German nationality law dated from 1913. Nationality law was amended by the Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany; these amendments were revoked after the defeat of Nazism by Allied occupational ordinance in 1945. Germany ratified the European Convention on Nationality, which came into force in Germany on 1 September 2005.[3] All German nationals are automatically also citizens of the European Union.

History

Before the formation of the German Empire in 1871, the states that became part of the empire were sovereign with their own nationality laws, those of the southern ones (notably Bavaria) being quite liberal. Prussia's nationality law can be traced back to the "Law Respecting the Acquisition and Loss of the Quality as a Prussian subject, and his Admission to Foreign Citizenship" of 31 December 1842, which was based on the principle of jus sanguinis. Prussian law became the basis of the legal system of the German Empire, though the state nationality laws continued to apply, and a German citizen was a person who held citizenship of one of the states of the German Empire.

On 22 July 1913 the Nationality Law of the German Empire and States (Reichs- und Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz, shorthand: RuStAG) established a German citizenship, either derived from the citizenship of one of the component states or acquired through the central Reich government.

Under the Third Reich, in 1934, the German nationality law was amended to abolish separate state citizenships and creating a uniform Reich citizenship, with the central Reich authorities having power to grant or withdraw German nationality. In 1935 the Reich Citizenship Law (Reichsbürgergesetz), the second of the Nuremberg Laws, created a new category called "state subjects" (Staatsangehörige) to which Jews were assigned, thereby withdrawing citizenship from Jews who had been citizens; only those classed as being of "German or related blood" retained Reich citizenship.

On 13 March 1938 the German nationality law was extended to Austria following the Anschluss which annexed Austria to Germany. On 27 April 1945, after the defeat of Nazism, Austria was re-established and conferred Austrian citizenship on all persons who would have been Austrian on that date had the pre-1938 nationality law of Austria remained in force. Any Austrians who had held German nationality lost it.[4] Also see Austrian nationality law.

The Nazi amendments of 1934 and the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were revoked by Allied occupational ordinance in 1945, restoring the 1913 nationality law, which remained in force until the 1999 reforms.[5]

Article 116(1) of the German Basic Law (constitution) confers, subject to laws regulating the details, a right to citizenship upon any person admitted to Germany (in its 1937 borders) as "refugee or expellee of German ethnic origin or as the spouse or descendant of such a person." Until 1990 ethnic Germans living abroad in a country in the former Eastern Bloc (Aussiedler) could obtain citizenship through a virtually automatic procedure. From 1990 the law was steadily tightened each year to limit the number of immigrants, requiring immigrants to prove language skills and cultural affiliation.

Article 116(2) entitles persons (and their descendants), who were denaturalised by the Nazi government, to be renaturalised if they wish. Those among them, who after May 8, 1945 take up residence in Germany are automatically considered German citizens. Both regulations, (1) and (2), allowed a considerable numbers of Poles and Israelis, residing in Poland and Israel, to be concurrently German citizens.

Birth in Germany

Children born on or after 1 January 2000 to non-German parents acquire German citizenship at birth if at least one parent:

In order to retain German citizenship, such children are required to take affirmative measures by age 23, after which their German citizenship otherwise expires. Assuming that this law is not changed or overturned by a court, these affirmative measures include an applicant's proving that he or she does not hold any foreign citizenship other than in a European Union member nation or a nation such as Morocco, Nigeria, or Iran whose domestic law provides that citizenship in it cannot be lost.

Parents who are citizens of European Economic Area states or Switzerland are eligible to receive permanent resident permits after five years.

Descent from a German parent

A person born of a parent with German citizenship at the time of the child's birth is a German citizen. Place of birth is not a factor in citizenship determination based on parentage.

  1. The child would be stateless.
  2. The German parent registers the child's birth within one year of birth to the responsible German agency abroad.

Persons who are Germans on the basis of descent from a German parent do not have to apply to retain German citizenship by age 23. If they acquire another citizenship at birth, they can usually continue to hold this.

Adoption

A child adopted by a German citizen becomes German national automatically if aged less than 18 on the date the application for adoption was made. So dual citizenship is granted.

Naturalisation as a German citizen

Naturalisation by entitlement

An individual who fulfils all of the following criteria has an entitlement to naturalise as a German citizen:[6]

An individual who does not have legal capacity is entitled to naturalise as a German citizen merely through ordinary residence in Germany for at least 8 years - he/she does not have to fulfil the other criteria (e.g. adequate command of the German language and ability to be self-supporting without recourse to benefits).

Applicants for naturalisation are normally expected to prove they have renounced their existing nationality, or will lose this automatically upon naturalisation. An exception applies to those unable to give up their nationality easily (such as refugees). A further exception applies to citizens of Switzerland and the European Union member states.

An individual who is entitled to naturalise as a German citizen can also apply for his/her spouse and minor children to be naturalised at the same time (his/her spouse and minor children need not have ordinarily resided in Germany for at least 8 years).

Exceptions to the normal residence requirements include:

There are special provisions for victims of Nazi persecution and their descendants.

Naturalisation by discretion

An individual who is ordinarily resident outside may be naturalised as a German citizen if he/she can demonstrate sufficient ties with Germany which justify his/her naturalisation.[7]

Victims of Nazi persecution

Under Article 116 of Germany's constitution, known as the Basic Law,[8] anyone who had their German citizenship revoked during the Nazi regime for "political, racist, or religious reasons" may reobtain citizenship. The Article also includes the descendants of Nazi victims, and does not require them to give up the citizenship of their new home countries.[9]

German-born children

Under transitional arrangements in the 1999 reforms (effective 1 January 2000), children who were born in Germany in 1990 or later, and would have been German had the law change been in force at the time, were entitled to be naturalised as German citizens.

Naturalization statistics

Between 1995 and 2004, 1,278,424 people obtained German citizenship by naturalization. This means that about 1.5% of the total German population was naturalized during that period.

Naturalization of foreigners in Germany per (selected) country and year.
Source: Official 2012 Migration Report, p. 212
Country/Year 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2011 2012
 Turkey 31,578 46,294 42,240 59,664 103,900 82,861 76,573 64,631 56,244 44,465 28,103 33,246
 Iran 874 649 1,171 1,529 1,863 14,410 12,020 13,026 9,440 6,362 2,728 2,463
 Serbia and Montenegro 3,623 2,967 2,244 2,721 3,444 9,776 12,000 8,375 5,504 3,539 6,309 6,085
 Afghanistan 1,666 1,819 1,475 1,200 1,355 4,773 5,111 4,750 4,948 4,077 2,711 2,717
 Morocco 3,288 2,918 4,010 4,981 4,312 5,008 4,425 3,800 4,118 3,820 - 2,852
 Lebanon 595 784 1,159 1,782 2,491 5,673 4,486 3,300 2,651 2,265 - 1,283
 Croatia 2,479 2,268 1,789 2,198 1,536 3,316 3,931 2,974 2,048 1,689 - -
 Bosnia-Herzegovina 2,010 1,926 995 3,469 4,238 4,002 3,791 2,357 1,770 2,103 - 1,865
 Vietnam 3,357 3,464 3,129 3,452 2,270 4,489 3,014 1,482 1,423 1,371 2,428 3,299
 Pakistan - - - - - - - - - - 1,151 1,251
 Poland 10,174 7,872 5,763 4,968 2,787 1,604 1,774 2,646 2,990 7,499 4,281 4,496
 Russian Federation – – – – – 4,583 4,972 3,734 2,764 4,381 2,965 3,167
 Ukraine – – – – – 2,978 3,295 3,656 3,889 3,844 4,264 3,691
 Iraq 364 363 290 319 483 984 1,264 1,721 2,999 3,564 4,790 3,510
 Israel 1,025 0 584 0 802 1,101 1,364 1,739 2,844 3,164 1,971 1,438
Total (including countries not mentioned) 71,981 86,356 82,913 106,790 143,267 186,688 178,098 154,547 140,731 127,153 106,897 112,348

Loss of German citizenship

German citizenship is automatically lost when a German citizen voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another country, except:

  1. When the German citizen acquires a nationality from within the European Union, Switzerland, or another country with which Germany has a corresponding treaty.
  2. When permission to obtain a foreign citizenship has been applied for and granted in advance of foreign naturalization. Failure to obtain so-called permit to retain German citizenship prior to naturalization results in the individual automatically losing German citizenship upon becoming a naturalized citizen of another country.[9]

Other cases where German citizenship can be lost include:

Dual citizenship

Allowed under following circumstances:

  1. If the other citizenship is the one of another EU country or of Switzerland. Non-EU- and non-Swiss citizens must usually renounce their old citizenship if they want to become German citizens. There are exceptions made for citizens of countries that do not allow their citizens to renounce their citizenship (e.g., Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica. P.S.: In case of Brazil it is possible to renounce your citizenship through a requirement made in the Brazilian consulate if you already have acquired another citizenship voluntarily, but it is not required to do so; the following jus-soli countries allow renunciation only if the citizenship was acquired involuntarily by birth there to non-citizen parents: Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uruguay), or if the renunciation process is too difficult, humiliating or expensive (e.g., Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia), or, rarely, in individual cases if the renunciation of the old citizenship means enormous disadvantages for the concerned person.
  2. If a German citizen acquires a non-EU or non-Swiss citizenship with the permission ("Beibehaltungsgenehmigung") of the German Government (e.g., existing relative ties or property in Germany or in the other country or if the occupation abroad requires domestic citizenship for execution). The voluntary acquisition of a non-EU or non-Swiss citizenship without permission usually means the automatic loss of the German citizenship (but see Point 4). The permission is not necessary if the other citizenship is of another EU country or of Switzerland or if dual citizenship was obtained at birth.
  3. If the person is a refugee and holds a 1951 travel document during naturalization.
  4. If a child born to German parents acquires another citizenship at birth (e.g., based on place of birth [birth in jus-soli countries mostly of the Americas], or descent from one parent [one German parent and one foreign parent]).
  5. Children born on or after 1 January 2000 to non-German parents acquire German citizenship at birth if at least one parent has a permanent residence permit (and had this status for at least three years) and the parent was residing in Germany for at least eight years. The children must have lived in Germany for at least eight years or attended school for six years until their 21st birthday. Non-EU- and non-Swiss-citizen parents born and grown up abroad usually cannot have dual citizenship themselves (but see Point 1).

Travel freedom of German citizens

Visa requirements for German citizens

Visa requirements for German citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of Germany. In February 2016, German citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 177 countries and territories, ranking the German passport 1st in the world according to the Visa Restrictions Index.

Citizenship of the European Union

German citizens are also citizens of the European Union and thus enjoy rights of free movement and have the right to vote in elections for the European Parliament. When in a non-EU country where there is no German embassy, German citizens have the right to get consular protection from the embassy of any other EU country present in that country.

Germans living abroad

Germans living abroad, (aka German emigrants or Auslandsdeutsche), are German citizens residing outside of Germany. German emigrants usually do not pay taxes to Germany. Germans abroad are allowed to vote in the Republic's federal elections (general elections). According to the German Foreign Office in Berlin (Auswärtiges Amt), "German citizens with permanent residence abroad can participate in federal elections in Germany and European elections. As a rule, German voters who reside permanently in non-EU countries abroad and are not resident in Germany any more, cannot participate in German state and local elections. However, German citizens who are living permanently in other EU countries can vote in municipal elections of their country of residence." http://www.konsularinfo.diplo.de/Vertretung/konsularinfo/de/06/Wahl/Wahlneu.html

The German term Auslandsdeutsche is sometimes used in this sense, but it is also used subjectively to refer to ethnic Germans and German-speaking communities abroad. In order to be unambiguous when speaking German and talking about German emigrants, it is necessary to specify "German citizens with permanent residence abroad" (Deutsche Staatsbürger mit ständigem Wohnsitz im Ausland).

The case is complicated by the German right of return law concerning Spätaussiedler, people who do not have German citizenship but who are in theory entitled to it because the German state considers them German nationals.

Significant communities of German citizens abroad are found in the following countries:

USA: Large numbers of German citizens live permanently in the U.S., especially academics, artists, computer experts, engineers, and business people. According to the German Missions in the US, “German citizens living abroad are not required to register with the German Embassy, so we are unable to say how many German citizens live in America.” http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/02__GIC/GIC/02/f__a__q__seite.html Some of those Germans abroad hold passports from both Germany and the United States.

References

  1. ↑ "Obtaining Citizenship". German Missions in the United States. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  2. ↑ Reform of Germany's citizenship and nationality law
  3. ↑ "European Convention on Nationality: Status". Council of Europe.
  4. ↑ BVerfGE 4, 322 1 BvR 284/54Austrian Nationality, copy hosted at utexas.edu
  5. ↑ Bös, Matthias: The Legal Construction of Membership: Nationality Law in Germany and the United States. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  6. ↑ http://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Gesetzestexte/EN/Staatsangehoerigkeitsgesetz_englisch.pdf?__blob=publicationFile
  7. ↑ "Germany Nationality Act, Section 14" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  8. ↑ "Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (Grundgesetz, GG)".
  9. 1 2 "Information on obtaining/reobtaining German citizenship for former German citizens and their descendants who were persecuted on political, racial or religious grounds between January 30, 1933 and May 8, 1945". German Consulates. Archived from the original on 17 March 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  10. ↑ "Verlust durch Eintritt in ausländische Streitkräfte" (in German). German Embassy Tel Aviv. Retrieved 2012-08-19.
  11. ↑ http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/publication/?DM=SLNL&PA=37325&D1=0&D2=0&D3=0&D4=0&D5=a&D6=l&VW=T
  12. ↑ Wohnbevölkerung nach detaillierter Staatsangehörigkeit, Swiss Federal Statistical Office
  13. ↑ Wer sind die Deutschen in Österreich?
  14. ↑ "20680-Country of Birth of Person (full classification list) by Sex - Australia" (Microsoft Excel download). 2006 Census. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 2 June 2008. Total count of persons: 19,855,288.
  15. ↑ "Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года". Perepis2002.ru. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  16. ↑ statistics.gov.uk
  17. ↑ ined.fr
  18. ↑ http://www.stat.gov.pl/cps/rde/xbcr/gus/Przynaleznosc_narodowo-etniczna_w_2011_NSP.pdf
  19. ↑ "1.1.6.1 Population by mother tongue, nationality and sex".

External links

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