AJR statement on issuing of decrees on the restoration of German citizenship

The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) warmly welcomes the announcement by Horst Seehofer, Minister of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, of two decrees that will, with immediate effect, simplify the process and widen the eligibility criteria for those descendants of victims of National Socialist oppression applying for the restoration of German citizenship.

These two decrees signify an important extension of the possibilities for restoring German citizenship given that the existing eligibility criteria of Article 116 of the German Basic Law (the provision of the restoration of German citizenship) are limited.

This simplified path to citizenship was previously restricted to a time window from 1957 to 1970. It is now open to all children (and their descendants) whose German parents acquired foreign citizenship due to National Socialist persecution and consequently lost their German citizenship.

Additionally, the decrees now allow descendants of Jewish refugees from National Socialist oppression who could not obtain German citizenship due to gender-based naturalization rules to benefit from the same eased eligibility criteria, independent of the previously crucial birth date before 1953.

Specifically, this includes children (and their descendants) born before 1 April 1953 to foreign fathers married to German mothers who had been victims of National Socialist oppression and lost their citizenship due to their marriage. The decrees also provide for certain children born out of wedlock to foreign mothers and German fathers suffering from National Socialist oppression. These children could not become German citizens under the then-applicable rules.

Under the new liberalised eligibility criteria, demonstrating basic knowledge of the German language and the German social and political order will generally suffice for the descendants’ citizenship application to succeed. Eligible persons will also not be required to give up other nationalities they may possess and will be naturalised free of charge.

The new rules apply to all those born up to 1 January 2000 while there is also a process for naturalising a descendant born after this date as German.

The AJR particularly notes that it is intended for the application process to be carried out in a spirit of goodwill and personal engagement at local diplomatic missions.

AJR said, “We are grateful to the preparedness and willingness of the Minister and his colleagues in Germany – and at the Embassy in London – for successfully creating an additional mechanism through which people can now restore the family citizenship that was annulled and lost during the Nazi era.

“We are grateful as well to the pro bono assistance of Thomas Voland of Clifford Chance in Düsseldorf for helping us more fully understand the complexities of the issue and for engaging with the German Government on our behalf. We also pay tribute to the Article 116 Exclusions Group, led by Felix Couchman and Nick Courtman, for their tireless efforts to campaign on behalf of their members to raise awareness of the restrictions of Article 116.

“With the implementation of the decrees, we look forward to hearing details of how the newly eligible can now apply as well as the status of applications that were previously declined. We continue to offer our assistance to the Embassy and authorities in Germany to expedite applications.”

Full details of the announcement of the decrees is available at https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/pressemitteilungen/EN/2019/08/wiedergutmachung-ns-verbrechen-en.html