Recent from talks
German nationality law
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
German nationality law
German nationality law details the conditions by which an individual is a national of Germany. The primary law governing these requirements is the Nationality Act, which came into force on 1 January 1914. Germany is a member state of the European Union (EU) and all German nationals are EU citizens. They have automatic and permanent permission to live and work in any EU or European Free Trade Association (EFTA) country and may vote in elections to the European Parliament.
Any person born to a married German parent is typically a German national at birth, regardless of the place of birth. Children of unmarried couples in which only the father is German must be legitimised for them to acquire German nationality. Individuals born in Germany to two foreign parents may also receive German nationality at birth if at least one of their parents has lived in the country for five years and is entitled to live in the country indefinitely (meaning any person with a settlement permit, or citizenship of another EU country or Switzerland). Foreign nationals may naturalise after residing in Germany for at least five years and demonstrating knowledge in the German language.
Germany is composed of territory historically part of the Holy Roman Empire and German Confederation that was separated into numerous small German states whose residents held citizenship of their locality. Over the course of the 19th century, the various German states moved towards integration into a single entity that culminated with the unification of Germany in 1871. German citizenship was generally held by virtue of being a citizen of a German state, and state citizenship remained a principally important concept in German law until the country's transition to Nazi rule.
Between 1933 and 1945, any person considered "undesirable" by the state (particularly Jews and political dissidents) was stripped of their civil and political rights and targeted for denaturalisation. Any person deprived of their German citizenship during this time based on political, racial, or religious grounds, as well as their direct descendants, are eligible to reclaim German citizenship at any time. Following the end of the Second World War, Germany was split into West Germany and East Germany. While West Germany continued to enforce existing pre-war nationality legislation and claimed all East Germans as its citizens, East Germany adopted a separate nationality law in 1967 which remained in force until German reunification in 1990.
The distinction between the meaning of the terms citizenship and nationality is not always clear in the English language and differs by country. Generally, nationality refers a person's legal belonging to a country and is the common term used in international treaties when referring to members of a state; citizenship refers to the set of rights and duties a person has in that nation. It can be possible for a non-national to obtain a degree of civil and political rights commonly associated with citizenship (e.g. residence or working rights) while it is also possible for a national to be prohibited from exercising certain rights (e.g. children barred from voting). In German, the term "nationality" (Staatsangehörigkeit) refers to state membership while "citizenship" (Staatsbürgerschaft/Bürgerschaft) describes a person's participation in national society.
Until the early 19th century, German lands constituted the core part of the highly decentralised Holy Roman Empire. Each of the roughly 1,800 individual political entities within the Empire had varying (or non-existent) definitions on who they considered to be members of their polity. "Citizenship" in this context was tied to a person's settlement in a particular municipality and individuals found outside of their ordinary places of residence could be deported to other parts of imperial territory.
The modern concept of citizenship, as a formal and legal relationship between an individual and a state that confers privileges to holders and a status that persists beyond continued territorial residence, emerged during the French Revolution. Following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, this model of citizenship was imported into the German territories that became part of the French-led Confederation of the Rhine, though any applicable legislation from this period was repealed in the 1810s shortly after French defeat in the Napoleonic Wars. Outside of this Confederation, Austria enacted its first codified regulations based on the modern citizenship concept in 1811.
As a result of the Congress of Vienna, the German Confederation was created in 1815 as a permanent replacement for the Holy Roman Empire and included virtually all of the former Empire's territory. This political structure was not a federal state and sovereign power remained with the 38 individual member states. Each state continued to hold jurisdiction over citizenship, but the vast majority of them passed no specific codified laws on the subject until the mid-19th century. Prussia enacted its first citizenship law in 1842. Other than through naturalisation, Prussian citizenship was only passed by descent from a Prussian father (or mother, if the parents were unmarried).
Hub AI
German nationality law AI simulator
(@German nationality law_simulator)
German nationality law
German nationality law details the conditions by which an individual is a national of Germany. The primary law governing these requirements is the Nationality Act, which came into force on 1 January 1914. Germany is a member state of the European Union (EU) and all German nationals are EU citizens. They have automatic and permanent permission to live and work in any EU or European Free Trade Association (EFTA) country and may vote in elections to the European Parliament.
Any person born to a married German parent is typically a German national at birth, regardless of the place of birth. Children of unmarried couples in which only the father is German must be legitimised for them to acquire German nationality. Individuals born in Germany to two foreign parents may also receive German nationality at birth if at least one of their parents has lived in the country for five years and is entitled to live in the country indefinitely (meaning any person with a settlement permit, or citizenship of another EU country or Switzerland). Foreign nationals may naturalise after residing in Germany for at least five years and demonstrating knowledge in the German language.
Germany is composed of territory historically part of the Holy Roman Empire and German Confederation that was separated into numerous small German states whose residents held citizenship of their locality. Over the course of the 19th century, the various German states moved towards integration into a single entity that culminated with the unification of Germany in 1871. German citizenship was generally held by virtue of being a citizen of a German state, and state citizenship remained a principally important concept in German law until the country's transition to Nazi rule.
Between 1933 and 1945, any person considered "undesirable" by the state (particularly Jews and political dissidents) was stripped of their civil and political rights and targeted for denaturalisation. Any person deprived of their German citizenship during this time based on political, racial, or religious grounds, as well as their direct descendants, are eligible to reclaim German citizenship at any time. Following the end of the Second World War, Germany was split into West Germany and East Germany. While West Germany continued to enforce existing pre-war nationality legislation and claimed all East Germans as its citizens, East Germany adopted a separate nationality law in 1967 which remained in force until German reunification in 1990.
The distinction between the meaning of the terms citizenship and nationality is not always clear in the English language and differs by country. Generally, nationality refers a person's legal belonging to a country and is the common term used in international treaties when referring to members of a state; citizenship refers to the set of rights and duties a person has in that nation. It can be possible for a non-national to obtain a degree of civil and political rights commonly associated with citizenship (e.g. residence or working rights) while it is also possible for a national to be prohibited from exercising certain rights (e.g. children barred from voting). In German, the term "nationality" (Staatsangehörigkeit) refers to state membership while "citizenship" (Staatsbürgerschaft/Bürgerschaft) describes a person's participation in national society.
Until the early 19th century, German lands constituted the core part of the highly decentralised Holy Roman Empire. Each of the roughly 1,800 individual political entities within the Empire had varying (or non-existent) definitions on who they considered to be members of their polity. "Citizenship" in this context was tied to a person's settlement in a particular municipality and individuals found outside of their ordinary places of residence could be deported to other parts of imperial territory.
The modern concept of citizenship, as a formal and legal relationship between an individual and a state that confers privileges to holders and a status that persists beyond continued territorial residence, emerged during the French Revolution. Following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, this model of citizenship was imported into the German territories that became part of the French-led Confederation of the Rhine, though any applicable legislation from this period was repealed in the 1810s shortly after French defeat in the Napoleonic Wars. Outside of this Confederation, Austria enacted its first codified regulations based on the modern citizenship concept in 1811.
As a result of the Congress of Vienna, the German Confederation was created in 1815 as a permanent replacement for the Holy Roman Empire and included virtually all of the former Empire's territory. This political structure was not a federal state and sovereign power remained with the 38 individual member states. Each state continued to hold jurisdiction over citizenship, but the vast majority of them passed no specific codified laws on the subject until the mid-19th century. Prussia enacted its first citizenship law in 1842. Other than through naturalisation, Prussian citizenship was only passed by descent from a Prussian father (or mother, if the parents were unmarried).
Recent media