The History of German Citizenship

Paper Summary:

The paper tells us that the fragmented history of German citizenship is directly connected to the citizenship laws which are ethically based. The paper also tells us that the fragmentation of the German nation occurred in the Medieval and Renaissance eras and has lasted for hundreds of years and this is the primary reason for the exclusivity of German citizenship. The paper explains that ethnically German citizenship was reserved for those who were truly German and that when the laws of citizenship were changed and liberalized it was due to pressure from the European Union and not domestic pressure.

From the Paper:

"The new West German constitution defined a citizen as any German, not just from West Germany. German citizens were described as any ethnic-German that was deported from their homes abroad following World War II, and this included a spouse or descendant of those deportees. It also determined that anyone who was admitted into Germany as the borders stood on December 31, 1937 was also a citizen. These new citizenship laws once again kept German citizenship for the most part homogenous, thus Germany continued to have a large percentage of the population living in Germany not be German citizens. Naturalization laws continued to be difficult throughout the separation of East and West Germany, and it would not be until the reunification in the 1990's that those laws were relaxed. Still naturalization numbers were low in Germany because the belief was that Germany was not a country of non-German immigration and does not strive to increase its number of citizens through naturalization. The new reunified Germany would continue in its traditions of its predecessors by once again incorporating jus sanguine purely, while not employing jus soli at all.
It would take nearly a decade after the reunification for the citizenship laws to once again be rewritten. As of January 1, 2000 Germany, for the first time in its history employed jus soli."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brubaker, Rogers. Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany.
• Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
• "Reform of the German Citizenship and Nationality Laws," 2000.

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