Thomas Pue,
German lawyer.
Specially for “Zagranitsa”. Currently, the Ministry of Justice plans to repeal about 200 laws and instructions that it considers outdated and no longer demanded by life. Of course, periodic cleaning of the Augean stables of justice from old and unnecessary products of administrative-legal creativity seems a reasonable intention. Indeed, today the “Directive for German judicial-assessor chambers on the conviction of members of criminal organizations” of 1947 and other similar regulations have only historical significance.
BLACK LIST
Unfortunately, this black list also includes the law “On the Amendment of Imperial and State Citizenship” of 1974 (Das Gesetz zur Anderung des Reichs– und Staatsangehorigkeitsgesetzes von 1974). This act regulates the transfer of German citizenship by inheritance. It is of great importance for descendants of Russian Germans naturalized during the Second World War. In this case, the officials are doing nothing more than fooling the people when they claim that this law is supposedly not used and hopelessly outdated. It remains a fact that in recent years I and other specialists in the field of resettlement law have used it to resolve questions of the admission to Germany of a large number of Russian Germans and their descendants. Perhaps for this reason the authorities want to repeal it.
RIGHT TO SUBMIT DECLARATION
The key point of this law is Article 3, paragraph 1. I would like to explain its meaning with an example. A native of the city of Kiev, a Russian German, Anna Weber, born in 1940, in 1943 together with her parents and older brother Wilhelm Weber was resettled to the territory of Poland and naturalized as a German citizen. After 1945, the Weber family was returned to the USSR. The old naturalization certificate is still kept in one of the German archives. After an archival request, the German embassy in Kiev without problems issues Anna Weber, married Kovalenko, a passport of a citizen of the FRG. By this act, Anna Kovalenko becomes just as full-fledged a German as all native residents of Germany.
Now Anna would like to obtain citizenship for her daughter Olga, born in 1963. Olga Kovalenko did not acquire German citizenship from her mother at the moment and by virtue of birth. Olga was born in a marriage concluded by her parents in 1962. Her father Vladimir Kovalenko, from the point of view of German laws, is a foreigner. Automatically, among the descendants of the Weber family, only Wilhelm Weber's son Alexander Weber, born in 1964, acquired German citizenship. This is because before 31.12.1974, legitimate children of German mothers and foreign fathers did not automatically acquire German citizenship from their mother. On the contrary, legitimate children of German fathers and foreign mothers became Germans by right of birth. As you can see, before 1975 the legislation on German citizenship clearly discriminated against women.
The law “On the Amendment of Imperial and State Citizenship” of 1974 offered a way out of this situation. All legitimate children of German mothers who did not acquire citizenship at the moment and by virtue of birth had the opportunity before 1977 to submit a personal, written declaration of their desire to become citizens of the FRG. All German state institutions, both inside the country and abroad, were obliged to accept such a declaration and forward it to the competent institution. So, the declaration could be submitted even to the fire brigade administration. Acceptance of this document meant the conferral of German citizenship to the eligible persons.
DEADLINES FOR SUBMITTING THE DECLARATION
As you understand, 1977 has long passed. In connection with special circumstances, the deadline for submitting the declaration for citizens of the former USSR was extended to 1992-1993, but more than ten years have passed since then. The law “On the Amendment of Imperial and State Citizenship” of 1974 recognizes the concept of an exception, which makes the submission of the declaration effective even now.
For example, Anna Weber died early and during her lifetime never told her daughter Olga about her wartime odyssey. At that time Anna herself was a little girl and did not retain clear memories of those events. Only completely by chance, in 2002 Olga learns that she descends from a German citizen. In this case, Olga must submit the required declaration within six months after receiving this information, which in this situation will be considered timely filed. Other exceptions may include: a false consultation from the staff of German state bodies regarding the significance of the mother’s old citizenship, the situation with the list-based collective citizenship of the Germans of Ukraine, and other circumstances are also conceivable.
THE CONCEPT OF EXCEPTION
In general, it can be said that the reverse repatriation of Russian Germans to the USSR after 1945 and their postwar fate created many exceptional situations falling under the operation of the law “On the Amendment of Imperial and State Citizenship” of 1974. The common fate of Russian Germans in general was one big exception. I am also thinking about the legal status of children born out of wedlock of German citizens who acquired German citizenship at the moment of birth but lost it after the mother married the foreign father of the child. Here, help can also be provided within the framework of the above-mentioned law.
As you can see, this law is still in demand and in force. I believe that is precisely why its abolition is planned. I recommend that all interested persons, without delay, submit a declaration of their desire to become a German citizen. By doing so, you keep open the option for subsequent proceedings and the granting of German citizenship. Acceptance of such a declaration by one of the German state organizations guarantees the timeliness of its submission, which is a necessary but not sufficient condition for granting German citizenship. Of course, German diplomatic missions abroad will in many cases refuse to accept declarations for various reasons. Therefore, it is recommended to submit it by mail via registered mail with return receipt.
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