The Federal Government today adopted a draft bill presented by the Federal Minister of the Interior, Building and Community on the Fourth Act Amending the Nationality Act.

First and foremost, the objective of the bill is to create legal entitlements regarding the restitution of German citizenship. On 30 August 2019, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community issued decrees to facilitate the acquisition of German citizenship for descendants of victims of National Socialist persecution who lost their citizenship rights and are not entitled to restoration of citizenship under Article 116(2) of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz). The provisions also apply to children of German and former German citizens born prior to 1 January 1975 or 1 July 1993, respectively, who, owing to gender-discriminatory regulations, were previously excluded from acquiring German citizenship by descent, and their descendants. The new provisions have been very positively received by the people affected.

Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer said: "It is extremely fortunate for our country if people wish to acquire German citizenship although we stripped their ancestors of everything they had. This is not merely a matter of restitution but of asking forgiveness with a deep feeling of shame."

In a second step, the provisions of the decrees are now to be translated into a law which serves as legal basis for the restitution entitlements. Overall, this creates a new legal framework for restitution law under the Nationality Act. In addition, this gives more weight, including in symbolic terms, to restitution law.

The Federal Government expressly recognises its historical responsibility also to those who, as descendants of German victims of National Socialist persecution, lost their citizenship rights. The Federal Government considers it a sign of great trust that descendants of victims of National Socialist persecution who emigrated under duress now wish to acquire German citizenship.

For this reason, the Act stipulates clearly that the generational cut-off point will not apply in cases where German citizenship is restored in order to redress National Socialist injustice; this means that even in the future, claims to naturalisation under restitution law will not be subject to any time limits.

For descendants whose parent from whom German nationality is derived has already acquired German citizenship in the past and who have an ancestor who was persecuted by the National Socialist regime, the generational cut-off point will not even apply if they acquire German nationality at birth abroad. This means that they are not required to file an application for certification of the birth within a year after the birth in order to acquire German citizenship.

For all those who were affected by the former gender-discriminatory regulations on descent because they were born in wedlock as the child of a German mother and a foreign father or out of wedlock as the child of a German father and a foreign mother and were thus excluded from acquiring German citizenship at birth, the Act provides a ten-year declaration period during which they may acquire German citizenship by way of simple declaration. This entitlement applies to all those who were born in the period between the entry into force of the Basic Law and the date on which the unconstitutional regulations governing the acquisition of German citizenship by descent were amended, and their descendants.

In addition, the bill contains technical amendments based on court rulings and the practice of the naturalisation authorities.