Aktualisiert am:
Bundesverfassungsgericht, 20.05.2020, Az.: 2 BvR 2628/18
It is a landmark decision of the highest court in Germany. The Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) in Karlsruhe has made it easier for many people to restore the German citizenship under Art. 116 para 2 of the German Basic Law.
The term “descendants” within the meaning of Article 116 (2) sentence 1 of the Basic Law does now include also
- children born in wedlock prior to 1 April 1953 to mothers who were forcibly deprived of their German nationality and foreign fathers
- and children born out of wedlock prior to 1 July 1993 to fathers who were forcibly deprived of their German nationality and foreign mothers.
This means that even persons whose application has been recently rejected by the Bundesverwaltungsamt and the German embassies can submit a new application at the German embassy in their respective home country.
Finally the success of the application to restore German citizenship does not depend on whether the descendent was a legitimate or an illegitimate child or whether the ancestor was male or female:
This is the link to the press release: https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/EN/2020/bvg20-048.html