Eligibility Quiz
Requirements
Who Qualifies
You qualify if you personally were deprived of German citizenship between January 30, 1933, and May 8, 1945, on political, racial, or religious grounds. Deprivation occurred through two mechanisms:
- Automatic loss via the 11th Ordinance (November 25, 1941): All German citizens of Jewish faith with permanent residence abroad on or after November 27, 1941, automatically lost citizenship. This affected the largest group—Jewish refugees who fled to save their lives.
- Individual revocation under the 1933 Law: Citizenship was revoked individually under the Act on Revocation of Naturalizations and Deprivation of German Citizenship (July 14, 1933), with notices published in the Reich Law Gazette.
Descendants
Each descendant has an individual claim, even if their parents do not apply. Grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and later generations can qualify. The line of descent must trace back to an ancestor who was deprived of German citizenship between 1933 and 1945.
A landmark Federal Constitutional Court decision (May 20, 2020) expanded eligibility to include:
- Children born in wedlock before April 1, 1953, to mothers who were deprived of German citizenship and foreign fathers
- Children born out of wedlock before July 1, 1993, to fathers who were deprived of German citizenship and foreign mothers
This corrected gender-based discrimination in earlier citizenship law. If your application was previously rejected under the old rules, you may reapply.
Children under 16 require parental consent to apply.
Special Geographic Cases
Austria and Eastern Territories: Between March 13, 1938, and April 26, 1945, Austria was part of the German Reich, and Austrian citizens were considered German nationals. Jewish families from Vienna, Graz, and other Austrian cities may be eligible. German citizenship also extended to eastern territories—Pomerania, Silesia, East Prussia, and East Brandenburg (now parts of Poland).
Who Does Not Qualify
You are disqualified if:
- You have a legally binding custodial or juvenile sentence of two years or more (at home or abroad) for a serious crime
- You pursue or support anti-constitutional activities (activities hostile to Germany's free democratic basic order)
- You regained German citizenship after 1945 and then voluntarily gave it up again through renunciation or naturalization in another country—unless you lost it before April 1, 1953, through marriage to a foreigner
Conditions & Warnings
Processing times are currently 18–36 months or longer due to a severe backlog at the Federal Office of Administration. As of 2024, only 14 full-time staff handle thousands of applications annually.
Dual citizenship is now permitted (as of June 27, 2024), so you do not need to renounce your existing nationality.
If a close family member (parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, or cousin) has already had their citizenship restored, citing their reference number (Aktenzeichen) on your application can reduce processing time from years to months.
Article 116 (2) applies only to those formally deprived of citizenship. If your ancestor lost citizenship through other means (e.g., acquisition of foreign citizenship on application, marriage to a foreigner), you may qualify under Section 15 StAG instead—a separate pathway with different eligibility.
The Federal Constitutional Court expanded eligibility in May 2020 to include children born to German mothers and foreign fathers (before April 1, 1953) and children born to German fathers and foreign mothers (before July 1, 1993). If your application was previously rejected, you may reapply.
Missing original documents do not automatically disqualify you, but the BVA requires certified German translations of all documents submitted. Poor translation quality is a common source of delay.
Qualifications
Fees
Application is free; costs may be incurred for document procurement, legalization, apostilles, archive searches, and legal assistance.