If one of your parents was a German citizen when you were born, you almost certainly acquired German citizenship at birth, and German citizenship by descent is the process of proving and documenting that claim, or in some cases reclaiming a citizenship your family lost. Germany passes nationality primarily by bloodline rather than by place of birth, so being born in the United States or anywhere else does not matter. What matters is the citizenship of your parent at the moment of your birth, and, for older cases, whether the law of that era treated your mother and father equally.
The Basic Rule: Citizenship Passes From a German Parent
Under the German Nationality Act (Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz, or StAG), a child born to at least one German parent is a German citizen at birth, regardless of where the birth takes place. This applies to any child born in a marriage where either parent held German citizenship at the time.
For children born out of wedlock, the rule splits by parent. A German mother passes citizenship automatically. A German father passes it only if paternity is legally recognized under German law, and that recognition must happen before the child turns 23.
If You Were Born Before 1975, or Out of Wedlock Before 1993
The gender-neutral version of the descent rule only took effect on January 1, 1975. Before that date, a child born in wedlock could inherit German citizenship only from the father. A child born to a German mother and a foreign father simply got nothing. Children born out of wedlock to a German father before July 1, 1993 were similarly excluded.
A 2021 amendment created a fix. Under Section 5 of the StAG, if you were born after May 23, 1949 and would have been a German citizen had the law treated mothers and fathers equally at the time, you can now acquire citizenship by filing a formal declaration. The right extends to your descendants.
Three groups qualify:
- Children born in wedlock before 1975 to a German mother and a foreign father, who were denied citizenship because only the father’s nationality counted.
- Children born out of wedlock before July 1, 1993 to a German father and a foreign mother, who were excluded because the parents were not married.
- Children whose German mother lost her citizenship by marrying a foreign man under old law, which then blocked the children from inheriting it.
The declaration route has a hard deadline. The law gives applicants a ten-year window from the amendment’s entry into force on August 20, 2021, so declarations must be filed by August 2031. Anyone sentenced to a prison term of at least two years for an intentional crime is barred.
The Generation Cut-Off for Families Born Abroad
German citizenship does not pass down forever through generations living outside Germany. Under Section 4(4) of the StAG, a child born abroad does not automatically acquire German citizenship if all of the following are true: the German parent was also born abroad after December 31, 1999, the parent was living outside Germany when the child was born, and the child acquires another nationality at birth.
Two exceptions preserve the citizenship. If the child would otherwise be stateless, they still acquire it. And the parents can protect the child’s citizenship by registering the birth with a German consulate, embassy, or the competent German registry office within one year of the birth. Miss that one-year window, and the child is not a German citizen.
Restoration for Descendants of Nazi Persecution Victims
A separate and more generous set of rules exists for people whose ancestors lost German citizenship because of Nazi persecution. Article 116(2) of Germany’s constitution (the Basic Law, or Grundgesetz) gives former German citizens who were stripped of their nationality on political, racial, or religious grounds between January 30, 1933 and May 8, 1945 the right to have their citizenship restored on application. That right passes down to descendants in all generations.
Section 15 of the StAG covers the near-miss cases: people who were not formally denaturalized by the Nazi regime but who lost German citizenship in connected ways. The classic pattern is a Jewish German who fled the country and naturalized in the United States, Britain, or another safe haven. Under the old rules, acquiring foreign citizenship meant losing German citizenship automatically. Section 15 treats those losses as consequences of persecution and lets descendants apply for naturalization.
Both routes are deliberately accessible. Applicants do not need to speak German, pass a naturalization test, live in Germany, or prove financial self-sufficiency. Both routes are free. And there is no application deadline — descendants in any generation can apply at any time.
Adoption
If you were adopted as a minor by at least one German citizen on or after January 1, 1977, you are a German citizen. Adoptions carried out abroad must meet certain requirements to be recognized under German law. Adoptions between January 1, 1959 and December 31, 1976 had a narrower path: those children could have claimed citizenship by declaration, but only until the end of 1977.
Dual Citizenship After the 2024 Reform
For decades, the biggest anxiety around a German citizenship claim was losing it later. If you voluntarily naturalized in another country, you automatically lost your German citizenship unless you had applied in advance for a retention permit (Beibehaltungsgenehmigung). Many people found out too late.
That changed on June 27, 2024, when the Act on the Modernization of the Citizenship Law (StARModG) took effect. The retention permit is gone. Germans who naturalize in another country no longer lose their German citizenship, and there is no requirement to notify German authorities in advance.
The reform is not retroactive. If you lost German citizenship by acquiring foreign nationality before June 27, 2024, the loss stands. Former citizens in that situation may be able to apply for re-naturalization, but that is a discretionary process with its own requirements, separate from the descent and restoration routes described above.
People who acquired both citizenships at birth, such as a child born in the United States to a German parent, have always held dual citizenship. The old retention rule never applied to them.
Documents You Will Need
A descent claim rests on documenting an unbroken chain from you back to the German ancestor. For each generation in the chain, you need birth certificates and marriage records. For the German ancestor specifically, you need proof of German citizenship: an old German passport, military service records, or a Heimatschein (certificate of origin) will typically do.
If any ancestor emigrated and naturalized abroad, you need records showing the date. That date can make or break the claim, because naturalizing in a foreign country before a child was born could sever the chain of German citizenship for that child and every descendant after, depending on the era’s rules.
A common misconception is that everything must be professionally translated into German. For applications filed through U.S. consulates, English-language documents generally do not require translation. The Federal Office of Administration may request a certified German translation of any foreign-language document during review, but for English records this is uncommon. Certified or notarized copies of vital records are the norm, and an apostille is often useful for state-issued documents traveling internationally.
Where and How to File
There are two different tracks, and they produce different outcomes.
A Feststellung is a citizenship determination. It is for people who believe they already are German citizens by descent and need the government to confirm it. The Federal Office of Administration (Bundesverwaltungsamt, or BVA) examines the family history, decides whether and how citizenship was acquired, and, if the claim holds up, issues a certificate of nationality (Staatsangehörigkeitsausweis). The certificate costs €51.
A naturalization is for people acquiring German citizenship through a legal process, including the Section 5 declaration for the pre-1975 and pre-1993 groups, Article 116(2) restoration, and Section 15 restitution. When approved, the BVA issues a certificate of naturalization, and citizenship becomes effective when that certificate is handed over. Article 116(2) and Section 15 applications are free.
All applications go to the BVA in Cologne. If you live in the United States, you file through your nearest German consulate or embassy, which forwards the package to the BVA. The BVA has specific forms for each track, including Form EER for the declaration route and Appendix AV for documenting additional ancestors. Current forms are available through the BVA’s website and through German consulates.
Processing Time, Passport, and the Name Declaration
Plan on roughly two to three years for the BVA to work through your file. Complex lineages with gaps in documentation can take longer, and there is no way to expedite the review.
Once you have your certificate, you can apply for a German passport. A regular passport currently costs €101 for applicants aged 24 and older and €68.50 for those under 24. Expedited processing adds €32.
One step surprises many new citizens: the name declaration. German naming law may not recognize name changes that occurred under foreign law, including changes from marriage or divorce. If your name on foreign documents differs from what German law considers your legal name, you may need to file a name declaration before a passport can be issued. A name does not change automatically by marriage under German law. For children aged 18 or older whose parents did not share a married surname, a separate name declaration may be required. Your German consulate can walk you through this before you submit the passport application.