Citizenship of the GDR

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The citizenship of the GDR was the most February 20, 1967 Law on Citizenship of the German Democratic Republic (Nationality Act) introduced by the parliament of the GDR was decided. The Federal Republic of Germany did not generally regard the GDR Citizenship Act as negligible, insofar as the reunification requirement and thus also the “continued existence of [all] German citizenship” were upheld.

history

In the German Democratic Republic, this law repealed the all-German Reichs and Citizenship Act (RuStAG) of 1913, which had been valid until then, and repealed the uniform German citizenship that was still enshrined in the first GDR constitution of 1949 . The new regulation of GDR citizenship should be an expression of one's own sovereignty and promote the national identity of the socialist state. The official name for the residents of the GDR according to this citizenship law was GDR citizens or citizens of the GDR . As early as 1964, GDR identity cards had been marked “Citizens of the German Democratic Republic”.

On March 26, 1975, Austria was the first western country to recognize GDR citizenship.

Legal effectiveness in relation to RuStAG

According to its legal conception, the Federal Republic of Germany attached only limited importance and legal effect to an independent citizenship of the GDR. Citizens of the GDR, like German citizens, were considered "Germans in the sense of the Basic Law " ( Art. 116 GG ). The Federal Republic held on to this even after it had given up the claim to sole representation . The recognition of citizenship of the GDR by the Federal Republic was one of the Gera demands of Erich Honecker .

Every GDR citizen also had a legal right to a passport of the Federal Republic of Germany, although this claim was not recognized by the GDR. In practical terms, this meant that citizens who were granted a visa for the Federal Republic of Germany could get their passport there at short notice and thus also travel to other countries. Upon returning to the GDR, the West German passport was officially kept on request, as GDR law prohibited citizens from acquiring the West German passport. Theoretically, GDR citizens could also acquire a West German passport when traveling abroad, for example to socialist countries, in consular representations of the Federal Republic - but this could not be used to leave the country without the official entry stamp of the socialist country and was therefore practically worthless.

The Federal Constitutional Court concluded from the reunification requirement that the granting of GDR citizenship automatically led to the acquisition of German citizenship within the meaning of the Reich and Citizenship Act - also for citizens who were not German prior to naturalization within the meaning of the Basic Law. This applied “within the limits of public policy ”.

In 1982 the GDR government issued an ordinance that exempted all those who had fled until then , but at the same time revoked their GDR citizenship. The basic agreement negotiated in 1972 did not regulate these points.

By the turn of subsequent unification treaty the GDR citizenship was irrelevant.

Acquisition and loss of citizenship of the German Democratic Republic

Section 1 of the Citizenship Act ( StBüG ) initially regulated the initial assignment of citizenship, which, due to the time difference between the establishment of the state in 1949 and the creation of citizenship, made it necessary to distinguish between cases .

The first (and largest) case group were those who were German citizens when the state was founded in 1949 and who had residence or permanent residence in the GDR in 1967. They automatically became GDR citizens.

The second group of cases were those who were German citizens when the state was founded in 1949 and who did not have a place of residence or permanent residence in the GDR in 1967. If they had not acquired any other citizenship, they were able to document their will to be citizens of the GDR by registering with a responsible body of the German Democratic Republic and also became citizens of the GDR. This affected, for example, people who were abroad or in the Federal Republic on behalf of the SED or the GDR.

The last group were those who acquired or lost citizenship after 1967. The rules for this are laid down in Section 4 of the StBüG.

The citizenship of the German Democratic Republic was through

  • Ancestry,
  • Birth on the territory of the German Democratic Republic and
  • Award

acquired. The combination of the principle of descent and the principle of birthplace should create the lowest possible hurdles for acquiring citizenship.

Conversely, the hurdles for losing GDR citizenship were set as high as possible. A voluntary waiver was not possible. According to § 9 StBüG the citizenship of the German Democratic Republic only ended

  • Discharge,
  • Revocation of the award and
  • Deprivation.

Section 3 (2) should also prevent the acquisition of another nationality. It stipulated that a GDR citizen was only allowed to take on another citizenship with the consent of the responsible state organs of the GDR.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the People's Chamber deleted Section 3 (2) in the law of January 29, 1990 (Journal of Laws I p. 31) and replaced Section 9 with: "Citizenship of the German Democratic Republic is lost through renunciation."

Expatriations

Section 13 of the StBüG regulates that "citizenship of the German Democratic Republic can be withdrawn from citizens who have their place of residence or stay outside the German Democratic Republic due to gross violation of civic duties."

This was the legal basis for the expatriations with which the GDR got rid of unpleasant opponents .

Victims of expatriation were stripped of their citizenship by the GDR Council of Ministers . B.

However, victims of expatriation are also political prisoners of the GDR who were forced to apply for release from citizenship while in custody. B .:

Section 13 was also repealed by the law of January 29, 1990.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Journal of the GDR 1967 I p. 3; closer to this Ingo von Münch : The German citizenship. Past - present - future . De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89949-433-4 , pp. 91-96 . The StBüG came into force on February 23, 1967.
  2. ^ So Ingo von Münch, Die deutsche Staatsangerschaftigkeit , de Gruyter, pp. 97 ff. , 105 .
  3. ↑ See the implementing ordinance for the Act on Citizenship of the German Democratic Republic (StBG) of August 3, 1967 (Journal of the GDR 1967 II p. 681).
  4. ↑ Cf. Ingo von Münch, Die deutsche Staatsangölkerigkeit , de Gruyter, pp. 101-105, 315 ( restricted online version in the Google book search).
  5. ↑ Pointing the way here was the so-called Teso decision of October 21, 1987; see also Ingo von Münch, Die deutsche Staatsangerschaftigkeit , de Gruyter, p. 103 ff. ( limited online version in the Google book search).
  6. ↑ Ordinance on Citizenship Issues of the GDR of June 21, 1982 (Journal of Laws of 1982, No. 22, p. 41). In: verfassungen.de, accessed on June 19, 2019.
  7. ↑ Traumland DDR , Der Spiegel 42/1982 of October 18, 1982.