Germans of origin

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As German descent are in traditional parlance persons designated whose ancestors German are, or were, and no German citizenship have or they have given up or lost. The attribute of German origin is mostly applied to people who no longer permanently reside in the area in which their ancestors, who speak German as their mother tongue , lived.

Occasionally, however, Germans of German origin are also used in order to distinguish this group of people from German citizens with a migration background . It must be taken into account here that the cross-generational roots of a person in Germany via an ancestor and his or her status as a person with a migration background are not mutually exclusive, since every person is descended from two parents .

Current usage

Germans of origin and Germans abroad

There are many people of German origin in the USA , Russia , Canada , Australia and Latin America , see in particular the German minority in Mexico , the German minority in Chile and German immigration in Brazil ( German-Brazilian ). These are first generation Germans who emigrated to another country, but also their descendants . Many of them no longer speak German (as their mother tongue ). People of German origin are often also people who or whose ancestors have emigrated from Germany via a country in the German-speaking regions of Europe (→  Emigration, section “History of emigration in the German-speaking area” ).

With regard to the distinction between German citizens and people of German origin in the United States of America, there are guidelines of the German representations. In most western countries the category “German ethnicity ” does not officially play a role today. Denmark is an exception . In the German-Danish Agreement of March 29, 1955, the “Declaration of the Danish Government” (Section II / 1) states: “The commitment to German nationality and German culture is free and may not be disputed or checked ex officio. "

Not as a German descent , but as German are German people related within the meaning of 116 Art. GG ( see below ) as well as the members of the German minorities in the countries where such minorities are recognized. German citizens who live permanently abroad are called foreign Germans .

Often the unsubstantiated attribute of German descent indicates a state of incomplete membership of a people. The phrase “Poles of German origin” has the connotation that the person named in this way is not a “real” Pole (as he does not come from Poland ), but also not a German (as he was not born and raised in Germany).

Historical usage

Weimar Republic

While the concept of "ethnicity" was still foreign to German citizenship law during the period of the German Empire (1871-1918), it gained considerable importance in the practice of naturalizing foreigners after the First World War : Authorities were set up to issue "certificates of German origin" and those wishing to be naturalized were classified according to the criteria of “German origin” and “foreign origin” in naturalization guidelines that were kept secret, with “German origin” being privileged as early as 1933. By adding the attribute “culturally foreign”, Jews in particular should be excluded from acquiring German citizenship.

National Socialism

In a circular issued by the Reich Ministry of the Interior on May 23, 1944, the term German origin was defined as follows:

“People with at least two German grandparents are of German origin; People with an alien blood impact are not of German descent. "

For the Nazis , the terms were German people Related and German descent not synonyms: the one hand, could under certain conditions non-German origin within the meaning of the above definition, but as a "capable" Classified by an "avowal of German ethnic" (that is, by the readiness with departments.. " Greater Germany " to collaborate ) become" German people ", on the other hand even" people of German origin "(ie people with four German grandparents) could lose this quality if they" have become completely absorbed in a foreign nation ".

Legal regulation in the Federal Republic of Germany

The term “German of origin” is not a term used in legal jargon today . In German law , there is only the term German people Related , which, however, even today with the term of German origin is synonymous. The official control in the Basic Law (Art. 116, paragraph 1) is "German nationality": "German within the meaning of this Basic Law is subject to other legal regulation, who the German nationality possesses or as a refugee or displaced persons of German ethnic origin or as the spouse or descendant in the Territories of the German Reich as of December 31, 1937. ”The Federal Expellees Act also mentions“ members of the German people ”(§ 1 ff. BVFG).

People who live in a state of the former Eastern Bloc or the Commonwealth of Independent States and are descended from ethnic Germans , but who were not taught the German language by their ancestors in such a way that they can have a simple conversation in German, tend to be accepted into to attest Germany competent authorities and courts them that they are "only" German descent , but not German people related in the sense of Art. 116 of the Basic Law.

According to Section 14 of the Citizenship Act (StAG), there is the possibility of “optional naturalization” for “foreign citizens who live abroad and have special ties to the Federal Republic of Germany”. This regulation gives German authorities a margin of discretion , but applicants of German origin have no legal right to naturalization .

criticism

The term German origin is not very clear. The statement that a person is of German descent often does not, taken in isolation, contain any information beyond this statement. This statement often does not take into account that

  • among the ancestors of a person of German origin there are often not only Germans or people of German descent that a person of German origin can also be of "different origin",
  • the time of the stay of the "German" ancestor in his area of ​​origin is often long ago and
  • As “of German origin”, they often fully assimilated themselves to the majority society of their host country , so nothing “German” is recognizable in them.

For example , in 1709 Johann Valentin Pressler emigrated from Niederhochstadt in the Palatinate to America. At that time there was neither an all-German state nor the United States . In direct patrilineal generation , Elvis Presley descends from this emigrant. A chairman of an “Elvis Presley Association” in Germany reacted to this information with the words: “Elvis Presley must have had German blood in his veins. He was like the people of the Palatinate - nice, open and helpful. This may be a coincidence. "However, among the ancestors Presley alongside Germans and German origin also Scots or Schottischstämmige, Irish or Irish descent, French or French descent and a great-grandmother of the tribe of the Cherokee .

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b German representations in the USA: Loss by assuming a foreign citizenship ( Memento from September 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Quote: “... This means for people of German origin living in the USA who have acquired US citizenship at their own request : With the acquisition of US citizenship upon enlistment, German citizenship is regularly lost. "
  2. ↑ US demographic census . Retrieved April 15, 2007.
  3. ^ Germans in Russia and other CIS countries .
  4. ↑ In focus: Germans in Canada ( Memento from September 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). In: Globus 2/2006.
  5. ^ German speakers in Australia ( Memento from March 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
  6. ↑ Ulrike Ziebur: The sociolinguistic situation of Chileans of German descent . In: Linguistics online . tape 7 , no. 3 , 2000, doi : 10.13092 / lo.7.987 ( bop.unibe.ch [accessed on April 13, 2020]).
  7. ^ German-Danish agreement of March 29, 1955 (PDF; 93 kB)
  8. ↑ Verena Wecker: Language and identity in the context of the migration of Silesian repatriates to Germany . SASI issue 15, 2009, p. 62, note 32 ( Memento of January 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 939 kB)
  9. ↑ Oliver Trevisiol: The naturalization practice in the German Empire 1871-1945 . Diss., 2004, p. 126 .
  10. ↑ Oliver Trevisiol: The naturalization practice in the German Empire 1871-1945 . Diss., 2004, p. 242 (PDF) .
  11. ↑ Quoted from: Günter Hinken: The role of citizenship in the conception of the Basic Law. In: Dietrich Thränhardt (Hrsg.): Immigration and naturalization in Germany. Lit Verlag, 1997, p. 187.
  12. ↑ Dieter Gosewinkel: Citizenship, Inclusion and Exclusion on National Socialist Population Policy in Europe , p. 13 fn. 26 (PDF; 381 kB).
  13. ↑ E.g. in a judgment of the Administrative Court Minden from May 19, 2004 ( Memento from August 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ Mirjam Mohr: Researchers on the German footsteps of Elvis Presley. His ancestors are said to come from the Palatinate , Die Welt from April 19, 1999.
  15. ^ Walter D. Kamphoefner (2009): Elvis and Other Germans: Some Reflections and Modest Proposals on the Study of German-American Ethnicity , in: Cora Lee Kluge (Ed.): Paths Crossing: Essays in German-American Studies . Peter Lang, 2010, ISBN 978-3-0343-0221-0 , p. 33.
  16. ^ Elaine Dundy: Elvis and Gladys , 1986, ISBN 978-0-440-12271-5 , p. 60.
  17. ^ Elaine Dundy: Elvis and Gladys , pp. 13, 16, 20-22, 26.
  18. ↑ Elvis Australia: Elvis Presley Family History: 1669-1935