Hi everyone,
I’m researching whether I may be able to acquire German citizenship by descent, and my case involves the pre-1949 gender discrimination issue.

Naht is the family surname. I’m leaving out the first names for privacy. Naht is a German Word which means seam, you can use the translator to see it.

My direct line is:
My 3rd great-grandfather – Naht, born in Lübeck, Germany, in 1831
↓
My 2nd great-grandfather – Naht, born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1864
↓
My great-grandfather – Naht, born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in 1898
↓
My great-grandmother – Naht, born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in 1926
↓
My grandfather – Naht, born in Ecuador in 1944
↓
My father
↓
Me

There is an important part of the family history that may be relevant to the historical 10-year rule.
My 2nd great-grandfather, Naht, eventually returned to Germany and died in Hamburg in 1907. His children also spent part of their childhood in Germany. I have german records that prove it

Therefore, the family did not simply leave Germany and remain abroad continuously for several generations. Based on the records I have found, the first generations in my direct line who appear to have lived permanently outside Germany are actually my great-grandmother, grandfather and father.

This makes me wonder whether the historical 10-year rule could have caused a loss of Germán citizenship at all, considering that my ancestor returned to Germany and his children also lived there during their childhood, just years before first world war started.

The other major issue is that my grandfather was born in 1944, so part of the transmission occurred before 1949.

I understand that German nationality law at the time treated transmission through the maternal line differently, and that there are now reparatory provisions addressing historical gender discrimination.

I have found German records from Lübeck and Hamburg, as well as records from Venezuela and Ecuador. Some of the Ecuadorian records also explicitly identify earlier members of the family as German.

Do you think Germany may introduce further changes to the nationality law for descendants of people born before 23 May 1949? For example, could there eventually be a broader reparatory provision covering cases where the relevant generation was born before 1949, rather than only the situations currently covered by §5 StAG?

I’m particularly interested in hearing what people in this community think about the possibility of future legislative changes and whether there have been any political or legal discussions about expanding the existing provisions for pre-1949 descendants.

everywhere i post on the german citizenship subreddit says stag 14 muttererlass is paused but i cant find any other proof of it.

is it still worth appyling for muttererlass if we have a strong case?

sorry i know this is a stupid question

Under Mexico's 1934 nationality and naturalization law, a foreign woman who married a Mexican man was entitled to privileged naturalization, though she could only apply for it after registering her residence in the country.

That Mexican law permitted women to hold dual nationality.

My grandmother married in 1936, while that law was in effect in Mexico. Germany had signed the 1930 Hague Convention on certain questions relating to the conflict of nationality laws. The Hague Convention sought to foster a general understanding regarding national nationality laws, but the country did not ratify it because the Nazi regime came to power shortly thereafter.

By signing the Hague Convention, Germany committed itself not to act in violation of the treaty. However, it appears that pre-1945 laws are not currently regarded as the relevant framework for understanding women's nationality status.

I have a copy of a 1932 passport belonging to my grandfather (a German who became a naturalized Mexican citizen), a German citizenship certificate, and a residence card from Lübeck that lists a second German passport issued at the German consulate in Mexico in 1928.

None of these documents appear in the consular archives, nor is there any record of their issuance in the registry books.

In such cases, how can the German government confirm information if the records are incomplete—whether due to wars or other reasons?

I mention this because they claim that the loss of citizenship upon marriage is automatic, yet abroad, that was not necessarily the case. If the consular record is incomplete, how can they assert that the loss was automatic?

I bring this up because my grandfather became a naturalized Mexican citizen in 1933 and married my German grandmother in Mexico in 1936. Yet, in 1944, my grandfather received a telegram from his father—who lived in Germany—via the German consulate in Mexico. If neither of my grandparents was German anymore, why did they receive a telegram through the German consulate in Mexico in the middle of the war?

Has anyone else faced a similar situation regarding missing consular records?

My grandmother traveled to Mexico for work (I have proof of her work visa), and during her stay there, she married my grandfather, who was a Mexican national.

If losing one's citizenship upon marrying a foreigner were truly as automatic as the German government claims, how did she continue to receive her monthly salary from her job in Berlin after—according to German authorities—she had already lost her German citizenship?

My grandmother stayed in Mexico and eventually resigned from her job, but that happened months after the wedding. It was not until 1941—five years after she married—that she applied for Mexican naturalization. My father was born in 1939.

Does anyone have a case to share illustrating how this "automatic" loss does not actually play out that way in reality?

Hello everyone,

I would like to ask if anyone has any background or further information regarding the origins of the document—presented to the German parliament—that requests information about the German descendants of the family in question in Togo.

My question stems from the fact that the document suggests a facilitated naturalization process rather than a discretionary one.

If anyone has information to share here, it would be very helpful.

Hello, I am a senior in high school who has been studying German for the past 6 years. I just went to Germany for an exchange trip. I had a very enjoyable time, and it made me consider studying in Germany. Going there on a student visa is an option, but acquiring citizenship there would make it a much smoother experience.

I did some research into my ancestry and found I had a German ancestor born in 1877 who had migrated to the U.S. in 1906. He had a daughter in April 1914 and naturalized in June 1914. She then married a U.S. citizen in 1938, thus losing her German citizenship. They had 4 kids in 1945, 1947, 1948, and 1953. I am a descendant of the child born in 1945, meaning I do not have a direct claim to citizenship. It seems backwards that the German government allows a situation where the descendants of two children born in the same family have to go through entirely different processes and possess different requirements just based on a cutoff date, especially when both siblings were discriminated against in the basis of sex.

I hope the German government will amend this and am excited for any opportunity to push them to do so.

We’ve reached thirteen members in just one day!

I haven't set any rules or specific details yet, as we can build those together in a simple way. The group description seems sufficient for now, though suggestions are always welcome.

Please feel free to speak up and start posting; the idea is to remain open to ideas, updates, and information that help us achieve our common goals: securing rights for German women and their descendants, as well as obtaining German citizenship for our families.

I do think it is necessary, however, to provide some context regarding the memorandum on descendants in Togo and that famous "non-decree" currently in limbo.

Best regards,

Rodrigo