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NINETEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN CITIZENSHIPS: A RECONSIDERATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 1997

ANDREAS K. FAHRMEIR
ANDREAS K. FAHRMEIR
Affiliation:
German Historical Institute, London
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Abstract

According to the prevalent view, German citizenship was acquired only by descent from German citizens from the early nineteenth century onwards. This article argues, however, that a complete reading of the available sources suggests that citizenship was linked to the place of permanent residence in post-1815 legislation, and that the regulation of citizenship was a state responsibility, not one of the powers of the Germanic Confederation. The central points of citizenship law remained unchanged by the 1848 revolution and the unification of German states in 1866 and 1871, so that the increasing emphasis on descent in the 1913 Citizenship Act reflected a new departure rather than a traditional German concept of nationality.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , September 1997 , pp. 721 - 752
Copyright
© 1997 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Professor Derek Beales, Professor Lothar Kettenacker, Dr Karl Schenk, Dr Jonathan Steinberg and Professor Peter Wende for their comments on earlier versions of this article. Even though they have greatly influenced (and improved) its present form, any errors that remain are, of course, my own.