Well what do you know! Seems I’m a German Citizen

kinderausweis

I wrote about the question of German citizenship last week and how my daughter Kayla prompted this. The hunt involved looking through a paper archive and uncovering a number of very interesting documents.

Well I can now report that it looks like I’ve been a dual Canadian-German citizen for some time without knowing it!

I sent a general query to the German Consulate in Toronto via their consular website and have since exchanged a number of very interesting emails with Frau Köpcke. She requested unofficial copies of documents to help me assess the likelihood of being able to confirm German ancestry and things looked very positive thanks to those documents Kayla, Mom & I went through. She mentioned that I would need to provide copies of birth certificates for my parents which reminded me to look at the Stammbuch for my dad’s parents since his birth is registered in it. And that led me another document my mom gave me whenever she put that into my possession. A “Kinderausweis” from 1961. The English text below the Germans states:

CHILD’S TRAVEL DOCUMENT IN LIEU OF PASSPORT”

Note the nationality… of course a German travel document would be for a German national.

kinderausweis
German travel document

All of a sudden the conversation changed and instead of looking to prove anything I was asked if I’d like to apply for a passport!

Now, to do this properly I still need to go through the correct process to acquire a “Staatsangehörigkeitsausweis”. This German citizenship identification will then enable Kayla to start her process since she will be able to show she has a German father.

 

2 Replies to “Well what do you know! Seems I’m a German Citizen”

  1. Hi Peter,

    I’ve read your post and it got me thinking. Now, I assume from your post that you are in fact a Canadian citizen (please correct me if I’m wrong). My understanding of German law is that they don’t allow for dual citizenship. Has there been a change to this rule that you are aware of?

    1. You’re correct that generally German citizenship law does not support dual citizenship. The exception is when another nationality is acquiring by birth. Canadians born to German parents are not required to give up their Canadian citizenship.

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