Who is a German and what exactly makes someone German? It is a question that Germans have been debating for centuries. The current German constitution, known as the Basic Law, clearly and concisely states that a German is anyone with a German passport. Citizenship cannot be revoked. Furthermore, discriminating against citizens based on their religion, origin, or language is a violation of the constitution’s fundamental values.
This is one of the lessons learned from the Nazi regime’s reign of terror from 1933 to 1945, which systematically disenfranchised, terrorized, and murdered the Jewish German population, as well as Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, disabled people, and political opponents, among others. They were arbitrarily denied their German identity.
However, 80 years after the end of Nazi rule, the fundamental value of equality for all Germans is increasingly being questioned. The AfD, a far-right political party in Germany, has been repeatedly confirmed unconstitutional by German courts due to statements made by its members questioning the validity of a person’s German identity based on their passport.
Historian Rolf-Ulrich Kunze from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology sees the AfD as part of a historical continuum, partly because of these statements. He believes that the party’s program is a continuation of Nazi ideology, which sought to distinguish between “real Germans” and “passport Germans.” The Nazi regime had created laws that prohibited the Jewish population from marrying so-called “Aryans” and even made sexual contact a criminal offense. The laws had two main provisions: the deprivation of Jewish people’s rights and second-class citizenship for Jews.
Even though the policy of extermination ended in 1945 with the defeat of Nazi Germany and the adoption of a new, liberal constitution, the problem of ancestral-based race and ethnic discrimination still persists in Germany. Karen Taylor, chair of the Federal Conference of Migrant Organizations, states that some people in Germany are more equal than others, especially immigrants who do not feel protected to the same extent as Germans of “German blood.” The radical right’s demand to revoke German citizenship from migrants reinforces this impression.
To overcome these prejudices, Taylor believes that everyone must take responsibility. It is wrong to wait for the state to act, and each one of us, in school, in clubs, and in everyday life, can make a difference.
Source: https://www.dw.com/en/legacy-of-racist-nuremberg-laws-still-lingers-in-germany/a-73964767?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf
