Will Germany allow states to revoke citizenship for acts of anti-Semitism?

The German government's new law allowing dual citizenship and a faster naturalisation process is just a few months old but it’s already come under criticism–mostly from conservative and far-right politicians. 

Now some state-level interior ministries reportedly support the idea of revoking dual nationals of their German citizenship if they've been convicted of anti-Semitic crimes.

It's not clear whether such a measure would be constitutional, but a query from Focus magazine found that the state ministries of Bavaria, Saxony, North-Rhine Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse, and Rhineland-Palatinate would support such a measure politically. 

Meanwhile Saxony-Anhalt, Lower Saxony, Bremen, and Berlin were against it. The remaining federal states had not commented.

Bavaria’s interior minister in particular appears to be leading the charge on the issue. In January, before the new citizenship law had come into effect, the Bavarian office had already submitted a similar motion to Germany's upper chamber - the Bundesrat - which represents the federal states. But the motion has not yet been considered.

Asked for comment, Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU), told The Local, "Germans with dual citizenship who have been legally convicted of forming a terrorist organization or committing another serious crime should lose their German citizenship".

He added that serious crimes "can also include a serious act of violence motivated by anti-Semitism".

What’s the controversy?

The issue with adding new laws targeting anti-Semitism is that German society is having a hard time agreeing on what exactly qualifies as a serious anti-Semitic crime.

For example, in January the Berlin Senate dropped an “anti-discrimination clause” that it had adopted as a prerequisite to receive funding for cultural projects after it received severe criticism that the clause was restricting freedom of expression. 

The clause had included the definition of anti-Semitism as it is described by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance [IHRA], which includes “Rhetorical and physical manifestations…directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals…Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

In a letter of protest, a large number of Berlin artists and cultural workers said they feared this definition would be used as an administrative basis to cancel events and projects that were critical of Israel’s war on Gaza.

An alternative definition of anti-Semitism is defined in the Jerusalem Declaration on anti-Semitism. But proponents of either definition often reject the other.

Another example is seen in the contention around the phrase “From the river to the sea - Palestine will be free.”

Those sympathetic to Palestine say it's simply a slogan in support of Palestine’s right to exist.

But the slogan has been criticised by supporters of Israel as denying Israel's right to exist, with some suggesting it amounts to calling for the Israeli state's erasure. Building on this criticism, some suggest that saying the phrase itself is an act of aggression against Israel, and is therefore anti-Semitic.

This interpretation of the slogan has led to numerous, and often very aggressive, arrests of Pro-Palestine activists in Germany.

READ ALSO: FACT CHECK - Do new German citizens have to affirm Israel’s right to exist?

Confusion on the distinction between rhetoric that is anti-Semitic versus rhetoric that is critical of the state of Israel has also led to seemingly discordant political moments, like when the CDU's Deputy State Chairman, Thorsten Frei called the Jewish Voice for Peace an "anti-Semitic organisation".

Im deutschen Reichstag kann sich ein deutscher Katholik hinstellen und eine jüdische Friedensorganisation, der weltweit Zigtausende Jüdinnen*Juden angehören, als "antisemitische Organisation" denunzieren und bekommt dafür fraktionsübergreifenden Applaus.@thorsten_frei @jvplive pic.twitter.com/ra4u1ytYBM

— Jakob Reimann (@Jakob_Reimann) October 21, 2024

So, if an anti-Semitism clause of any kind were to be adopted to amend the dual citizenship law, the question remains: would it really only be applied to violent offenders, or might it be used to strip citizenship from anyone who uses certain slogans to protest Israel’s war in Gaza?

Asked for clarity on how the Bavarian Interior Ministry would intend for the rule to be applied, Herrmann said, "The loss of German citizenship is a very drastic measure. Therefore it would be applied only when there was a conviction for a serious criminal offense that endangers the state."

The ministry did not provide any examples of cases in which current citizens or foreign residents of Bavaria committed the type of crimes that would warrant such a punishment.

What does the current law say?

Under Germany’s citizenship law as it stands, after citizenship has been granted it can only be revoked in a few specific cases.

The primary reasons citizenship can be revoked include joining a foreign country’s army or being found to have lied on your citizenship application.

READ ALSO: When can your German citizenship be revoked?

Will this rule really be adopted?

To clear the Bundesrat, the motion would first need an absolute majority of votes there, which would be very difficult for the CDU/CSU to get currently.

If it did pass the Bundesrat, the rule would also need to get an absolute majority of votes by members of parliament in the Bundestag, and there would be an opportunity for comment by the Federal Government in between.

In short, it's highly unlikely that this particular motion gets off the floor of the Bundesrat for now.

Federal representatives of the CDU/CSU have also suggested that they would be in favour of overturning the dual citizenship law completely, should they come to power in the next election.

 "Bavaria has repeatedly criticized the simplifications associated with the [new] citizenship law," Hermann told the Local.

"Personally, I also consider a reduction in the required period of residence, acceptance of dual-citizenship and the relaxation of language restrictions for certain groups to be the wrong signal in terms of integration policy," he added.

But for now, it looks unlikely that the CDU/CSU could gather enough support to overturn the new citizenship law, even if they do become the leading party at the Federal elections next year.

The CDU/CSU's party constitution forbids it from governing with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), and all of Germany's other leading parties support the dual citizenship law.

As it stands the CDU/CSU would need an absolute majority in the Bundestag to overturn the law. Such an absolute majority has occurred only once in the history of the Federal Republic - under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in the early 1960s.

READ ALSO: FACT CHECK - Can Germany's CDU scrap the dual nationality law?