Do Israelis Still Want to Become German?

Negotiating Ancestry-Based German Citizenship Against the Backdrop of Historical and Contemporary Politics in Germany and Israel

Migration Department

Project head: Dr. Lukas M. Fuchs,  Dr. Ramona Rischke,  Dr. Zeynep Yanaşmayan

Running time January 2025 until December 2026
Status Current project

This project examines the use of citizenship restitution by Israeli citizens with German-Jewish ancestry and analyzes how they situate this process within the context of personal belonging, cultural heritage, and historical persecution. Through qualitative interviews, the project reconstructs processes of identity, migration, and belonging that emerge from grappling with German citizenship and potential migration.

Guiding research questions

How do Israelis perceive of German citizenship, and what motivates them to pursue naturalization?
How do Israeli applicants negotiate their Jewish identity and self positioning between Israel and Germany?
How do migration motives, opinions about Germany and/or Israel, and self-definitions or identities shift in the event of leaving Israel and relocating to Germany?
They only gave me back what was mine, what was taken from me decades ago.
Margot Friedländer, Holocaust survivor, upon receiving her German citizenship back in the townhall of Berlin

This research project focuses on two main aspects:

(1) The potential claim to the so-called restitution-based naturalization under Article 116, para. 2 of German constitution or §15 Nationality Act , which grants German citizenship to descendants of German-Jewish families whose citizenship was wrongfully revoked or who were persecuted under the Nazi regime.

(2) The negotiation of Israeli citizens with their own sense of belonging between Israel and Germany as well as the cultural heritage of their ancestors, who were either expelled from Germany or murdered during the Shoah. 
Based on qualitative interviews with applicants for restitution-based naturalization, the project explores Israeli-German-Jewish perceptions of self, society, and belonging. We assume that Jews, like other groups of migrants, undergo complex and hybrid identity processes when deciding to migrate to or naturalize in Germany, but that these processes are particularly comlicated due to Germany’s National Socialist past.  
In addition, we want to explore the role of intermediaries, such as lawyers, and gain a better understanding of the law-making process through stakeholder interviews. 

  1. Limited knowledge in Germany about how historical persecution and cultural heritage shape decisions regarding German citizenship and migration for Israelis under current political circumstances. 
  2. Contribution to growing research on transnational Jewish identities in the context of citizenship by return or restitution (e.g. Sephardic laws) 
  3. A lack of understanding of how the consequences of October 7, 2023, have changed the transnational lives of Israeli dual citizens. 

  1. Understand the factors that motivate Israelis to apply for restitution-based naturalization  
  2. Reconstruct the sense of place between the country of origin and the potential host country and how this is influenced by the (re)acquisition of German citizenship. 
  3. Examine how attitudes toward Germany/Israel and self-definitions change before and after potential migration. 

  • Episodic narrative interviews with Israeli applicants for restitution-based naturalization. 
  • Reconstructive analysis of the political process behind the 2021 reform of restitution-based naturalization 
  • Expert discussions and interviews with so-called "brokers" in the field of naturalization. 

Funding: Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Institutional funding)