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Law on Nationality and Citizenship (June 1, 1870)

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North Germans who have forfeited their citizenship because of a ten-year stay abroad and who have not obtained different citizenship may have the citizenship of their previous home state conferred upon them once again, even without settling there.

North Germans who have forfeited their citizenship because of a ten-year stay abroad and who will return to the territory of the North German Confederation shortly will acquire citizenship in the federal state in which they settle by means of a certificate of admittance that must be issued to them upon request.

§ 22. If a North German enters into the services of a foreign government without the consent of his own government, then the central authority of his home state may declare that person to have forfeited his citizenship by resolution if he does not comply with the express demand to resign from service within the specified period.

§ 23. If a North German serves a foreign power with the consent of his government, his citizenship remains extant.

§ 24. The issuance of certificates of admittance and, in the cases specified in § 15 para. 1, of certificates of release is free of charge.

For the issuance of certificates of release in cases other than those specified in § 15 para. 1, the combined amount of stamp duties and administrative fees charged must not exceed one thaler.

§ 25. For persons who are living abroad at the time this law is passed and who are also citizens of those federal states whose laws provide for the revocation of citizenship after a ten-year stay abroad, the course of this period is not interrupted by this law.

With respect to citizens of the remaining federal states, the course of the period specified in § 21 starts on the day this law takes effect.

§ 26. All regulations conflicting with this law are revoked.

§ 27. This law takes effect on January 1, 1871.*



* By the federal law dated July 21, 1870 (BGBl., 498), §§ 17 and 20 already entered into force on July 22, 1870, because the Franco-German War had broken out on July 19, 1870.



Source: Bundesgesetzblatt des Norddeutschen Bundes [Federal Law Gazette of the North German Confederation], 1870, pp. 355ff.

Original German text reprinted in Ernst Rudolf Huber, ed., Dokumente zur Deutschen Verfassungsgeschichte [Documents on German Constitutional History], 3rd rev. ed., vol. 2, 1851-1900. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1986, pp. 313-17.

Translation: Erwin Fink

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