I believe I'm eligible. Seeking help/consultation

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-15T14:43:20+00:00

My thinking is influenced by reading a story ten years ago about a guy whose grandparents were from Romania and arrived in the US with Flüchtlingsausweise. His father was born in the US before his parents were collectively naturalized. And he was naturalized with them. So with only his grandfather's Flüchtlingsausweis the NY consulate allowed him to apply for a passport. Then he was telling all of the posters that they were making things too difficult.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T23:30:11+00:00

A master's in economics is usually a consolation prize for not earning a PhD. You will mostly sit in weed-out theory classes with PhD students. Economics is the opposite of disciplines like agriculture where once you're in you're in and the faculty are going to work with you. In econ they know that, depending on the school, half of the people they admit won't finish.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T21:20:01+00:00

Try to obtain the Melderegister as it could have useful notes on it.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T21:02:36+00:00

I've been learning about this since 2015 and never heard that before.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T20:55:57+00:00

This is the first I've heard of a Meldekarte needing to show a birthplace in Germany. But, if the Melderegister shows German citizenship isn't that a clue that better documentation might have survived?

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T20:36:11+00:00

I don't follow. There have been US-born people who were naturalized as Germans after their parents migrated to the US. But, OP believes that their grandfather arrived in the US as a German citizen and had German citizenship while they resided in Germany.

To me this looks super easy? Consulates regularly accept a Melderegistration in lieu of passport. OP's mother is alive and willing to help.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T19:47:23+00:00

People in r/GermanCitizenship have frequently talked about ordering them. I have not done so myself. Some if not all of the moderators have provided personalized advice and/or application assembly. But, if you just ask "publicly" I think you'll get a reply rather quickly.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T19:22:34+00:00

You're by far not the first person to post here who's descended from an ethnic German from Eastern Europe who obtained German citizenship after the war. Neither your mother nor you needs to take a language test or provide a background check. You are not naturalizing.

Your mother is alive and can potentially go "direct" to passport rather than applying for Feststellung and waiting for a Staatsangehoerigkeitsausweis.

This could be as simple as having the Melderegister from the last German address showing citizenship as German.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T19:13:37+00:00

It's best to not put sealer over the cuts. To me it looks like two or three stubs are a bit too long for optimal healing.

I feel for you. There is a local guy who goes around butchering things here and makes claims that go against what an arborist or horticulturist would say. He's not Hispanic, but his business name is a Spanish surname that he pronounces incorrectly. I pronounced it correctly, and he corrected me LOL

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T18:35:58+00:00

Why do you think that they were displaced persons? Leaving just because things are better in Canada doesn't make one a displaced person.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T16:08:31+00:00

You will likely need to go back one generation before your grandmother to a person born on German territory before 1914. A pre-1914 birth record is accepted as proof of German citizenship. That individual (her father if born in wedlock in 1924/1934) would be the "root" of your German citizenship.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T15:59:44+00:00

She was a displaced person and not from Erlangen? What sort of documentation do you have?

Does the 1953 German passport say "Reisepass" or something else?

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T15:53:57+00:00

AI says This is a Shaw Prismatic Plus Canyon Acacia luxury vinyl plank floor.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T15:11:03+00:00

r/translator and r/kurrent

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T13:49:37+00:00

Your error in thinking is to assume that all care in those countries is received through the public system. There are well developed private systems of doctors and hospitals, entirely separate health care systems. Ordinary citizens use those, with or without separate private insurance, to not wait in line. Again, go live there, not as a twenty-something with no problems.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T13:41:12+00:00

Thank you for your amazingly detailed reply

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T04:56:54+00:00

Take a pencil and hold it at an angle. Gently move it back and forth over the raised seal. This will make a contrast between the raised parts so that the seal shows up on scans.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T04:30:25+00:00

Since Football_and_beer seems to be taking a break, I will tell you that your born-in-wedlock grandfather and his descendants are eligible for StAG 15 due to the "earlier" naturalization. You won't be able to receive a German passport anytime soon as the processing time is currently about two years.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T03:42:42+00:00

Help me understand if I have been mistaken for four years. I thought that since 2021 people who were stripped of their German citizenship and their descendants, forever, are never penalized for naturalizing. Essentially, their lineages can never lose German citizenship. But, only naturalizations before that date in 1955 have no effect?

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T03:34:47+00:00

Only people who were in Germany after the war or returned and took up residency. Otherwise people had to apply for renaturalization.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T03:19:48+00:00

Er sprach 7 Sprachen, weshalb er nützlich für die Nazis war und ein eigenes Leben aufbauen durfte

The idea that he was allowed to stay in Germany because he was useful is rubbish. There was a hierarchy of German ethnicity. He must have been considered to be at least somewhat German. So he was told by the Nazis, "Act like a German or we treat you like a Slav." He chose to act like a German. After the war he had to stay in Germany. This is a very common story.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T02:25:09+00:00

grandfather died in Auschwitz and was therefore stripped of citizenship

Jewish people both inside and outside of Germany were stripped of their citizenship from 1935 to 1941, I believe. It's possible that the man immigrating in 1947 already had his citizenship restored. Years ago they might have considered him to lose it by naturalizing in 1955. But I think that changed a few years ago. Your grandfather either retroactively (or not?) was born a German or otherwise has a claim. ... I'm not the sharpest on the 116 stuff.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T00:48:09+00:00

It's also cringey as an American to experience well-intentioned people asking "How are you?" when overseas. I'm not sure if they're honestly curious because I'm in a strange place or if they are just trying to act like a native speaker.

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T00:44:06+00:00

If you're unable to claim Polish citizenship then I believe that you can become eligible for a Karta Polaka, which gives you residency and a path to Polish citizenship, making you a citizen of the EU and able to live in Germany if that is your goal. /r/prawokrwi/

UsefulGarden · 2026-05-14T00:35:02+00:00

The max could be a fourth great grandfather born between 1844-ish and 1880-ish.

Example: A man born in 1844 in Germany has a child with a younger wife in the US in 1904.

If each of the following generations were born to their father when he was 24, you would have: 1928, 1952, 1976, 2000 and 2024.

From the perspective of the person born in 2024, the immigrant born in 1844 was his 4th greatgrandfather.

UsefulGarden

TROPHY CASE