The east German state of Brandenburg has changed the rules for naturalisation procedures.
On July 17, interior minister René Wilke announced in the State’s parliament in Potsdam that his administration now required candidates for citizenship to acknowledge the right of Israel to exist as a necessity in receiving a German passport.
The new rules had already been introduced quietly as of June 1. Wilke said the requirement was an expression of Brandenburg’s solidarity with Israel,. He said that it did not mean “that everything that any head of government in Israel has ever done and will ever do will also receive solidarity and approval”.
Andreas Büttner, Brandenburg’s anti-Semitism commissioner, welcomed the new rules. “Israel is the promise of protection and self-determination. Anyone who attacks Israel is attacking this promise,” Büttner said.
Brandenburg, with 2.6 million inhabitants, surrounds the German capital of Berlin. Berlin’s Mayor Kai Wegener (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) announced plans to introduce similar legislation. “Personally, I can well imagine including the recognition of Israel’s right to exist as a prerequisite for naturalisation,” Wegener told local newspaper Tagesspiegel on July 20.
The new rules have not been met with unanimous acclaim in Brandenburg, which is ruled by a left-wing coalition of Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the hard-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance party (BSW).
BSW State leader Friederike Benda criticised the new requirement. “This was not agreed with us. That is a slap in the face for democracy,” she wrote in a post on Facebook.
“While Brandenburg is calling for a commitment to peaceful coexistence between peoples and against wars of aggression, the German Government continues to supply weapons to an Israeli Government that is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip and has attacked Iran in violation of international law. That is hypocrisy!”
Applicants for citizenship in Brandenburg were now also required to confirm their commitment to the free democratic basic order of the German Constitution, a declaration of loyalty. They were also required to commit to Germany’s special historical responsibility for the Nazi regime of injustice and its consequences, particularly the protection of Jewish life.
A commitment to the peaceful coexistence of peoples and the prohibition of waging a war of aggression was also required.
Furthermore, foreigners who wanted to become German citizens now needed to be able to provide for themselves without depending on welfare, must not have been convicted for criminal offences or were bigamists. They usually also would have to demonstrate sufficient command of the German language.
Previously, the State of Saxony-Anhalt had introduced a similar requirement for applicants to acknowledge Israel’s right to existence in 2023.
Germany is grappling with a surge of anti-Semitism among its Muslim migrant population, which includes about 1 million Syrians and 500,000 Afghans.
In 2024, the number of anti-Semitic incidents more than doubled to 9,000, ranging from insults to arson and brutal physical attacks.
