Skip to main content

(Un)Welcome Returns? Re-Naturalisation Rights of German Jews in Germany

Featured image
Speaker
Nicholas Courtman
5:30pm, 27 March 2025 - 6:30pm, 27 March 2025

Since 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany has allowed former citizens, whose citizenship was revoked by the Nazis due to their Jewish faith or ‘race’, to reclaim it. Yet, over the past 75 years, there have been significant changes regarding which German Jews – and which descendants – can enjoy that right. This talk tracks those developments, from the restrictive, often antisemitic decisions made in the 1950s, to attempts to uphold those regulations in the following decades, through to the 2021 reform of the German Nationality Act that finally redressed such exclusions.

Nicholas Courtman is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in History and Languages at King’s College London, working on the Alfred Landecker-funded project ‘Citizenship after Hitler: Continuity and Change in German Citizenship Law’. He completed his PhD in German Studies at the University of Cambridge and previously worked at The Expert Council on Integration and Migration in Berlin, authoring a report on naturalisation practices for the German government. He has also served as an expert witness in two Bundestag hearings on reparative justice in citizenship law.




 

Does belonging always require exclusion? This lecture series explores this universal question through the lens of the German-Jewish experience, a community deeply shaped by its complex relationship to inclusion and exclusion. Spanning key moments in modern history, these talks examine German-Jewish thinkers’ responses to the dominant ‘Protestant ethic’, debates over nationalism in interwar Germany and Austria, the warped ideology of Adolf Hitler, and the long struggle of German Jews to reclaim citizenship after the Holocaust. Join us as we situate these experiences within today’s urgent debates about identity and belonging.

Lectures in this series are held at Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU and are also live streamed on Zoom. Places at Senate House are strictly limited and must be reserved by booking on Eventbrite or by contacting the Leo Baeck Institute London at info@lbilondon.ac.uk 

Admission is free. Lectures will begin promptly at 5.30pm. Latecomers may not be admitted.

Zoom links will be advertised closer to the dates of individual events in our lecture announcements via email, social media and on our website. To participate online and to register your booking please follow the instructions provided in those communications.

Organised by the Leo Baeck Institute London in cooperation with the German Historical Institute London.

 

Overview of the 2025 Lecture Series

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Latest Publications