A group of civilians rescued wounded people after an Israeli attack on the Al Maghazi refugee camp, in Deir al Balah, this Sunday in the Gaza Strip. Anadolu (Anadolu via Getty Images)
What is the reason for Germany's special responsibility towards Israel? What is an example of anti-Semitic behavior? How can someone who denies the Holocaust be punished? These are just some of the new questions that the German Government will include in its new citizenship test that all people who want to obtain German nationality must take. The objective of the Government of Social Democrat Olaf Scholz with these new questions to which the German publication
Der Spiegel
has had access this week is to try to detect possible anti-Semites and thus prevent them from becoming Germans. The update of the range of potential questions for the exam is part of the new citizenship law approved in mid-January by the German Parliament, which includes, among other things, making it possible to apply for nationality after five years in the country instead from eight and having several nationalities.
“Our special responsibility for the protection of the Jews and the protection of the State of Israel comes from the crime against humanity committed by Germany,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told Der
Spiegel,
with an eye toward the Nazi Holocaust that killed nearly six million people, mainly Jews, during World War II. “This responsibility is part of our identity today. "Whoever wants to be German must know what this means and recognize Germany's responsibility." This commitment must be to be “clear and credible” and is one of the reasons for updating the questionnaire.
The German Interior Ministry wants questions about Jewish life in Germany to play a more important role in the future. The revision is also due "to the impression that violence and slogans against Jews in Germany" have increased since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip. According to figures provided by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), only between October 7, the day of the Hamas attacks on Israeli territory, and December 21, more than 1,100 anti-Semitic crimes were recorded, mainly damages to property and incitement to hatred. This has set off alarm bells in a country where any public questioning of Israel's policy can trigger a strong wave of criticism.
“Anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of contempt for humanity exclude the obtaining of nationality,” Faeser stressed. Consequently, immigrants who apply to be German will also have to answer questions about the Holocaust in the future.
The German citizenship exam currently consists of 33 questions in all states. The questions are mainly grouped around the themes “Living in democracy”, “History and responsibility” and “People and society”. Three questions refer to the federal state in which you reside and in which the exam is taken. However, these are not always the same questions. The catalog includes a total of 310 different questions, which can be used to prepare the different questionnaires that consist of a total of 33 questions of which 17 must be answered correctly in order to pass it. Normally, more than 90% of those who take it pass the exam, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
According to the German publication, in the future there will be 12 questions related to Jews and Israel. What countries do the majority of Jews currently living in Germany come from? How many years ago was there a Jewish community in what is now Germany? Who can be a member of the nearly 40 Maccabi Jewish sports clubs? Which cities have the largest Jewish communities in Germany? What is the name of the Jewish place of prayer? When was the State of Israel founded? On what legal basis was the State of Israel founded? What act related to the State of Israel is prohibited in Germany?
Israel's right to exist
However, while some of these new questions will be included in the questionnaire, an explicit commitment to Israel's right to exist will not be required as a prerequisite for obtaining citizenship, the Interior Ministry confirmed. The coalition government formed by the Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals does not believe that this measure is necessary.
The debate on this issue arose after the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the former East Germany, decided in mid-December to link naturalization with the explicit rejection of anti-Semitism, forcing applicants to recognize in writing Germany's special responsibility regarding to the State of Israel and also Israel's right to exist. The measure was taken in an attempt to fight growing anti-Semitism in a state where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has great support.
In Germany, the right to nationality is the responsibility of the federal government, but implementation is a matter for each federal state. However, this measure was seen by legal experts as “very problematic” since there is no Saxony-Anhalt citizenship, but rather a German one, and also due to the fact that it is not clearly defined what exactly Israel's right to exist means. .
Germany's past led the then German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to affirm before the Israeli Parliament in 2008 that Israel's security was “a state issue for Germany.” This special responsibility had already been outlined by the first German chancellor after World War II, Konrad Adenauer, when he stated that Israel's right to exist was of national interest, as a consequence of Germany's responsibility for the Holocaust. After the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, Chancellor Olaf Scholz once again recalled Merkel's words.
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