Move could help some Britons seeking EU passports who were rejected after the referendum

The German government has said it will ease the process for descendants of people persecuted by the Nazis to regain citizenship, after a campaign by a British-based group.

The interior minister, Horst Seehofer, said on Thursday he had issued a decree that would overturn the rejections of those previously considered ineligible. These are most commonly descendants of women who fled Nazi Germany and who lost their citizenship after marrying non-German men.

Hundreds of descendants in such cases, many of whom applied for German citizenship after Britain’s EY referendum in 2016, had their claims rejected. Seehofer said these would now be approved.

“Germany must face up to its historical responsibility towards those who, as the descendants of German citizens who were persecuted by the Nazis, have faced legal obstacles to citizenship, especially those whose parents or grandparents were forced to flee abroad,” he said.

According to Germany’s constitution, the descendants of Jews or others who faced religious or political persecution have the right to have their German citizenship reinstated, but thousands of cases have emerged over the decades in which people were told they were not eligible, most commonly because their claims were made through a female descendant or because of adoption.

The Article 116 Exclusions Group, a campaign group, was established in the UK in December, taking its name from the section of Germany’s basic law that provides for the restoration of citizenship. It appealed to the German government to provide a moral and ethical justification for its citizenship policies and threatened to take legal action if necessary.

The Guardian reported on the campaign last month, drawing international interest, helping to double the group’s size to around 200 members and leading to more interest in Germany.

The group admits that the Brexit vote was a galvanising factor behind its creation, after thousands of descendants exercised their right to apply for German citizenship as a means of retaining their rights as EU nationals. Hundreds subsequently discovered they were excluded from the process.

It insists, however, that Brexit was a secondary issue because the injustice had dogged the lives of many around the world, including in Europe, Australia and the Americas. Many of them contacted the Guardian with their stories.

Nicholas Courtman, a member of the group and a PhD researcher in the German department at Cambridge University, said he welcomed the government’s decision but it did not go far enough because it did not amount to a change in the law. Courtman’s application for citizenship was turned down because it was made in relation to his paternal Jewish grandmother who had married a Briton.

“It’s good to see the German government taking action on this after decades of inaction and dissatisfactory, needlessly restrictive measures,” he said. “The decree issued by the interior ministry is a good step on the way to legislative change but an equal and fair treatment of all descendants can only be achieved through a change in the law.”

He said the decree fell short of being satisfactory not least because it excluded those living in Germany, who would be forced to apply from outside the country. “Absurdly it will be faster, cheaper and easier for them to move outside of Germany and apply from there,” he said.

Courtman acknowledged that Brexit had brought the group together and enabled members to organise themselves politically. “But it’s wrong to reduce this to a Brexit issue alone. It is so much more than that,” he said.

More than 17,000 Britons applied for German citizenship between 2016 and 2018, compared with fewer than 5,000 in the 15 previous years. The interior ministry received 1,506 applications from Britons applying via article 116 in 2018, compared with 43 in 2015.

Several German politicians in parties ranging from the conservative CDU to the leftwing Die Linke have taken up the article 116 group’s cause. The opposition Greens appealed to the government last month to change the law, arguing that it was the only way to secure long-term judicial security. The interior ministry said its decree provided a “pragmatic and swift solution”.