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Law on Nationality and Citizenship (June 1, 1870)

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§ 17. Release must not be denied in peacetime for reasons other than those specified in §§ 15 and 16. In times of war, or when the danger of war is present, the Federal Executive reserves the right to issue special orders.

§ 18. With the issuance of the certificate of release, the loss of citizenship is effected.

The release becomes ineffective if the person released does not relocate his residence outside of federal territory within six months of the day of the issuance of the certificate of release, or if he acquires citizenship in another federal state.

§ 19. Provided no exception is made, the release also extends simultaneously to the wife and to any underage children still under paternal authority.

§ 20. North Germans who are residing abroad may be declared to have forfeited their citizenship by resolution of the central authority of their home state if, in the case of war, or when the danger of war is present, they fail to comply with an express demand issued by the Federal Executive to return within a certain specified period.

§ 21. North Germans who leave the federal territory and reside abroad for ten years without interruption will thus lose their citizenship. The aforementioned period begins either at the moment of departure from federal territory, or, if the person leaving possesses a travel document or a residence permit, at the point at which these papers expire. The period is interrupted when an entry is added to the register of a federal consulate. The course of the period resumes the day after the entry is deleted from the register.

Loss of citizenship thereby effected also extends simultaneously to the wife and to any underage children still under paternal authority, provided that they are staying with the husband or, respectively, the father.

For North Germans who have been residing in a foreign country for at least five years without interruption and who have also obtained citizenship in that country, the ten-year time limit may be reduced to five years by international treaty, regardless of whether the protagonists possess a travel document or a residence permit.*



* On this point, see the treaty between the North German Confederation and the United States regarding the citizenship of persons emigrating from the territory of the one party into that of the other, dated February 22, 1868 (BGBl. [Federal Law Gazette], p. 228). Corresponding treaties were concluded by: Bavaria on May 26, 1868, Württemberg on July 27, 1868, Baden on July 19, 1868, as well as Hesse (for its territory south of the Main River) on August 1, 1868.

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