Dual Citizenship After Naturalizing German: What Germany Changed, and What It Didn't

The Official Rule

Germany’s approach to dual citizenship (Mehrstaatigkeit) changed fundamentally on June 27, 2024, with the Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Staatsangehörigkeitsrechts (StARModG). Before that date, the German system was built around avoiding dual citizenship wherever possible: someone naturalizing as German generally had to give up their original nationality, and a German who voluntarily acquired a foreign nationality generally lost German citizenship automatically unless they’d secured a Beibehaltungsgenehmigung (retention permit) in advance, a formal, discretionary approval that wasn’t guaranteed.

That avoidance principle has been abandoned entirely. As of the reform, people naturalizing as German are no longer required to give up their original nationality, and Germans who acquire a foreign nationality no longer lose their German citizenship as a result. The Beibehaltungsgenehmigung process, and the anxiety around securing one before making a decision about a second nationality, simply isn’t part of the system anymore.

What this reform genuinely cannot touch is the other direction: what your own country of origin’s law says about you holding a second nationality. Germany’s more permissive stance only governs what Germany itself requires. Whether your home country lets you keep its citizenship once you become German, or revokes it automatically, or requires its own separate approval, is decided entirely by that country’s own legal system. The official German guidance on this is direct: if you’re at all unsure how your specific nationality is treated, check with your home country’s consulate or embassy before you naturalize, rather than assuming Germany’s rule tells the whole story.

For Turkish citizens specifically, this generally resolves cleanly. Turkish law doesn’t require renouncing Turkish citizenship to acquire a second nationality, and doesn’t automatically strip Turkish citizenship from someone who naturalizes elsewhere. The friction that Turkish-German families dealt with in the past ran specifically through Germany’s old rule, not Turkey’s, so the 2024 reform removing that requirement means Turkish citizens naturalizing as German today generally end up holding both nationalities without needing special permission from either government.

One limitation worth being explicit about: this change is not retroactive. If you lost German citizenship in the past because you acquired a different nationality without securing a Beibehaltungsgenehmigung under the old rule, the 2024 reform doesn’t automatically restore it. That’s a materially different situation from someone naturalizing or acquiring a second nationality today, and it would need to be addressed through its own separate process rather than assumed to be fixed by the law change itself.

What Real People Say

The most common misunderstanding people describe isn’t about Germany’s own rule, which is now genuinely permissive, it’s assuming that permissiveness automatically extends to how their birth country treats the situation. Families researching this online run into a lot of general “Germany now allows dual citizenship” coverage that doesn’t spell out clearly enough that the home-country side is a completely separate legal question, answered by a completely different government.

For Turkish-German families specifically, the practical read that comes up consistently is relief: the 2024 change resolved the actual source of friction that used to exist, and today’s process is described as noticeably more straightforward than it was for people who went through it before the reform, when navigating the Beibehaltungsgenehmigung process added real uncertainty to a family’s citizenship planning.

Step by Step

1. Understand that Germany’s own rule change is unconditional: naturalizing as German no longer requires giving up your original nationality, full stop, on Germany’s side.
2. Separately check your home country’s specific rule about its citizens holding a second nationality, since this is governed entirely by that country’s own law, not Germany’s.
3. If you’re Turkish, know that Turkish law generally doesn’t require renouncing Turkish citizenship to acquire a second nationality, so this direction is generally not a concern.
4. If you’re from a different country and unsure, contact that country’s consulate or embassy directly before naturalizing, rather than assuming the German reform settles the question for you.
5. If you lost German citizenship in the past under the old Beibehaltungsgenehmigung rule, don’t assume the 2024 reform restored it automatically. Look into a separate re-naturalization path if this applies to you.
6. Keep documentation of both nationalities in order once you hold dual citizenship, since day-to-day administrative processes in either country may still ask which passport or ID you’re presenting for a given purpose.

Compliance Note

This page explains the general framework for Germany’s 2024 dual citizenship reform and how it interacts with home-country nationality law, but it is not legal advice, and nationality law in other countries can change independently of anything happening in Germany. For your specific situation, especially regarding your own country of origin’s rules, confirm directly with that country’s consulate or embassy, or with an immigration attorney familiar with both jurisdictions, before making decisions based on this page.