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[My apologies if this is not the correct location for this question, it seems the best, but not a perfect fit!]

I am a British Citizen (with citizenship acquired through birth), currently living and working in Berlin, Germany.

Due to my Grandfather coming from Germany, I have been looking into the possibility of acquiring citizenship through descent. I have recently received positive feedback from my local council about this, although I have yet to complete the process.

Should I be successful and 'acquire' German citizenship, is there anyone I need to inform about this? Are there any other actions I need to take?

(I write 'acquire' in quotation marks because I believe that technically I will have been a German citizen from birth - literally what I am apply for is often referred-to as a confirmation of German nationality, and gives me a 'Staatsangehörigkeitsausweis').

I am thinking potentially the follow may need to know (basically anywhere where I have shown my British passport):

  • Local government,
  • Federal government,
  • My workplace,
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  • It might be that you are not a German citizen anymore. You wrote that you are a British citizen, usually, German citizenship is automatically lost if one gets any other citizenship. I also guess that one may need to cancel its British citizenship in order to apply for German one. This, however, depends on the way of obtaining the German citizenship, i.e. some categories of people may keep their previous citizenship as an exception.
    – Andrey Sapegin
    Sep 30, 2020 at 16:37
  • When I was granted a second citizenship for the country where I now live (New Zealand), I didn't have to inform anybody. A few things became easier when I could start to use my NZ passport instead of my foreign one. I am writing this as a comment and not as an answer, because I can imagine the German bureaucracy may handle this quite differently than here in NZ.
    – Greg Hewgill
    Sep 30, 2020 at 21:17
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    Thanks @AndreySapegin - I acquired British Citizenship through birth, so I don't believe I would have lost German; I've added this info into my question.
    – Neil Tarrant
    Oct 1, 2020 at 8:39
  • See answer to: germany - How long does the German naturalization process take? - Expatriates Stack Exchange for a list of tasks. Some of them won't apply to you. Step 1 is getting an officialy translated birth certificate to apply for a national ID once you get your Staatsangehörigkeitsausweis.
    – Mark Johnson
    Oct 1, 2020 at 12:06
  • @AndreySapegin That only applies to adults, not to minors.
    – Mark Johnson
    Oct 1, 2020 at 12:13

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