Staat und Namensänderung

The same law pertaining to a change of name has been valid in Germany, apart from a few slight changes, since January 5, 1938. Michael Wagner-Kern shows that when this law was created by the National Socialist legislators it was done so simply to devise a legal basis for an 'exclusion' of the Jewish population 'by name.' The author examines the relationship between Jewish emancipation and/or antisemitism on the one hand and the development and change in the law pertaining to a change of name under public law on the other hand. In this context, he analyzes the dissolution of the traditional jurisdiction of the Länder over name changes under public law, and makes it clear that even before 1933 there had been ideas for a legal registration of an official name change which had anti-Jewish motives.