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FACT CHECK: Are Germans more liberal or conservative?

Germany is renowned for its social safety net and for welcoming refugees in 2015. But just how liberal or conservative are Germans about certain hot-button issues – from dual citizenship to cannabis legalisation, abortion and guns?

People draped in rainbow flags take part in the Christopher Street Day demonstration in memory of the Stonewall Riots during Pride month with Berlin's Brandenburg Gate in the background.
People draped in rainbow flags take part in the Christopher Street Day demonstration in memory of the Stonewall Riots during Pride month on July 23, 2022, with Berlin's Brandenburg Gate in the background. Germany on Friday launched a plan to protect LGBTQ rights. Photo: DAVID GANNON / AFP

Germany’s current traffic light government is busy enacting all kinds of progressive-leaning legislation, whether to legalise cannabis, allow dual citizenship, or slightly liberalise abortion laws. Much like the fact that Germany only legalised equal marriage just over five years ago – the country can sometimes feel quite behind its neighbours when it comes to enacting certain reforms.

Are Germans just a conservative bunch? Or is government catching up with public opinion? We took a look at recent polls on a host of social issues and how Germans feel about them.

Dual citizenship and immigration

Germans are pretty split on the governing coalition’s plans to allow dual citizenship and shorten the time someone needs to be in Germany before they can apply for citizenship. That wait time is currently eight years and the government is looking to reduce that to five, amidst other planned reforms.

Cem Özdemir, then Green Party Chair, pickets CDU headquarters in 2013 with other Green protestors, demanding the right to dual citizenship. Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Michael Kappeler

One poll by public broadcaster ARD finds a slight majority in favour though: 49 percent agree with the government’s plans to make getting German citizenship easier and allowing dual nationality, while 45 percent are opposed.

READ ALSO: What do Germans think of plans to allow dual nationality?

Gun laws

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser currently has her hands full.

In addition to the new citizenship law, Faeser is working on tightening German gun laws. A 48-page draft law has proposed banning semi-automatic weapons and requiring licences for blank pistols and crossbows. German law already bans private ownership of fully automatic weapons.

Assault rifles from World War II in the armoury of the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Rampe, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Assault rifles from World War II in the armoury of the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Rampe, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Jens Büttner

In particular, the government has the AR-15 assault rifle in its sights – a weapon that’s been at the centre of gun controversies in the United States in recent years. There’s about 225,000 of them in Germany, of which 60 percent are in private hands.

Germans, for the most part, don’t have the same strong division on guns as Americans.

A December 2022 Civey poll found around 57 percent of Germans support tightening gun laws. Nine percent are undecided and just over a third are opposed.

Legalising cannabis 

The cannabis legalisation debate has been one of the most fascinating discussions in German politics since the traffic light coalition took office in late 2021. A key priority of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), party leader Christian Lindner promised Germany would pass a legalisation bill this year with sales likely to start in 2024.

Man smoking cannabis

A man smokes at the ‘Global Marijuana March 2022’ at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christoph Soeder

Even Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, a Social Democrat (SPD) reportedly skeptical of legalisation at first, has changed his mind on it since entering government.

But has the average German?

According to one December 2022 poll, half of Germans are in favour of legalising cannabis, with younger people much more likely to be in favour.

Around 34 percent of people in Germany are opposed and 16 percent are unsure.

READ ALSO: German Health Minister lays out next steps for cannabis legalisation

Liberalising abortion

Although legal abortion is available in Germany, it remains more tightly restricted than in many other European countries.

The current traffic light government only got rid of restrictions on advertising it – a law dating back to the Nazi era – last year.

This often meant that doctor’s practices that performed abortions couldn’t put information on their websites or brochures about the procedure. Someone looking to have one done would typically have to go in and ask the doctor if they did the procedure.

A pro-choice counter protester at the "March for Life" demo against abortion in Berlin in September 2020.

A pro-choice counter protester at the “March for Life” demo against abortion in Berlin in September 2020. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jörg Carstensen

Abortion remains restricted to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and women seeking one often need to go through counselling before getting the procedure.

At around 68 percent of regular Germans polled in 2021 though, most say that abortions are acceptable. Sixteen percent say they are sometimes acceptable and sometimes not. Only around 15 percent of Germans say abortion is completely unacceptable.

READ ALSO:

Gay marriage and gender self-determination

In 2022, transgender rights activists celebrated after Germany passed a self-determination law, allowing for an easier process to change gender legally.

At the time it passed, Germans were still divided on the law, with slightly more in favour of it than not. Forty-six percent of Germans were in favour at the time the gender self-determination law passed in June 2022, while 41 percent were opposed.

People wave flags at gay pride in Cologne on July 3rd.

People wave flags at gay pride in Cologne on July 3rd. The Cologne CSD is one of the largest events of the LGBTQ+ community in Europe. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Marius Becker

READ ALSO: Germany plans to make legal gender change easier

Germany was one of the last major western countries to legalise marriage equality.

Having only passed legislation in 2017, after Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats repeatedly blocked marriage initiatives in parliamentary committees, Germany was beaten to the punch by the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, France, New Zealand, South Africa, and Brazil – among many others – in providing full marriage equality to gays and lesbians.

Despite conservative opposition, by the time marriage equality passed, German society had already become markedly accepting of it.

Seventy-five percent of people in Germany polled in 2017 supported marriage equality, including 53 percent of church-going Christians – signalling that even this community had changed its opinion on gay marriage over time. Support among religiously unaffiliated Germans or non-practicing Christians stood at over 80 percent in 2017.

READ ALSO: Germany legalises gay marriage in historic vote

What’s the conclusion?

As the polls show, Germans are largely split on many of the social issues the government is currently debating, including dual citizenship. However, at the moment the more liberal governing coalition means the country is heading in a progressive direction.

The cautious debate around certain topics, such as abortion, however, shows that Germany has a strong conservative pull in its politics, which is likely linked to the country’s religious roots.

On many issues though, whether on abortion or gay rights – Germans, even religious ones, are fairly liberal.

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GERMAN CITIZENSHIP

How can over-60s get German citizenship under the new dual nationality law?

Germany is in the midsts over overhauling its citizenship laws, with specific carve-outs for older applicants. Here's what applicants over the age of 60 should know about the new requirements.

How can over-60s get German citizenship under the new dual nationality law?

As Germany braces to allow dual nationality and reduce the years of residence required for naturalisation, many foreigners in the country are already getting ready to submit their applications. 

Despite the headline changes, many of the conditions for getting a German passport will remain roughly the same: as a general rule, you’ll still need to prove your knowledge of German laws and society and the German language, as well a continuous period of residence in Germany and the ability to take care of yourself (and any dependents) financially. 

READ ALSO: What do I need to apply for German citizenship under the new law?

That said, there are some aspects of the new law that are designed to make it easier for older applicants – and particularly members of the guest worker generation – to naturalise as Germans, so if you fit into this age bracket, you could have any easier time once the new rules come into force. 

Whether it’s exceptions to naturalisation tests or proving sufficient income, here are the key things that seniors applying for citizenship need to know. 

Can I apply for citizenship while claiming a pension? 

A key requirement of naturalisation in Germany is being able to cover your own living costs without relying on the state for financial help.

Luckily for retirees, a pension doesn’t count as state support, so you won’t be excluded automatically just because you’re no longer working. 

That said, it’s important to be able to show that your pension – and any other income you have – is enough to cover you needs. 

As SPD politician Hakan Demir said in a recent response to a parliamentary question: “If you can make a comfortable living on your pension without drawing social benefits, nothing stands in the way of your naturalisation.”

Of course, that does mean that people who require top-ups from the state, for example by claiming Grundsicherung (state top-ups for your pension allowance), are likely to have a harder time naturalising and may even be excluded entirely.

That’s because the new law specifically states that applicants should be able to support themselves and their financial dependents without claiming the types of social welfare detailed in the Sozialgesetzbuch (SGB) XII – including Grundsicherung.

READ ALSO: Can I still get German citizenship after claiming benefits?

There is an exception to this rule for people who have been in full-time employment for 20 out of the past 24 months, as well as carve-outs for both the Turkish guest worker generation and so-called contract workers (Vertragsarbeiter) in the former GDR. 

For those in the guest worker generation, this involves having entered the Federal Republic of Germany before 1974, while contract worker status would involve having entered the GDR before 1990. 

What are the new language requirements for seniors?

Proving sufficient German language skills – most commonly through a lower intermediate, or B1, test – is for most people an essential component of the naturalisation process.

In the new law, however, there are some instances in which the need to take a formal exam is dispensed with. 

In the case of guest workers, who weren’t offered language or integration courses after arriving in Germany in the 1950s and ’60s, simply interacting with case officers in German is treated as sufficient evidence of language skills. 

German learning resources at a language school.

German learning resources at a language school. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Arne Dedert

In a previous draft of the law, over-67s were also exempted from taking a formal B1 test. But government sources say that there will be no specific carve-outs that apply to everyone over a certain age.

Instead, carve-outs will be possible for people who have personal reasons for not being able to attend a language course, for example due to age, illness or a disability. 

The draft states that “a hardship clause will be created for the language certificate, whereby in cases of hardship, oral skills are sufficient if the acquisition of language skills level B1… is impossible or permanently difficult”.

This applies, for example, to people with disabilities that affect their learning capabilities or those who have to care full-time for a close relative. 

Do older applications still need to take a citizenship test? 

In general, yes, though once again there is an exception for people from the guest worker generation and contract workers from the former GDR.

As well as eschewing formal language tests, people in these groups won’t be expected to take a citizenship test either.

If you don’t fit into that group but have age-related issues that may make it difficult for you to pass the citizenship test and B1 exam, or suffer from illness or a disability, you may still be able to avoid them by getting a note from your doctor or talking directly with the citizenship office.

Alternatively, you can check out our explainer for some of the other exceptions that may allow you to skip the test:

Who’s exempt from taking a German citizenship test for naturalisation?

Is there anything else that over-60s should know? 

As far as most of the application process goes, older applicants are treated much the same way as younger ones and are generally subject to the same requirements.

That means that proof of income and sufficient living space, birth certificates and marriage certificates, and proof of things like health and care insurance will all be essential to your application.

If you want to naturalise with B1 German, you can do so after five years, whereas people who can prove exceptional integration (not to mention C1 German!) can apply after just three. 

A certificate of naturalisation from the Federal Republic of Germany lies on a table. Foreigners in Germany should soon be able to obtain German citizenship more easily, according to plans of the federal government.

A certificate of naturalisation from the Federal Republic of Germany lies on a table. Foreigners in Germany should soon be able to obtain German citizenship more easily, according to plans of the federal government. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez

As mentioned, applicants will soon be able to keep their previous nationalities when becoming German – that is, provided your other nationalities permit dual citizenship. 

READ ALSO: When and how can I apply for German citizenship?

One way in which rules are getting tighter is in the approach to handling previous convictions – especially if these convictions seem to have had a racist or anti-Semitic motive behind them.

According to the most recent draft of the law, “acts motivated by anti-Semitism, racism or other dehumanising behaviour” are not compatible with Germany’s constitutional order and would therefore automatically bar someone from naturalising as German. 

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