[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] German citizenship

[Richard Benert]

A few days ago the question of ethnic Germans in Russia with German
citizenship came up.  I think I'm one of the people Dave Obee referred to
when he mentioned that having German citizenship seems to have made it
easier to get out of Russia.  This, at least, is the story told of my uncle,
August Boehnert, who with his family fled Solodyri, Volhynia for East
Prussia in 1931.  (He nevertheless had to hide out a few times while his
application for citizenship was pending to avoid being verschleppt).  There
is a lot about this that I do not understand, and would urge anyone who has
certain knowledge about how the possession of German citizenship affected
the lives of one's ancestors in Russia to shed light on this subject for us.

I can, however, provide a few background facts about the subject of
citizenship  for any who are interested from information provided by Dietmar
Neutatz in his "Die 'deutsche Frage' im Schwarzmeergebiet und in Wolhynien".
Immediately after Bismarck's unification of Germany, the new German
government passed a so-called law of "double citizenship" on June 1, 1870.
By this law, Germans who emigrated were to lose their citizenship in ten
years unless they reported to a German consulate.  As long as they remained
German citizens, they apparently owed military service to the German
government.  Either many Germans in Russia re-applied for citizenship when
their ten year intervals were up, or else the German government did not
rigorously enforce the law, for ethnic Germans in Russia who went off to do
German military service remained a thorn in the Russian side.  A Russian
official, Purishkevitch, reported in 1910 that there were 380 reservists in
Volhynia serving in the German army, of which 260 lived very near the
borders.  This obviously was one of the reasons why the Russians couldn't
shake their suspicions about German colonists and their potential for
espionage.  When Stolypin presented a bill to the Duma in 1910 that would
have revived the old laws against German landownership in the western
provinces, one of the justifications he gave for it was precisely the law of
"double citizenship", which he took as evidence of the designs which the
German government had on Russia and the supposed military role in those
designs to be played by the German colonists.  In fact, many Russians
believed that the law was passed by Germany only in 1887, as a retaliation
for the Russian restrictions of that year on land-ownership by foreigners.
Such Russians really got upset when they witnessed many German colonists
applying for Russian citizenship after 1887, motivated only by their desire
to no longer be "foreigners" and have the right to own land.  Now they could
own land AND still serve in the German army!  (A stricter law was passed a
few years later, restricting German land-ownership even if these Germans
were Russian citizens.  It was later repealed in 1905).  Many Russians just
couldn't shake themselves free of the idea that German colonists could not
be trusted because of the law of double-citizenship and the military service
it entailed--no matter how few German colonists made use of it.

When Stolypin brought up this touchy subject in 1910, the German government
protested that in fact there was no such law of double citizenship.  In a
way, there wasn't, since the law actually provided for the ENDING of German
citizenship UNLESS the colonist re-applied for it.  And, according to
Neutatz, most colonists did not reapply.  Stolypin apologized for the
slight, but proponents of the bill went right on believing that the German
law was a good reason to restrict German land-ownership.  And, in fact, the
German government was busy discussing a new citizenship law during 1912 and
1913, passing it in July, 1913.  This new law, if any Russians were paying
close attention ( and some undoubtedly were), was actually more like what
they feared than the 1870 law had been.  It provided that Germans outside of
Germany lost their German citizenship ONLY if they wanted to, or if they had
not fulfilled their military duty before age 31!  Nevertheless, this bill
stumbled around the Russian Duma until 1914 and was never actually passed.
Its place was taken, of course, by the far harsher law of February, 1915,
which liquidated German-owned properties altogether.

I hope this provides some background for any who have the matter of German
citizenship playing a role in their family history.  Whatever role German
citizenship may have played in how individual colonists got along with the
Russian government (which is something we should by all means know more
about), the law of double-citizenship (whether it meant anything to our
ancestors or not) certainly contributed to the insane suspicions of the
Russians.

One obvious question I hope someone has an answer for is what the Prussian
laws of citizenship were before 1870, and did they, too, entail military
service for emigres?  Or what about settlers entering Russia from other
parts of Germany before 1870?

Dick Benert