Has the Federal Government introduced a blanket "dual nationality"?

No, it has not!

The government still aims to avoid people gaining multiple nationality when being naturalised, however, there are exemptions for special cases of hardship. These exceptions are specified in Section 87 of the Foreigners Act:

• persons suffering political persecution and recognised refugees, since January 1, 2000, are no longer required to seek release from their foreign nationality; previously, they were required to prove that they could not reasonably be expected to relinquish their nationality

• instances in which applicants cannot reasonably be expected to meet the conditions for release from their nationality, which include unreasonable release fees or cases in which the foreign state applies degrading release practices

• older persons, for whom it would be unreasonably difficult to be released from their foreign nationality, and who would face a particular hardship if denied naturalisation

• cases in which the release from the nationality would cause considerable disadvantages, particularly in terms of finances or property rights

Multiple nationalities are (and, under previous law, were) possible for the following reasons:

• Children from binational marriages normally acquire the nationality of both parents.

• Repatriates of German ancestry and their non-German family members are not required to resign their previous nationality.

In exceptional cases, under previous law, foreigners were naturalised even when it made them dual nationals. This was for instance the case if the country of origin did not release its citizens from its nationality as a general rule, if it denied release arbitrarily, or if it made release conditional on unreasonable requirements.

Those who have several nationalities for one of these reasons normally pass multiple nationality to their children.

The number of German multiple nationals is unknown because in Germany they are treated exclusively as German nationals and cannot invoke their other nationality when dealing with the authorities. Multiple nationality is not rare anymore, a fact which has not caused any particular problems.