Court case 4 K 836/21 – Court Ruling (Germany, 2022)

The plaintiff sought the correction of a naturalisation certificate. He had been naturalised by the defendant (a German administrative body) on 28 July 2005. The naturalisation certificate was in the name of S. K., born on xx.xx.1967 in Khost/Afghanistan. However, it turned out that he had given false information about his identity when requesting naturalisation. He had been living in Germany since 1995 with false personal data from Afghanistan and naturalised with these personal details. In truth, however, he was a Pakistani citizen with the name S. R., born on xx.xx.1966. The applicant submitted a Pakistani identity card, a Pakistani birth certificate and a family registration certificate with details of his wife and children and requested that the naturalisation certificate be amended to read S.R., born xx.xx.1966 in N./Pakistan. The defendant informed the applicant that his request could not be granted. The naturalisation certificate had become effective despite the mistake in identity. The cause of the incorrectness of the certificate was that the plaintiff had given incorrect personal details. The naturalisation was thus not null and void, but only afflicted with defects which, however, were accepted for reasons of legal certainty after the expiry of the time limit of section 35 of the Basic Law. The defendant elaborated that there were many cases in which the naturalisation certificate contains a different name from the one the naturalised person uses, for example in the case of a name change after marriage. In this case, the naturalisation certificate is not corrected. Instead, the holder of the certificate is expected to prove to the relevant authorities that he or she is the person whose name appears on the certificate. The Administrative Court Stuttgart held that the plaintiff could not rely on Article 16 GDPR to rectify his naturalisation certificate. The court pointed out that according to Article 16 GDPR, the data subject has the right to demand th