The naturalization test is a prerequisite for foreigners to receive German citizenship. Now it is to be expanded.
In the future, the naturalization test will also include questions about the Holocaust, Israel’s right to exist and Jewish life in Germany. This is what Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning, according to a report in “Spiegel”.
“The German crime against humanity of the Holocaust results in our special responsibility for the protection of Jews and for the protection of the state of Israel,” Faeser told “Spiegel”. “This responsibility is part of our identity today.”
New question: How is Holocaust denial punished?
The “Spiegel” has already received the new questions. It’s about what a Jewish prayer house is called, when the state of Israel was founded and what gives Germany its special responsibility for Israel. It should also be asked how Holocaust denial is punished in this country and who is allowed to become a member of the around 40 Jewish Maccabi sports clubs.
Faeser told the magazine that anyone who wants to become a German must know “what that means and acknowledge Germany’s responsibility.” This commitment must be “clear and credible”. That is why the naturalization test is now being changed according to the citizenship law. Faeser wants to change a regulation for this “shortly”.
More than 90 percent of participants pass the test
The naturalization test currently consists of 33 questions, three of which are state-related questions that can only be answered for the respective federal state. For each question you have to choose the correct answer from four possible answers. Anyone who answers at least 17 questions correctly has passed the test.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, more than 90 percent of participants have passed the test in recent years. In the Online Test Center you can take a test run of the naturalization test. Foreigners who want to become naturalized in Germany must take the test to prove their knowledge of the legal and social order and living conditions in Germany.
