Surge in numbers of Britons seeking to restore German citizenship

File photo dated 08/10/10 of a British passport, as a hard Brexit would send the quality of British citizenship into a "free fall", comparable to the effects of warfare on Syrian and Libyan nationalities, a new report shows. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday September 13, 2017. Results of the second Henley & Partners - Kochenov Quality of Nationality Index (QNI) have shown that the global standing of UK citizenship would suffer significantly if free movement was scrapped, robbing Brits of the right to work and settle in countries across the European Union. See PA story CITY Citizenship. Photo credit should read: Katie Collins/PA Wire

19th October 2018

The number of people in Britain seeking to restore their German citizenship has jumped following the UK's decision to leave the European Union.

A German government response to opposition politicians published on Friday says 1,667 people applied to Germany's embassy in London last year to reclaim the citizenship they or their ancestors were stripped of by the Nazis.

The government's reply to the Free Democratic Party query notes that the embassy recorded 684 such requests the previous year, most of them following the Brexit referendum in June 2016.

Tens of thousands of Germans, many of them Jewish, fled to Britain after the Nazis took power in 1933.

The figures, which do not include Britons without previous ties to Germany applying for citizenship, were first reported by Germany's Funke media group.