Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Controversy between State and Law
Starting off with the line, " after 62 years after his death, Adolf Hitler could loose his citizenship," Der Spiegel's article in the online economist was very thought provoking. This article interviewed German political figures on the issue of revoking Hitler's German citizenship. Many people, such as Isolde Saalmann, would like to take a symbolic step forward through this act. When Hitler became a German citizen in Braunschweig, he wrote down fraudulent information in order to quickly receive his papers and gain influence in government. Much of Braunschweig today is behind this revocation; however, the German constitutional law states that they cannot take a person's citizenship if he would become stateless. This is an interesting toss up - should we follow the constitutional law or acknowledge the horrid past and make a symbolic change for the future.
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Even though some people are of course ashamed of what Hitler did and being tied to that in some is appalling; I think it would be a terrible mistake to take away his citizenship. For me, revoking it would be like trying to erase the crimes against humanity that he committed. Whether people like it or not, Germany at that time let him become a citizen and allowed him to take power. And though people now are not responsible for past actions, you can not take away Hitler's tie to Germany.
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