Germanizing Germans: Co-ethnic Immigration and Name Change in West Germany, 1953–93

Abstract

This article identifies name registration and change as an important component of building a homogenous national society. It argues that the name changing policies of the West German state towards German co-ethnic immigrants ( Spätaussiedler) during the postwar decades reflected evolving official conceptions of nationhood and national identity. Specifically, the article problematizes the notion found in parts of the literature that the German ‘regime of ethnicity’ evolved from a monoethnic and essentialist to an anti-ethnic and assimilationist model. It will show that official name changing policy underwent a process of ‘ethnicization’ decisively shaped by the associations of German expellees, which turned this seemingly technical issue into a matter of symbolic importance for national identity and established it as a crucial factor for Spätaussiedler integration. In the end, the monoethnic approach to name change won out against the rivalling anti-ethnic position, while both of them ignored the multiethnic reality developing on the ground.