Can an ex-American call themselve German?
Well, with regards to nationality anyone can apply for a German passport as soon as he gives up his former nationality and usually it’s easier for American citizens to get a German passport than for any other nation. But I guess, you rather want to know whether you would be accepted as German with regards to ethnicity and cultural group in society? Then the answer is no. Germans would always consider you as a foreigner even if you had a German passport. As national identity is defined by Ius Sanguinis over here, people consider only those as ethnic German who have German blood in them, meaning either having a German father or German mother. Society also has a hard time accepting biracials as German. People over here usually call biracials, ex-foreigners or the children of ex-foreigners who got a German passport “Passdeutsche” = “Passportgermans”, signifying that they don’t belong to the ethnic group apart from being a citizen. E.g. I am biracial – my father is German, my mother is Thai
