Zurich court rejects ‘perpetual hereditary citizenship’ for Austrian man

The Zurich Administrative Court has denied an Austrian automatic Swiss citizenship. The man from a princely family invoked a hereditary right of citizenship dating back to the 15th century. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The court referred the appellant to the normal naturalisation procedure, as can be seen from the ruling published on Tuesday. It thus upholds the decisions of the municipal authorities and the Zurich Directorate of Justice and Home Affairs. The reason why he does not automatically become Swiss is due to a different law: his grandmother lost her citizenship in 1961 when she married an Austrian, despite having been granted “perpetual citizenship” in 1939. This was the law at the time. If she had wanted to remain Swiss, she would have had to make a declaration to that effect at the wedding. Then came a bit of bad luck. Both the grandmother and the mother of the complainant were later naturalised. However, the grandmother was not yet Swiss ...