According to the ideas of the FDP and the Greens, Germans should have more freedom of choice when choosing their surname. But what that should look like in concrete terms is interpreted somewhat differently by both of them. While Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann wants to soften the law in the case of double names, Green politician Helge Limburg proposes mixing surnames. “I would find a merging of surnames instead of double names with a hyphen a refreshing innovation and therefore very charming,” said Limburg, legal policy spokesman for the Greens parliamentary group, the “Welt” (Tuesday edition).
Greens propose “meshing” of surnames – Buschmann relies on hyphens
So-called “meshing” is already possible in Great Britain. The common child of the spouses James and Harrison can therefore be called Jamison by surname. The FDP supports this proposal less. “Unlike the possibility of double names, the merging of two surnames is not only completely foreign to our naming rights,” said legal policy spokeswoman Katrin Helling-Plahr. “There is also no serious desire among the population for such a name combination that deviates from the principles of our naming rights.” The SPD, on the other hand, is open to discussing possible flexibilization.
Minister of Justice Buschmann had stimulated the discussion at the weekend. It is high time that married couples were able to express their bond through a common double name. So far this is not allowed. A spouse can add the other’s surname with a hyphen before or after their own surname. So far, it has not been possible for Mr. Schmitz and Ms. Müller to be called Müller-Schmitz after their marriage and to pass this name on to their children.
Buschmann also wants to make naming rights easier for children of divorce
Buschmann wants to soon present a bill for a reform of naming rights. The traffic light government has made further changes in its coalition agreement that affect family life. According to Buschmann, these should come later. “The naming right is the project that we want to bring into the law gazette first,” he said. The preparatory work for this is well advanced, “the most important questions have been clarified”. He intends to present a bill shortly.
Buschmann also sees an urgent need for action with regard to children of divorce. “It is now a completely everyday situation for a parent to revert to his premarital name after a divorce,” says the justice minister. In such a situation, the child could also have an interest in changing his family name – “the current law is not well adjusted to this life situation,” says Buschmann and promises: “Here too, the new naming law will bring relief.”
The FDP parliamentary group had already presented a draft for the liberalization of naming rights in the previous legislative period – at that time still in the opposition – which met with broad support among experts. The plan was not implemented at the time. The current project from the Ministry of Justice still has to be coordinated within the federal government, especially with the Ministry of the Interior.
