Originally Posted by
mangoMan
The interesting thing about this is that only one parent needs to be German. I was born in the US to German parents (both), however I never bothered getting a German passport until I was an adult. Shortly after I finally did get a passport (2003-4 timeframe), it was also possible for my children to get German passports because I had a German passport, even though my wife is not German. Theoretically it seems my kids can now get German passports for their kids, ad infinitum. This seems like a loophole of sorts.
It's not a loophole...it's the way it is supposed to work. Citizens of a country should be able to pass their citizenship on to their children. Now, in the past in Germany and elsewhere, only the father could do so. That has changed.
On a side note, the US does have some complicated rules about passing on citizenship from a parent not born in the US to a child not born in the US--there are some US residency requirements that have to be met.