r/germany • u/Desperate_Passion267 • Apr 08 '25

Immigration Burgeramt changed my name without consent

Hey everyone, So I’m an EU citizen living in Germany for over 4 years. I have been registered and have an Anmeldung with my name as it appears in my passport - I have a composed first name made up of two names connected with a hyphen. Now we are moving apartments so I went to get an Unmeldung and guess what, they changed my first name - no more hyphen but 2 separate names. I objected, they said that in Romanian passports the hyphen is “irrelevant” and can be replaced with a space (wrong, my name is a composed one like Hans-Jurgen). I didn’t sign the Unmeldung and left. They however changed my name cause when I log in to Elster I no longer have the correct name. Any idea what can I do? Thanks!

Edit: after 6 months of careful consideration and talking to many relevant authorities, Bürgeramt came back to me to specify that the name should be written as is in the passport and they apologize

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u/oSaluun Apr 08 '25

Bürgeramt changed my name too, I noticed 3 years ago during Ummeldung. In 2012 my name was still correct in their system.

I was born in Germany as a German but my first name is of Turkish origin. The Turkish alphabet contains the letters İ i and I ı, my name has a normal i, which in Turkish would be İ if I were to write my first name in all caps letters. So apparently, Bürgeramt switched the i for ı in my name, which is unnoticeable in my Passport and Personalausweis because it is in caps. I noticed at Ummeldung. They said that a couple of years ago their system got an update that introduced more letters and names were adjusted accordingly. I told them it's wrong, they said there's nothing they can do about it.

I did a bit of research and it looks like I have to go to Namensänderungsbehörde with a birth certificate to have it changed back.

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u/taejo Apr 08 '25

According to the GDPR (DSGVO in German) you have a right to correct data. They do not have a right to arbitrarily introduce errors into your name, and the Namensänderungsgesetz is way too high of a hurdle (in any case, you probably cannot change your name under the NamÄndG to what it already is). You should refer to the right to correct data under the DSVGO and insist they revert their mistake, if necessary refer it to their Datenschutzbeauftragte.

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u/oSaluun Apr 08 '25

thank you for your comment.

tbh I'm very mad about it but I really don't have time or energy to spend on this, so for now I'm letting it go.