German family says they suffer discrimination due to Russian-sounding name, but not allowed to change name

By Timo Kirez

GENEVA (AA) - The administrative court in the German city of Koblenz has rejected a lawsuit filed by a married couple to change their Russian-sounding last name, the court said in a press release Tuesday.

The plaintiffs had initially applied to the local municipality for a change because, according to them, the couple and their daughter have been experiencing disadvantages in their daily lives since the start of the Moscow-Kyiv war in February 2022 due to their Russian-sounding last name.

The court did not publish the name of the family for legal reasons.

When the municipality refused, the plaintiffs objected and brought an action for failure to act before the administrative court because the municipality had not decided within three months.

Now, however, the administrative court declared that the lawsuit was unsuccessful. According to the court, a change of the family name is only justified if there is an important reason, which, it said, was not the case here.

The mere fact that a last name is of foreign origin or does not sound German is generally not an important reason, the court added in its statement.

Also, the plaintiffs had not shown that the last name they bore represented a psychological burden for them and their daughter, it said. The court also pointed out that an application for permission to appeal the decision is possible.