Basic Law, Article 16a, para. 1

No German may be deprived of his citizenship. Loss of citizen ship may occur only pursuant to a law and, if it occurs against the will of the person affected, only if he does not become stateless as a result.

After National Socialism, the Federal Republic of Germany pledged to protect people who are persecuted on political grounds. This protection extends to those with refugee status granted by Section 3 of the Asylum Act on the grounds of a “...well-founded fear of prosecution on the grounds of... religion, nationality, political beliefs or membership in a specific social group". When the number of asylum seekers in Germany rose to nearly 440,000 in 1992, an “Asylum Compromise” was quickly passed in 1993. Stricter criteria for recognition of asylum led to a sharp drop in the number of asylum seekers of around 30,000 annually between 2006 and 2009. With the “refugee crisis” of the mid-2010s, the number of asylum seekers peaked in 2016 at some 750,000, falling to around 200,000 requests for asylum annually since then.

The photograph depicts the oral arguments for a legal battle concerning a person's refugee status before the administrative court of Cologne. The plaintiff, who is originally from Lebanon, sits between his lawyer and an interpreter. He seeks official recognition of his status as a refugee as well as a deportation ban. The presiding judge works alone on this case. Around a third of his job is dedicated solely to asylum-related cases.