I just responded to a DM asking about my German citizenship process. Others might benefit from it, so I’m sharing it here. Sorry, it’s a bit long.
OK, here is my story so far. My mother was German. (Her family were refugees after WWII – not from the Nazis, just DP’s – but that makes no difference in my case.) She came to the US in 1960, married my American father in 1961. I was born in 1966, and my mom became a US citizen in 1967. That puts me into one of maybe 4 or 5 eligibility classes in this recent German law, the §5 StAG law I mentioned. More on these shortly.
I started the process by contacting a couple of law firms that specialize in German citizenship. One of them, a firm in Germany, wanted a lot of money (like $5000). I ended up with an attorney in Miami with licenses in both countries. She was cheaper, but it still cost $2500, in addition to various other charges related to finding documentation. For example, I had to secure the services of a Polish attorney to locate various documents from the Polish archives. (My mom’s family was from a region [Silesia] that was transferred to Poland after the war.) Basically I had to prove my “provenance” via certified copies of birth, death, marriage and other certificates. Collecting all the documentation was a hassle and cost maybe another $1000 for everything. A lot of that was for the Polish document search.
Finally, just last August all the documents were shipped off to the German Bundesverwaltungsamt (BVA, Federal Office of Administration) in Cologne. And now I wait. Apparently for at least a year, maybe two. But, I am confident that all my papers are in order, so it’s just a matter of time.
Re the law itself, here’s the BVA page about it: BVA - Citizenship - Amendment to German citizenship law
If you speak German and perhaps have contacts there, you could possibly try to apply on your own. It would be much cheaper.
Victims of Nazi persecution and their descendants were already eligible under the existing law (StAG) – that information is here: BVA - Wiedergutmachungseinbürgerung nach Verfolgung
The 2021 amendment (§5) added those who were previously excluded by gender-discriminatory regulations from acquiring German citizenship at birth: BVA - Erklärungserwerb – this page lists the document requirements (under the “Erklärung abgeben” tab)
The various “discriminated child” categories under §5 StAG are a bit complicated. Here’s a FAQ (this is actually from the attorney I used, Ellen von Geyso). See also, Re-naturalization according to § 5 StAG and Declaration or application for German citizenship if you do have a German mother or father but never were considered German - Federal Foreign Office