adoption
noun · Annahme als Kind
Annahme als Kind, decreed by the Familiengericht, § 1752 BGB, not an agreement between the parties. Adopting a minor severs the ties to the birth family, § 1755 BGB; adopting an adult, § 1767 BGB, is a far weaker act that usually leaves those ties in place, § 1770 BGB.
Which translation, when
Why
Adoption is Annahme als Kind, and two features catch the English reader. First, it is not a contract. Under § 1752 BGB the Annahme is pronounced by the Familiengericht on the application of the adopter, and the application must be notarially recorded and cannot be made by a representative or under a condition, so an adoption agreement between the parties is not the German mechanism, an English adoption order is the closer parallel. Second, and sharper, the effect depends on whether the adoptee is a minor or an adult. Adopting a minor is a strong, clean-break act: the child gains the full legal status of the adopter’s child, § 1754 BGB, and the legal relationship to the birth family, with its rights and duties, is extinguished, § 1755 BGB, subject to the stepchild case. Adopting an adult under § 1767 BGB, permitted where it is sittlich gerechtfertigt, is a much weaker thing: by § 1770 BGB the adoption does not extend to the adopter’s relatives and, crucially, does not sever the adult’s ties to the birth family, so the effect is largely confined to the adopter and adoptee, often for name or succession reasons. The exception is § 1772 BGB, under which the court may on the joint application give an adult adoption the strong minor-adoption effects in defined cases, such as a stepchild, a sibling adopted as a minor, or an adoptee taken in while still a minor. Otherwise, rendering an adult adoption as though it worked like the adoption of a child overstates what has happened.
Typical mistakes
- Adoption in Germany is a court decree, § 1752 BGB, not an agreement; an adoption agreement or contract mistranslates the act, which the Familiengericht pronounces on a notarially recorded application.
- Adopting a minor severs the legal ties to the birth family, § 1755 BGB; adopting an adult as a rule does not, § 1770 BGB, and the strong effects need a court order under § 1772 BGB, so treating the two alike misstates parentage, inheritance and name.
- Adult adoption under § 1767 BGB is a weak-effect act confined largely to adopter and adoptee; describing it with the full consequences of a child’s adoption overstates it.
What matters
Family and succession papers that turn on an adoption need the German act pinned down: a decree of the Familiengericht, § 1752 BGB, and then the divide that decides the consequences, a minor adoption that cuts the birth-family ties, § 1755 BGB, against an adult adoption that leaves them, § 1770 BGB. A cross-border estate can turn on exactly this difference, so the age of the adoptee and the statute should travel with the word.
What the machine misses
Adoption comes back as Adoption or Annahme, and the word is fine while two structural points are lost. The machine renders an adoption agreement as if the parties could contract it, when § 1752 BGB makes it a decree of the Familiengericht. And it treats adoption as one thing, missing that adopting a minor severs the birth-family ties, § 1755 BGB, while adopting an adult under § 1767 BGB generally leaves them in place, § 1770 BGB, a difference that reshapes inheritance and name.
Examples
| to apply for adoption | die Annahme als Kind beantragen |
| the adoption was granted by the court | die Annahme wurde vom Familiengericht ausgesprochen |
| the adoption of an adult | die Annahme eines Volljährigen |
| the child’s ties to the birth family | die Verwandtschaft des Kindes zur Herkunftsfamilie |