marriage

Which translation, when

Why

Marriage translates as Ehe, and the trap is what makes an Ehe. Under § 1310 BGB an Ehe comes into being only if the couple declare before the Standesbeamten that they wish to marry, so in Germany the civil act is the marriage. A purely religious ceremony, a kirchliche Trauung or an imam marriage, has no civil effect whatever, which is the opposite of England, where a Church of England marriage or one in a registered religious building is itself legally valid. A foreign religious-only marriage therefore does not automatically count as an Ehe, and a translation that treats it as one can misstate the parties’ status for everything downstream, from inheritance to residence. Two further shifts matter. Since the 2017 Gesetz zur Einführung des Rechts auf Eheschließung, § 1353 Abs. 1 BGB opens the Ehe to two people of different or the same sex, and from the same date the eingetragene Lebenspartnerschaft is frozen: no new ones are created, so a German same-sex couple now marries rather than entering a Lebenspartnerschaft. And since the 2017 Gesetz zur Bekämpfung von Kinderehen the marriage age is eighteen without exception, § 1303 BGB, so a foreign marriage of a minor cannot be taken as automatically valid. So Ehe is the right word once the marriage is civil, current and validly formed.

Typical mistakes

• A German Ehe is the civil act before the Standesbeamten, § 1310 BGB; a purely religious ceremony creates no Ehe, so rendering a religious-only marriage as a valid Ehe can misstate the parties’ legal status.
• Since 2017 the Ehe is open to same-sex couples, § 1353 BGB, and the eingetragene Lebenspartnerschaft is closed to new entrants, so translating a current German same-sex marriage as a Lebenspartnerschaft is wrong.
• The marriage age has been eighteen without exception since 2017, § 1303 BGB, so a foreign marriage of a minor cannot be assumed valid in Germany.

What matters

Certificates and pleadings that recite a marriage need the German act named for what it is: an Ehe formed before the Standesbeamten, § 1310 BGB, not a religious ceremony that in Germany carries no legal effect. Status questions across borders, immigration or succession, turn on whether the marriage was civilly valid, so a foreign religious-only union should not be rendered as a settled Ehe without that check.

Examples