paternity
noun · Vaterschaft
Vaterschaft arises by one of three routes, § 1592 BGB: marriage to the mother at the birth, acknowledgement, or a court finding. Acknowledgement needs the mother’s consent, § 1595 BGB, and a challenge must come within two years of learning the doubts, § 1600b BGB.
Which translation, when
Why
Paternity is Vaterschaft, and the German structure is precise where English leans on a presumption. Under § 1592 BGB a man is the legal father by one of exactly three routes: he was married to the mother at the birth, or he acknowledged paternity, or his paternity was established by the court under § 1600d BGB. The marriage route is automatic and, until displaced, excludes any other man, so a child born to a married woman has her husband as legal father regardless of biology. The acknowledgement route, central for unmarried fathers, is not the father’s act alone: under § 1595 BGB it takes the mother’s consent, it must be in the prescribed public form, and it is ineffective while another man’s paternity stands. Undoing a paternity is the Anfechtung, and it is fenced by time: § 1600 BGB names who may challenge, and § 1600b BGB gives two years from the day the challenger learned of the circumstances speaking against paternity, after which the paternity stands whatever the biology. English law, by contrast, works from the presumption of legitimacy and a declaration of parentage. So the word is easy, but the route, the mother’s consent and the two-year clock are where a translation goes wrong.
Typical mistakes
- German paternity has three defined routes, § 1592 BGB; the acknowledgement route needs the mother’s consent, § 1595 BGB, so a father cannot simply acknowledge a child on his own.
- A challenge to paternity is time-barred two years after the challenger learns of the doubts, § 1600b BGB, so advice that treats paternity as open-endedly challengeable can be wrong.
- The husband is the legal father of a child born in the marriage until that paternity is displaced, § 1592 BGB, so another man’s acknowledgement is ineffective while it stands, § 1595 BGB.
What matters
Filiation and maintenance papers need the German route named, because everything follows from it: marriage at birth, an Anerkennung with the mother’s consent, § 1595 BGB, or a court finding under § 1600d BGB. A dispute over parentage runs into the two-year challenge period of § 1600b BGB, which a translated pleading should not quietly drop.
What the machine misses
Paternity is rendered Vaterschaft, and the word travels while the machinery does not. A machine loses that German paternity runs on three defined routes, § 1592 BGB, that acknowledging it needs the mother’s consent, § 1595 BGB, and that a challenge is shut after two years from learning the doubts, § 1600b BGB. A translated sentence about acknowledging or contesting paternity that keeps none of this can miss a consent requirement or a deadline that decides the case.
Examples
| to acknowledge paternity | die Vaterschaft anerkennen |
| to challenge paternity | die Vaterschaft anfechten |
| paternity was established by the court | die Vaterschaft wurde gerichtlich festgestellt |
| the presumed father | der rechtliche Vater |