Das Standesamt
Das Standesamt is an office, usually located in the town hall, where births, marriages and deaths are registered. The office also issues the relevant certificates for these occasions.
The civil part of the marriage ceremony takes place at the Standesamt itself, often in a room specially decorated and set aside for this purpose.
Some towns have rooms, dedicated as a Standesamt in other buildings, such as the Kaiser-Friedrich-Bad in Bad Homburg or the Brauhaus in Oberursel.
If either the wife or husband is not a German national, or if one of the parents are not German, then the application to marry or to register the name of a child can get very complicated. The non-German half may be required to sign away their right to use their national laws, eg. in naming their child, in order to simplify the situation.
To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:
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Tags: birth, death, geburt, heirat, hochzeit, marriage, standesamt, tod
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
[…] “Personenstandsrechtsreformgesetz” makes a number of changes to the way in which the Standesämter – who register births, marriages and deaths in Germany – work. The most significant change means […]
February 24th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
If you plan to get maried in a german spekaing country, you need also a translater if you don’t speak german. This can be also a friend (in Swzterland, this might be different in Germany)..and do not forget to book a good wedding photographer.