On January 1, 2009, an amendment to the law came into force, repealing the ban on church weddings for those who had not previously entered into a civil marriage.
Regardless of one's opinion on this for political or religious reasons, the following should be noted:
A purely religious wedding does not fulfill all the legal consequences of a civil marriage – such as the considerable tax advantages – after the fact.
This can lead to nasty surprises if the "spouses" separate or one of them dies.
In the event of separation, there is no claim to a share of the other's capital gains, nor does the person who gave up their career because of the relationship have a claim to maintenance or even a claim to a share of the other partner's pension.
Even if the partnership lasts a lifetime, there are significant differences compared to a civil marriage.
If one of the partners dies without making a will, the survivor is not entitled to any inheritance. It may be that a very distant relative or even the state inherits the assets of the deceased, while their "spouse" is left empty-handed. In addition, in this case he has no right to decide on the place or type of burial of his partner. Nor can he prevent, for example, an organ removal for transplantation purposes if other relatives of the deceased advocate it.
Even if children are born of a purely church marriage, the child's father is not recognized as such in the legal sense. Consequently, he has no right of custody over the child. The father can only attain full legal status as a father in this case with the mother's consent.
If one of the "spouses" is prosecuted, the only churchly married person has no right to refuse to testify. A fine or even imprisonment can be imposed to force him to testify.
It is therefore strongly recommended that you seriously consider a civil wedding ceremony or to compensate for deficits by means of appropriate contractual arrangements.
Not all disadvantages can be compensated for by contractual arrangements. This applies in particular to the tax disadvantages arising from separate assessments. In the case of inheritance tax, the disadvantage remains that the high tax-free allowance does not apply to those who are only married in church, and other privileges (e.g. tax-free transfer of accrued gains or family home) do not apply either.
The statements represent initial information that was current for the law applicable in Germany at the time of initial publication. The legal situation may have changed since then. Furthermore, the information provided cannot replace individual advice on a specific matter. Please contact us for this purpose.