Official guardian
As Amtsvormundschaft is known in German family law a guardian , so the comprehensive legal representation for minors , by the relevant competent youth office .
Legal and appointed official guardianship
Official guardianship can be given on the one hand as legal, on the other hand as appointed guardianship.
The legal official guardian (without prior judicial withdrawal of custody) is the youth welfare office for illegitimate children as long as the mother is still a minor ( Section 1791c BGB) and during an ongoing adoption procedure ( Section 1751 (1) BGB).
The family court can decide on official guardianship (appointed guardianship) if there is no other person suitable as a guardian ( Section 1779 BGB). In this case, the youth welfare office acts as a “failure guarantor”.
Transfer of tasks to youth welfare office employees
In common parlance, the employee of the youth welfare office, to whom the actual performance of duties is assigned according to Section 55 of Book VIII of the Social Code , is often referred to as the official guardian. In fact, however, the youth welfare office (as part of the public-law regional authority of the urban or rural district ) is the holder of the power of representation.
Exempt guardianship
The youth welfare office has the status of an " exempted guardian ". Partly exempt from judicial supervision and restrictions on the investment of assets from ward money ( § 1857a BGB). No counter- guardian can be appointed to the youth welfare office as a guardian .
History of Official Guardianship
The official guardianship was established in Germany in 1924 under the Reich Youth Welfare Act. It stood up for all illegitimate children and replaced different forms of professional and institutional guardianship and individual guardianship for illegitimate children under state law. The legal entry of official guardianship through birth had the advantage that the often tedious search for a suitable individual guardian was superfluous.
The material situation of illegitimate children is said to have improved significantly through the establishment of official guardianship, so to speak of a special profession with specialist knowledge, particularly in the area of parentage and maintenance claims. The transfer of parental authority to the mother did not seem to have been a debatable point in the law of the time; In any case, nothing is recognizable from the materials that could indicate ideas in this regard.
The legal situation remained the same even after the establishment of the Federal Republic (within the framework of the amended Youth Welfare Act ). It was not until July 1, 1970 that the mandatory official guardianship for the children now called "illegitimate" was ended under the illegitimate law . The children were then under the parental control of the mother , but the child was given a clerk at birth .
In 1998 this restriction of custody was also lifted by the reform of the child rights reform. In the GDR territory , the official guardianship for illegitimate children was abolished as early as 1950.
See also
literature
- Helga Oberloskamp: Guardianship, guardianship and assistance for minors , 4th edition, 2017, CH Beck, ISBN 978-3-406-70280-8
