Marriage cheating

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The marriage fraud (also: "Before devious") was a pending entry into force of the 4th Criminal Law Reform Act (dated 23 November 1973, in the Federal Republic of Germany BGBl. 1973 I, p 1725) applicable separate offense of the civil status should protect. It was punishable to steal the marriage from someone else, although the marriage could be annulled due to an obstacle and was therefore dissolved. In contrast to classic fraud , marriage fraud was not a property crime.

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§ 170 StGB old version had the following wording:

(1) Anyone who fraudulently withholds a legal impediment to marriage from the other party when entering into a marriage, or who fraudulently induces the other party to enter into marriage by means of such deception, which entitles the deceived to contest the validity of the marriage, will, if for one of these reasons, Marriage dissolved, punished with imprisonment not less than three months.

(2) The persecution only occurs at the request of the deceived part.

Obstacles to marriage

At the time of the validity of § 170 StGB (old version), the obstacles to marriage were still regulated in §§ 1–8, 30–34 Marriage Act (EheG). The obstacles to marriage are, however, only determined by civil law , not by canon law . Classic obstacles to marriage are the marriage bans (§§ 1306ff. BGB ). Marriage is not possible if there is already a marriage with one of the potential spouses ( prohibition of bigamy ), if there is a family relationship between the potential spouses (prohibition of family marriage ), but also in cases in which there is no marriage capacity (§§ 1303 , 1304 BGB): If the spouse is not (yet) legally competent, the marriage cannot be concluded.

Annulment

An essential prerequisite for criminal liability was that the marriage was also dissolved by a dissolution judgment (§ 1313 BGB). This annulment judgment must also have become final. Only then did the statute of limitations for the offense of marriage fraud begin. The criminal complaint, the deadline of which also ran from knowledge of the legal force of the annulment judgment (cf. RGSt 37, 372; partly disputed), could not be replaced by a special public interest.