Family book (Germany)
The family book was in Germany a civil status , in which the respective civil status of family members was documented.
It was introduced with the Civil Status Act of November 3, 1937, adopted in an amended form in the new version of the Federal German Civil Status Act by the Second Act to Amend and Supplement the Civil Status Act of May 18, 1957 and with the Civil Status Reform Act of February 19, 2007 by notarizations Replaced civil status registers.
Personal Status Act of November 3, 1937
The Civil Status Act of November 3, 1937 came into force on July 1, 1938 and replaced the Reich Law on the Notarization of Civil Status and Marriage of February 6, 1875 (§ 71 PStG 1937). According to the Reichsgesetz, three civil registrars were kept by each registrar under the name of birth register , marriage register and death register (Section 12 of the law of February 6, 1875).
The registrar kept a family, a birth and a death register since 1937 (Section 1 (2) PStG 1937). The marriage register was replaced by the family book, which was intended to clarify the relationship between the family members (Section 2 (1) PStG 1937). Furthermore, birth and death books had to be kept (§§ 1 Paragraph 2, 16 ff. PStG 1937).
For each newly founded family, a special page was opened in the family book when the spouse and witnesses were present (§ 9 PStG 1937). The marriage was then recorded and the family members entered (§§ 11, 14 PStG 1937).
Notarization of marriages
The first part of the sheet was used to certify the marriage with the following entries (§ 11 PStG 1937):
- Names of the couple, their profession and place of residence, place and date of birth, religion,
- Name, occupation and place of residence of the witnesses,
- Declaration by the couple that they want to marry each other,
- Declaration of the registrar about the legality of the marriage.
According to the Second Ordinance on the Implementation of the Act on Changing Family Names and First Names of August 17, 1938, Jews had to adopt an additional first name from January 1, 1939: males the first name Israel, females the first name Sara. The lower administrative authority arranged for a marginal note to be entered on the name change in the birth register and in the marriage register.
Section 12 of the First Ordinance on the Implementation of the Personal Status Act of May 19, 1938 provided for the legal affiliation to a religious society or ideological community to be designated according to this affiliation. Persons without such an affiliation could only be described as believing in God or unbelieving. In the event of a change of religious denomination, proof of entry or exit had to be provided before entry in the family register. Earlier membership of a Jewish religious community was noted.
A Jew within the meaning of the Reich Citizenship Act should not act as a witness (Section 34 No. 2 of the First Implementing Ordinance).
In order to be able to enter into a marriage, there could be no obstacle to marriage .
According to the law for the protection of German blood and German honor , “marriages between Jews and citizens of German or related blood” (so-called mixed marriages ) had been forbidden since September 1935. To prove that they were fit to marry, non-Jewish fiancés had to produce a certificate of marital status (Section 5 (2) PStG 1937 in conjunction with Section 17 of the First Implementing Ordinance). This certificate was issued by the health authorities in accordance with the Marriage Health Act of October 18, 1935 in conjunction with the First Ordinance on the Implementation of the Marriage Health Act of November 29, 1935. If there was an obstacle to marriage, for example "a mental disorder that makes the marriage appear undesirable for the national community " or a hereditary disease within the meaning of the law for the prevention of hereditary offspring , the marriage was not allowed to be concluded, which was noted in the registrar's files. The evidence of hereditary diseases was also evident from the books. The registry office became a clan office .
In the case of long-distance weddings , according to Section 16 of the Third Ordinance on the Implementation of the Personal Status Act (Personal Status Ordinance of the Wehrmacht) of November 4, 1939, the man's parentage and marital health situation could be affirmed on an oath. From the sheet to be opened in the family register at the time of marriage, it was to be made clear that the marriage had been concluded in the absence of the husband.
Information about family members and "racial classification"
The second part of the sheet contained entries on family members (§ 14 PStG 1937):
- Names of parents, their occupation, place of residence, place and date of birth and marriage, religion
- Information on nationality, Reich citizenship and the racial classification of the spouses.
The second part was to be continued continuously and contained in particular the first name, date and place of birth of children together (§ 15 PStG 1937). The family book thus reflected the family origins over three generations - in addition to the couple themselves, their parents and children.
Above all, the information on the racial classification of the spouses made it possible to identify possible Jewish ancestors and thus made the family book an instrument of the National Socialist extermination policy towards the Jewish population. However , the help of the registry offices was not required when drawing up individual deportation notices. The Gestapo knew of the data required for this from other sources such as the so-called Jewish card index .
The legal status of the child within the clan had to result from the registration of children or more distant descendants of the spouses (Section 40 (1) of the First Implementing Regulation).
The sheet was continued for each descendant until he himself received a sheet in the family book (Section 15 (3) PStG 1937). Reference had to be made to the earlier sheet so that the context of the sheets was preserved (Section 40 (2) of the First Implementing Regulation). Due to the difficult working conditions for the registry offices as a result of the Second World War , the Fourth Ordinance on the Implementation and Amendment of the Civil Status Act of September 27, 1944, which came into force on October 1, postponed the opening, continuation and correction of the second part of the family register.
scope
After the annexation of Austria , the laws on civil status regarding marriage came into force in the Ostmark on August 1, 1938. The marriage officers of the district authorities were responsible. On January 1, 1939, the newly established registry offices took over this task.
Civil Status Act of August 8, 1957
The PStG 1937 initially continued to apply within several zones of occupation after the Second World War . As the central provision of the legal field of civil status, which is subject to competing legislation according to Art. 74, Paragraph 1, No. 2 of the Basic Law , it became federal law with the entry into force of the Basic Law on May 23, 1949 ( Art. 125, No. 1 of the Basic Law).
With the laws of January 15, 1951 and May 18, 1957, the PStG 1937 was initially supplemented and amended, then a new version was announced with the law of August 8, 1957.
The family book was regulated in §§ 12-15c PStG in the version of August 8, 1957. After the marriage, information about the couple and their parents were entered (Section 12 PStG 1957), as well as the children they have together (Section 15 PStG 1957). The family book was continued in particular through entries of the death of the spouses, the annulment, divorce or annulment of the marriage or name changes (§ 14 PStG 1957).
Difference to the Civil Status Act 1937
While the contents of the birth and death registers remained essentially unchanged, the family book, which was introduced on January 1, 1958, was no longer identical to the family book of 1937.
The "old family book" - like the other two civil status books - was kept by the registrar of the place of marriage and was mainly used to certify the marriage. The children of the spouses were to be included in a second part (sheet). The family book 1958, on the other hand, was kept on a cardboard sheet in A4 format and was therefore no longer a book in the traditional sense. However, it was based on a similar system: Here, too, the data on the marriage are the actual core entry, expanded to include information on the parents of the spouses and their children together. The family book "wandered" with the family, i. H. the registrar passed the family register on to the registrar responsible for the new place of residence when changing residence. This was where civil status certificates were available in the form of certified copies and extracts from the family book.
The marriage itself was recorded in a marriage book in front of which the marriage had been concluded (primary certification according to §§ 9, 11 PStG 1957). This stationary civil status book contained all the information about the marriage. The marriage entry was only continued (updated) with regard to the facts that had an effect back on the day of the marriage. The interplay of marriage and family registers is evident from the limited continuation: While the marriage entry "only" reproduced the snapshot of the marriage and the continuation of the marriage book was limited to this (primary certification), the family book was a "real" continuation, which also included changes that occur later and have an effect in the future, e.g. B. Explanations on naming (married names, accompanying names). This further personal status-relevant information about the spouse and their children in the family register was summarized from other civil status notifications (secondary notarizations).
Changed z. If, for example, a person's civil status was changed by changing their name and they were not married and their parents were not married, the change was only recorded when the birth entry was made. On the other hand, if she was married and a family register was kept for the marriage, the primary registration in the birth register triggered a secondary registration in the family register. The same applied in the event that the person himself did not have his own family book, but was entered in the family book of his or her parents.
The purpose of the family book was seen in being able to provide the married family with civil status documents at the registrar of their respective place of residence.
Subsequent entries on request
If there were such extraordinary circumstances between January 1, 1945 and August 1, 1948 that the formal requirements for a distance marriage could not be met, the law on the recognition of emergency marriages of December 2, 1950 opened up the possibility of one from this Reason to legitimize legally ineffective marriage afterwards through registration. However, the prerequisite was that the registrar at the responsible main registry office in Hamburg according to § 15b Abs. 2 PStG 1957 considered the facts necessary for the marriage to be proven. If he could not convince himself that a registrar had accepted the woman's declaration and that the marriage had been entered in a family register in the former eastern territories of the German Reich , he could rightly reject the subsequent application for registration.
Family books in the GDR
The GDR Personal Status Act of 1956 abolished the family registers introduced in 1937, which in turn were replaced by a marriage register. This regulation was also retained in the 1981 Civil Status Act. With the accession of the GDR to the area of application of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany on October 3, 1990, the Federal German Civil Status Act also came into force for the acceding area.
Civil Status Act of February 19, 2007
With the law on the reform of civil status law (Personal Status Reform Act - PStRG) of February 19, 2007, the Civil Status Act 1937 in the version of August 8, 1957 was fundamentally reformed. One focus of the reform was the replacement of the family book with notarizations in the new civil status registers .
Since civil status documents from the primary register (e.g. birth certificate from the birth register) were usually required for public and private submission purposes, the family register was of little practical importance, but was costly and labor-intensive. In addition, it increasingly aroused fundamental equality requests from people or groups of people who could not claim an application for themselves. In particular, unmarried partnerships and single parents saw the double certification for married and legitimate children as a privilege for this group of people and demanded equal treatment for reasons of principle. Information on occupation and religious affiliation was deleted from the catalog of information as not relevant to personal status.
Since January 1, 2009, civil status cases have been recorded in the marriage, civil partnership, birth and death registers. The family register that had to be created following the marriage is no longer included in this final compilation of the civil status registers. In the marriage register, the core data of the marriage are notarized as well as subsequent documents for the marriage entry (§§ 15, 16 PStG 2007). A (non-conclusive) information section ( Section 54 (1) sentence 2 PStG) establishes a connection to other entries in the register (Section 5 (3) PStG 2007), for example to certify the birth of the spouse (Section 15 (2) no.1 PStG 2007), which in turn provides information about the first and last names of their parents. In the birth register, in turn, when a legitimate child is born, the marriage of his parents is indicated, which creates the necessary link to the parents' civil status entries (Section 21 (3) No. 2 PStG 2007).
In the civil partnership register, information is recorded in accordance with the marriage register (Section 17 PStG). In the case of children whose parents are not married to each other, reference is made to the notarization of the birth of the mother and father in the birth entry (Section 21 (3) No. 3 PStG).
Since July 1, 2008, the family books have not been continued as such, but as marriage entries. They were handed over to the registry office on June 30, 2013, which keeps the marriage entry for the marriage. From the family books that are continued as marriage entries, only marriage certificates are issued as civil status certificates ( Section 77 (3) PStG).
Family books in other countries
Family books are mostly kept in continental Europe and also in East Asian countries (e.g. the Koseki in Japan ), but such family books are not available in countries in the English-speaking area. For example, Great Britain, Ireland or the USA do not have a family book.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Personal Status Act of November 3, 1937, RGBl. I p. 1146
- ↑ BGBl. I p. 518
- ↑ Wolfgang Bockhorst: Notes on keeping registers and collective files in the registry office LWL archive office for Westphalia, status: April 2009, p. 3
- ↑ RGBl. P. 1044
- ↑ RGBl. I p. 533
- ↑ RGBl. I p. 1146; Blood Protection Act on Wikisource
- ↑ Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health of the German People (Marriage Health Law) of October 18, 1935, RGBl. I p. 1246. ns-quellen.at, accessed on March 5, 2019
- ↑ RGBl. I p. 1419
- ↑ Wolfgang Schütz: 100 years of registry offices in Germany. Frankfurt a. M. 1977, p. 53
- ↑ Carolin Baumann: The worth of protection of data in civil status registers and their influence on archival work processes, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, January 20, 2012, p. 8
- ↑ RGBl. I p. 2163
- ↑ Wolfgang Schütz: 100 years of registry offices in Germany. Frankfurt a. M. 1977, p. 62 f.
- ↑ RGBl. Pp. 219, 221
- ↑ Christoph Florian: Familienregister, Familienbücher Landeskundliches Informationssystem Baden-Württemberg, as of July 7, 2017
- ↑ Municipal Department 116 / A; FB - family book collective files, C; ST - Collective death register files Vienna registry offices ns-quellen.at, 23 October 2018
- ↑ Federal Law Gazette I p. 57
- ↑ BGBl. I p. 518
- ↑ BGBl. I p. 1125
- ^ Draft of a law to reform civil status law (Personal Status Law Reform Act - PStRG) BT-Drs. 16/1831 of June 15, 2006, p. 30
- ^ Draft of a law to reform civil status law (Personal Status Law Reform Act - PStRG) BT-Drs. 16/1831 of June 15, 2006, p. 30
- ^ Draft of a law to reform civil status law (Personal Status Law Reform Act - PStRG) BT-Drs. 16/1831 of June 15, 2006, p. 32
- ↑ Federal Law Gazette p. 778
- ↑ cf. BVerfG, decision of October 7, 1970 - 1 BvR 409/67 para. 25, 35
- ^ Civil status and civil status documents in Brandenburg since 1874 - An administrative history summary Website of the Brandenburg State Main Archives (no year), p. 9
- ↑ Federal Law Gazette I p. 122
- ^ Draft of a law to reform civil status law (Personal Status Law Reform Act - PStRG) BT-Drs. 16/1831 of June 15, 2006
