Family Code (GDR)

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The Family Code of the German Democratic Republic (FGB) of December 20, 1965 came into force on April 1, 1966 at the same time as the Introductory Act to the Family Code of the German Democratic Republic. It was amended by the Introductory Act to the Civil Code of June 19, 1975 and by the Act of July 20, 1990. On August 31, 1990, it was repealed by the Unification Treaty.

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The GDR family code consisted of six parts:

Basic features of the FGB

The Family Code of the GDR (FGB) of December 20, 1965 (Journal of Laws I 1966 p. 1), which came into force on April 1, 1966 together with an introductory act, marked a clear break with the German legal entity, which at least on paper still largely existed and thereby suspended the 4th book of the BGB and numerous other family law provisions (including the RJWG of 1922 and the marriage law ) for the territory of the GDR .

The FGB of 1965 did not attempt - unlike the BGB of the Federal Republic of Germany - to be ideologically neutral, but rather made the intentions of the socialist GDR legislature clear, especially in the introductory paragraphs. For example: B. Section 3, Paragraph 1, Clause 2: " It is the primary task of parents to educate their children in trusting cooperation with state and social institutions to become healthy and cheerful, capable and well-educated people, active builders of socialism ".

Divorce law

The divorce law of the FGB got by with a few provisions (§§ 24 ff FGB). A kind of breakdown principle is mentioned as a reason for the divorce in § 24 (1) FGG: “ A marriage may only be divorced if the court has determined that there are serious reasons that make this marriage meaningful the spouse who lost children and thus also to society . ”Separation periods, as in the divorce law of the Federal Republic from 1977, were not provided. However, there was a hardship clause, particularly with reference to the interests of the child, in Section 24 (2) FGG. Since both spouses were required to work on both sides, there were no provisions such as pension equalization and spousal maintenance claims were limited to 2 years.

The conjugal property law has been in the form of a Community property regulated, the property and property Community called (§§ 39 ff FGB).

Right of upbringing instead of parental authority

The FGG replaced the concept of parental authority with the concept of the right to bring up children . Section 42 FGG, which represents the basic norm for parental rights of upbringing, is similar to Section 4 FGG referred to above, an ideologically-tinged set of clichés that concretizes the official GDR educational ideas if the educational goal is the “ socialist attitude towards life and work , for respect for working people, for compliance with the rules of socialist coexistence, for solidarity, for socialist patriotism and internationalism ”.

In the concrete provisions, the parental right of upbringing was regulated in a very similar way to that in the FRG from 1980 , § 43 FGB largely corresponded to § 1626 (1) BGB; the transfer of the right of upbringing after divorce according to § 25 FGB took place from the point of view of securing the further upbringing and development of the children, which was to be seen as a concretization of the child welfare principle . In the event of a divorce , one of the parents was to be given the right to bring up the child; However, there were also opportunities for grandparents and step-parents to obtain the right to bring up after the death of their parents or parents (Sections 43 (2) and 47 (3) FGB). The FGB expressly did not provide for a common right of upbringing after divorce.

According to § 51 FGB, the deprivation of the right of upbringing could take place as an extreme measure in the event of a serious culpable violation of parental duties by the legal guardian if the child's development was at risk (on the occasion of the divorce under the same conditions according to § 26 FGB). The GDR legislature could not decide to abolish the principle of fault. A hearing of the child by the court could only take place after the age of 14 (§ 53 FGB). Before this, the youth welfare organization should hear the child before giving its opinion.

According to the FGB, however, numerous decisions with regard to the right of upbringing were not to be made by the court, but by the youth welfare organization , unlike the regulations on family law proceedings in the Federal Republic (at that time in the ZPO, today in the FamFG) ; only particularly contentious matters were reserved for the court. In view of the lack of legal remedies, this was a clear step backwards compared to the western legal protection system.

Elimination of the category "illegitimate"

The FGB eliminated the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children by removing this category. In the FGB, however, there are many places where children are spoken of whose parents are not married to each other, e.g. B. in § 46 FGB, which grants the mother the unrestricted right of upbringing in this case. In the event of the death of the mother or after a judicial revocation of the right of upbringing, the right of upbringing could be transferred to the father (or the grandparents). The contestation of marital status was dropped in favor of a general contestation of paternity ; the legal institution of the declaration of marriage was dropped without replacement due to the lack of persistence of these differences.

The determination of paternity resulted in similar results as in 1969 in the FRG: Recognition of paternity by means of a certificate with effect for and against everyone (§ 55 in conjunction with § 58 FGB) or judicial determination of paternity , whereby the biological descent was decisive (§§ 56 ff FGB). In the case of several men who had sexual intercourse with their mother within the legal conception time, the father whose fatherhood was more probable was identified as the father, so that in the GDR the objection to multiple traffic lost its blocking effect four years earlier than in the Federal Republic. For the determination of paternity and the amount of maintenance , the Supreme Court of the GDR issued guidelines, which were legally binding there.

A valid acknowledgment of paternity in the GDR always required the mother's consent (Section 55 (1) FGB), unlike in the FRG, which had no consent until 1970, and since then the consent of the child (usually represented by the clerk) for required (§ 1600 c BGB in the version valid until June 30, 1998). According to Section 61 of the FGB, paternity contestation could be made by the father, mother or the public prosecutor , but not by the child (not even after the child was of legal age ).

The reform after the turnaround

After the turning point in the GDR in 1989 it also came about. family law ideas in numerous areas on new developments. In addition to the establishment of regular youth welfare offices through the Youth Welfare Organization Act of July 29, 1990, the law amending the GDR Family Code of July 20, 1990 (GBl. IS 1038), with which the GDR People's Chamber after the first free election and even before reunification attempted to throw ideological ballast out of the FGB and to adapt the law to new educational ideas.

Application after the reunification

With the unification of the Federal Republic and GDR on October 3, 1990 , the spouses who had lived in the property regime of the property and property community according to the FGB were automatically transferred to the statutory property regime of the gain community of the FRG, unless one of them expressly the previous one or both together had determined a different property regime. The old property law continued to apply to marriages that had been divorced before October 3, 1990. In the cases of transition, the previous joint property according to § 39 FGB was transferred to half the ownership by the new regulation of Art. 234 § 4a EGBGB. It is controversial whether the provision of § 39 FGB should be applied to the dispute over this property. The provision of Section 40 of the FGB can become of permanent importance for the compensation of the sole ownership of the other spouse on the reference date.

The FGB of the GDR continues to apply in individual cases of today's all-German maintenance law. It applies to spouses who divorced before October 3, 1990.

Since the law of the GDR did not recognize any pension adjustment, this only applies to spouses who were divorced after December 31, 1991 .

literature

  • Family Code of the GDR 1965-1990 . Family Code of the German Democratic Republic of December 20, 1965 in the version of the Introductory Act of June 19, 1975 to the Civil Code of the GDR, Verlag Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza, Reprint 2006. ISBN 3-938997-23-0
  • Horst Deinert: The development of child rights taking into account socio-political aspects. Diploma thesis 1995 - (basis of this article) [1]
  • Thomas Raiser : Socialist family law. To the first family code of the GDR . JZ 1966, pp. 423-428
  • Jens Wuttke: Conflict Avoidance and Dispute Resolution in Family Law Matters in the GDR . Tectum-Verlag, Marburg 2008. ISBN 978-3828895362 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Journal of Laws of 1966, Part I, p. 1
  2. ↑ Journal of Laws of 1966, Part I, p. 19
  3. ^ Journal of Laws of 1975 Part I, p. 517
  4. ↑ Journal of Laws of 1990 Part I, p. 1038
  5. ↑ Federal Law Gazette 1990, Part II, p. 889
  6. ↑ Dietmar Buschhaus, "The dispute of the property and property community", Bielefeld 2000, p. 243 ff.
  7. ↑ ders. Ibid. P. 295 ff.
  8. ↑ Christiane A. Lang, "§ 40 FGB / DDR: Basis of claims of the present", FORUM Family Law, Issue 1 + 2/2006, p. 29 ff.
  9. ↑ Christiane A. Lang, “The coexistence of gain and community of achievement”, djbZ 4/2008, p. 176 ff.
  10. ^ "Spouses entitled to equalization will soon be better protected in the event of divorce - Federal Cabinet decided on August 20, 2008 to reform marital property law" in "Märkischer Sonntag" of August 31, 2008, page 18