Wedding ceremony by proxy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A proxy marriage is a formal marriage that takes place even though one of the bride and groom is not personally present at the wedding . A representative of the absent partner gives the yes by procurationem (by power of attorney) in his name and on behalf, with which the marriage between the absent and the present partner is considered concluded.

Other names for this type of marriage are procuration , proxy marriage or glove marriage . The latter designation indicates the handing over of a glove, which was customary in the past, as a symbol of the hiring of a messenger. A spouse's guardian , agent , messenger or diplomat could act as a representative .

Representation at marriage was historically widespread, especially in aristocratic circles, and is still possible today in some legal systems, including within Europe . In the German-speaking countries, however, as a legal transaction under personal law, a highly personal participation is required everywhere today and a proxy marriage is therefore excluded.

history

background

Anne de Bretagne , detail from a painting by Jean Bourdichon
Marie Antoinette playing the spinet, painted by Franz Xaver Wagenschön , shortly before her marriage in 1770

Political alliances were forged through marriages between the ruling families. If such an alliance was agreed, it could well take a while before the bride was sent on the often long journey to see her bridegroom. It wasn't just the travel time that had to be considered. Princesses traveled with an entourage befitting their rank, which could include several hundred people, so planning took a correspondingly long time. This journey only ended with the solemn handover of the bride at the border of the groom's country (the remise ).

If you wanted to secure the political alliance before the bride and groom met in person (often for the first time in their lives), you would celebrate a proxy wedding. Usually the bride and a representative of the groom attended such a wedding ceremony. It happened less often that the bride was represented.

This practice was still common in Europe in the 17th century and was still widely permitted in the 18th century. This option still existed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The marriage by proxy was common among the nobility and especially at the court of the Habsburgs in Vienna and Madrid. At the Viennese court, a bizarre procedure developed for the glove marriage. The bride and the bridegroom's deputy, fully clothed, climbed into a magnificently decorated bed in front of the assembled court party, each baring one leg; this was considered a symbolic act of marriage .

At proxy weddings there was also a special form of walking on the marriage bed : In the presence of the court, the proxy lay in armor next to the most splendidly dressed bride, with a bare sword between the two.

However, according to church law, a marriage concluded in this way could be annulled until it was consummated (sexual intercourse between the spouses).

Examples

In 1490, thirteen-year-old Anna of Brittany was married to the German Crown Prince Maximilian . In the presence of the entire Breton court, his envoy, Wolfgang von Polheim , bared his leg up to the knee and pushed it into the bed of the sleeping princess. The marriage was then consummated. It was later declared invalid for dynastic reasons with papal dispensation .

Duke Johann II. Von Jülich and Berg intended to remarry four years after the death of his first wife. In 1691 he sent Baron von Wachtendonk to Florence to court Anna Maria Luisa de 'Medici , the daughter of Grand Duke Cosimo III. de 'Medici to advertise him. After the advertising was successful, the bride's brother, Hereditary Prince Ferdinando de 'Medici, represented the groom at the provisional wedding in Florence on April 29, 1691. On June 5, the marriage was sealed with a real wedding in Ulm on the Danube.

A prominent example is the marriage of Marie Antoinette and the later King Louis XVI. on April 19, 1770 in the Augustinian Church in Vienna , where the French heir to the throne was represented by Archduke Ferdinand , a brother of the bride. Then the fourteen-year-old bride had to travel to France . The actual wedding was closed on May 16 in the Palace Chapel of Versailles by the Archbishop of Reims .

Further examples are the weddings of Henrietta Maria von Frankreich (1625), Caroline Mathilde von Hannover (1766) and Amélie von Leuchtenberg (1829).

Second World War

With the so-called steel helmet wedding , there was also the possibility of a long distance wedding in Germany during the Second World War , in which the personal presence of the soldier (groom) was not necessary, but a written declaration certified by his superior was sufficient.

Situation today

Today, according to most legal systems in the world, the engaged couple must appear in person for the wedding ; The so-called glove marriage is therefore not permitted within the scope of these legal systems. According to § 1311 sentence 1 BGB, this also applies in the area of ​​application of German law; after all, the historical legislature of the BGB had considered the approval of glove marriages at the end of the 19th century (Prot. IV 51 f.). The idea behind the ban on marriage in gloves is that marriage is a highly personal legal transaction . Some other legal systems, however, allow gloves to marry;

  1. According to the first group of cases mentioned below, marriage with gloves is permissible under the law of Italy , Colombia , North Macedonia , Mexico , the Netherlands in the case of ministerial approval, Poland , Portugal , Spain and various US states;
  2. According to the second group of cases mentioned below, gloved marriage is permissible under the law of some Islamic states.

In cases of cross-border marriages (i.e. at least one of the spouses belongs to a state or is resident in a state which is not the same as the state in which the place of the marriage is celebrated):

Which legal system is used when answering the question about the admissibility of gloved marriage is decided according to the so-called international private law of the state whose court is called upon to answer it. According to German private international law - Art. 11 Paragraph 3 of the Introductory Act to the Civil Code (EGBGB) - the legal system of the state in which the messenger or representative is located at the time of the marriage shall apply. In addition, the courts must always observe the so-called public policy of the state in which their seat is located (see below, second group of cases). Ordre public are the minimum legal requirements that every state places on the recognition of foreign legal acts; the requirements can vary depending on the basic values ​​of its legal system.

In glove marriage, two groups of cases can be distinguished:

  1. In the first case group, the messenger or the representative have no room for maneuver at all (representatives with a “fixed route”). You only deliver the declaration of the person entering into the marriage or represent the person entering into the marriage according to his instructions. In the event that such a marriage has come into effect in accordance with the legal system applicable in accordance with private international law (see above the states named under items 1 and 2), it is also to be regarded as effective before German courts.
  2. In the second group of cases, the representative is even given the opportunity to choose the spouse (“representation in the will”). If a representative actually makes use of such a legal option and if this marriage were to be effective under the legal system applicable in accordance with private international law (according to the states named under No. 2), it would nevertheless be regarded as ineffective in the German legal area because it would with the ordre public in Germany is not compatible ( Art. 6 EGBGB). The reason for the assumption of the public policy violation is seen in the fact that this type of glove marriage violates the prohibition of compulsory marriage resulting from Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law and Article 6, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law . It corresponds to this prohibition that marriage can only be concluded between partners who have chosen themselves on the basis of free decision and will. As a result, when it comes to the effectiveness of gloved marriages in such countries, it must always be checked whether the power of attorney to enter into marriage was so restricted and specified that there was no longer any representation in the will.

The legal assessment of a gloved marriage does not depend on whether or not it was concluded in a contracting state of the CIEC Convention of 10 September 1964 to facilitate marriage abroad ( Germany , Greece , the Netherlands , Spain and Turkey ). Because the CIEC Convention does not contain any regulation on gloves.

It is controversial to what extent the recognition of glove marriages validly closed abroad could be a loophole for forced marriages .

literature

  • Jörg von Uthmann: The diplomats. Affairs and state affairs from the pharaohs to the Eastern Treaties (= dtv 10926 dtv story ). Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-423-10926-2 , in particular p. 107.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Procuration . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 16, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1908, p.  377 .
  2. ↑ Marriage Law . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 5, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1906, pp.  405–407 . - "The old special right of people who come from a sovereign German family or who were still a sovereign German family after 1815 to enter into their marriages through a proxy (per procurationem) only applies if this is due to special regulations in their house constitution or their laws at New Year 1900 Country. "
  3. ↑ Pierer's Universal Lexicon of the Past and Present . 4th edition. Publishing house by HA Pierer , Altenburg 1865 ( zeno.org [accessed on May 18, 2020] encyclopedia entry “walking through the marriage bed”).
  4. ^ Jörg von Uthmann: The diplomats. 1988, p. 107.
  5. ↑ Franz Greeting: History of the Bergisches Land. Newly edited by Klaus Herdepe . Completely revised new edition. Bücken Sulzer, Overath a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-3-936405-06-4 , p. 247.
  6. ^ Marie Antoinette historicum.net
  7. ↑ Peter C. Hartmann (Ed.): French kings and emperors of the modern age. From Louis XII. until Napoleon III. 1498-1870 (= Beck series. Vol. 1724). 2nd Edition. Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54740-0 , p. 276 f.
  8. ↑ § 1311 BGB
  9. ↑ The marriage between Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini was concluded in 1950 as a glove marriage in Mexico, both of which were represented. (Statement from Isabella Rosselini in the documentary "Ingrid Bergman - in memory" about her mother Ingrid Bergman on the DVD Indiskret )
  10. ↑ OLG Zweibrücken , decision of December 8, 2010 - 3 W 175/10 ( Memento of the original of March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www3.mjv.rlp.de
  11. ↑ Wedding without a groom. In: Focus. April 6, 2012, accessed March 19, 2018 .