Open AccessIntricacies of German martial law on marriage
Author(s) -
Barbara Bernfeld,
Jacek Mazurkiewicz
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
studia nad autorytaryzmem i totalitaryzmem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2300-7249
DOI - 10.19195/2300-7249.42.3.9
Subject(s) - legislator , german , law , prima facie , spouse , normative , political science , misconduct , military service , relation (database) , sociology , history , legislation , archaeology , database , computer science
In the majority, young men participated in World War II, so German authorities were compelled to change some provisions of marriage law. First, some formal requirements for getting married were limited. Then the possibility of entering into a proxy marriage was introduced, when the groom was a soldier. Marriages with dead soldiers were also allowed. Divorces issued after the death of a spouse were allowed, not only in relation to marriages with soldiers. In the Federal Republic of Germany legal effects of announcing the conclusion of a post mortem marriage were regulated, giving a woman and a child born after concluding such a marriage certain rights.These legal transformations show that “in service” of demographic, social, ideological, polit-ical and moral reasons, the legislator is able to make surprising and abrupt normative changes, which sometimes, prima facie, seem to be risky, but not always deserving of condemnation.