Europaviertel and Gallus
Family law in the Europaviertel
This firm has three focal points, namely einvernehmliche Scheidung (uncontested divorce), international family law and divorce handled online. Our office is on Frankenallee, in Gallus, the same district as the Europaviertel.
On this page · 9 sections
Three addresses
Where you live, where the hearing is, where we sit
All three are in Frankfurt am Main, two of them in Gallus.
- You live in theEuropaviertelGallus districtbetween Güterplatz and Rebstock
- The hearing is at theAmtsgericht Frankfurt am MainGerichtsstraße 2, building B60313 Frankfurt am Main
- Our office is onFrankenallee 23060326 Frankfurt am MainGallus district
Frankenallee starts at Güterplatz, the south-eastern corner of the Europaviertel, and runs west through Gallus from there. If you would rather use the telephone or video than walk over, nothing about the case changes.
The quarter
A quarter where almost everything was bought new
The Europaviertel stands on the grounds of the former central freight yard, some 90 hectares between Güterplatz and Rebstock. Europa-Allee runs through it for 2.4 kilometers, the side streets carry the names of European capitals, and the plan allowed for up to 10,000 residents.
One thing follows from that for family law. Almost every apartment here is new, and whoever bought one bought it within the past few years. The loan is still running, repayment has barely started, and the couple’s assets consist largely of that single apartment.
So the question that arrives from this quarter in a first meeting is rarely about the divorce itself. People ask about the apartment, usually assuming that the court will divide it up along with everything else. It will do no such thing, and that distinction carries the next section.
The apartment
An owned apartment is three questions, not one
Who stays, what it is worth and who services the loan are answered by different rules at different points in time. One answer on its own gets you nowhere.
Who stays in the apartment
While you are living apart, use of the home follows § 1361b BGB. The land register has no answer to that question yet. One spouse may ask to have the home to themselves where that is needed to avoid undue hardship, and children in the household weigh heavily. Whoever moves out may claim compensation for use where that is equitable.
Marital home, property and household goodsWhat it is worth
The Zugewinnausgleich (equalization of accrued gains) is a money claim, § 1378 BGB. The value of the apartment enters the calculation while the apartment itself stays untouched. Final assets are measured on the day the Scheidungsantrag (divorce petition) is served, § 1384 BGB. In a quarter where prices have moved since purchase, that cut-off date decides a substantial part of the sum.
Assets and accrued gainsWho services the loan
Your bank is not a party to your divorce. If you both signed the loan agreement, you both remain liable to the bank, no matter who stays in the apartment and no matter what the two of you agree. Only the bank can release someone from the contract, and it does so once the remaining borrower can carry the payment alone.
When the apartment is almost everything
A spouse may only undertake to dispose of their assets as a whole with the other spouse’s consent, § 1365 BGB. So a sole owner wanting to sell needs that consent even where the other spouse was never on the land register. Whether the provision applies depends on what share of total assets the apartment represents, and in a newly built quarter that share is often high.
Whoever wants to keep the apartment has to convince the bank in the end. We work out beforehand whether that holds, even where the answer comes out against keeping it.
The court
Which court hears the case
For family matters from the Europaviertel, the Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main (local court) sits as the Familiengericht (family court). Its address is Gerichtsstraße 2, and family matters are heard in the B building. An appeal against its decision goes to the Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main (higher regional court).
Which Familiengericht (family court) has local jurisdiction is set out in § 122 FamFG. Where both spouses remain in Frankfurt, the question is answered quickly. It only becomes interesting once one side leaves the city, and we settle it before the petition goes out.
How long things take afterwards depends less on the court than on the pension statement needed for the Versorgungsausgleich (pension rights adjustment). The Amtsgericht Frankfurt is, however, itself reporting longer running times in family matters.
The way from here
What there is to do from the Europaviertel
Three things are yours to handle, and the first one takes longest.
Order the marriage certificate
If you married in Frankfurt, your marriage record is held by the Standesamt Frankfurt am Main (register office). You can order online through the city’s own service, in writing with a copy of your ID, or in person on Tuesday and Thursday mornings without an appointment. If the marriage took place elsewhere, only the register office of that place can issue the certificate.
- What you do
- Order early, and order through the city. The register office itself warns against commercial intermediary sites.
- How long
- Four to six weeks at present, because the office is short-staffed.
Have the first meeting
60 minutes on Frankenallee, by telephone or by video, in German, English or Spanish. You set out your situation and learn which deadlines are running and what has to be settled first. You are under no obligation to hire us afterwards.
- What you do
- Request an appointment and bring whatever documents you have.
- How long
- 60 minutes.
One trip to Gerichtsstraße
Both spouses have to attend the divorce hearing in person, § 128 (1) FamFG. No power of attorney takes that off your hands. From the Europaviertel it is a few stops on the S-Bahn, and we sit beside you on the day.
- What you do
- Turn up. We prepare you for it.
- How long
- A short hearing where you agree.
Intake form
Gather the details for the petition from home
No travel needed: collect online what the court requires.
- About an hour, pause at any time
- Stays on this device until you send it
- We clarify gaps at the appointment
The register office
Where to get the marriage certificate
- Address
- Standesamt Frankfurt am Main, Mitte district
Berliner Straße 33 to 35
60311 Frankfurt am Main - Telephone
- +49 69 21273502
marriage and civil partnership records
8 am to 12 noon - Fee
- €12.00 per certificate
€6.00 for each further copy - Walk-in hours
- Rooms B 233 to B 234
Tue and Thu, 7.30 am to 12 noon - Processing
- four to six weeks
as of September 2026
Figures published by the City of Frankfurt am Main, checked on September 7 2026, without warranty. What the register office tells you is what counts.
Two states
When two passports are involved
A marriage with a foreign element splits into two questions that otherwise sit together. Which court may grant the divorce, and under which law it does so. The Amtsgericht Frankfurt can divorce your marriage under Spanish or Turkish law, and there is nothing unusual about that.
Two things change in practice. Instead of a Frankfurt marriage certificate we need the foreign one, often with an apostille and a certified translation. And if you signed a marital agreement, it may contain a choice of law, which has to be examined before anything else.
We advise in German, English and Spanish. Which court has jurisdiction and which law applies gets settled before the petition, not afterwards.
Common questions
What the quarter asks us
Do we have to sell the apartment in order to divorce?
No. Divorce proceedings do not touch ownership. The equalization of accrued gains works with the value of the apartment, what changes hands is money, and whoever takes the apartment over compensates the other.
You sell when neither of you can carry the payment alone or when you cannot agree on the value. That is an economic decision and no legal obligation.
We both signed. Can one of us get out of the loan?
Only if the bank releases them. An arrangement between spouses does not bind the bank; it holds to the contract it has.
So ask your bank early what a takeover by one side would look like. In practice that answer decides the outcome more often than any provision does.
Which court has jurisdiction for a divorce in the Europaviertel?
The Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main sitting as the family court, at Gerichtsstraße 2. Local jurisdiction follows § 122 FamFG, and where you both stay in Frankfurt that settles the answer.
Can this be done without coming to the office?
Yes. Everything up to the court hearing can be handled by telephone, email and video. Because we sit in the same district, the walk over is short anyway if you would rather talk across a table.
We agree on everything. Do we need two lawyers?
An uncontested divorce needs one lawyer. The other spouse consents to the petition and needs no representation of their own for that. It does require the year of separation, § 1566 (1) BGB.
That changes as soon as you argue about maintenance, the home or assets, and costs rise with every ancillary matter. Where agreement is still within reach, we try for it first.
What does it cost?
Fees follow the value of the proceedings, which the court sets from your incomes and your assets. There is no hourly rate. An owned apartment in the accrued gains raises that value and with it the bill.
The first step
A few streets away
A short question is answered in two minutes on the telephone, on +49 69 97391424, Monday to Friday, 10 am to 1 pm and 3 pm to 6 pm. An assessment of your case belongs in a meeting, since we need your documents for it.
Under § 34 RVG (German Lawyers’ Fees Act), the first consultation costs at most €226.10 including VAT. If we take on your case, this fee does not apply. How the fees are calculated