Uncontested
divorce

Uncontested divorce:the same route, only calmer

Mieke Karcher, attorney at law · as of July 2026

People who come to a first consultation often expect a fight. The question that actually arises is usually a different one: how much of this can be settled without a court having to decide it?

German law knows no separate type of proceedings called “uncontested divorce”. The route is the same as in any other divorce: the Trennungsjahr (year of separation), a petition filed by a represented side, the pension rights adjustment, the hearing, legal force. Uncontested means that both support the divorce and want to settle its consequences with each other rather than fight them out against each other. That removes the dispute, not the proceedings; as a rule they take four to six months from the petition instead of the one to three years a contested case can demand. Uncontested does not mean nothing hurts. It only means the decisions stay with you.

The
requirements

When a divorce is uncontested

Three things come together; the first two are laid down by law and the third merely makes the route easier. The year of separation must have run: one year living apart from table and bed (§§ 1566 (1), 1567 BGB). Two addresses are not needed for that: separation also begins within the shared home as soon as there is no joint household, the finances are separate and there is no longer a community of support. Only where waiting would be unreasonable is a divorce possible before then (§ 1565 (2) BGB); that is a narrow exception, to be examined case by case.

Both must want the divorce. The petitioning side files, the other consents; nothing more is required. And you should agree on the consequences, or want to get there: maintenance, assets and the home can be settled in a divorce settlement agreement, but they do not have to be. The pension rights adjustment runs automatically in any event. Without consent the divorce still comes, only later and with more examination: the presumption of breakdown after one year of separation does not then apply, and the petitioning side must set out that the marriage has broken down (§ 1565 (1) BGB); after three years of separation the law presumes it even without any consent (§ 1566 (2) BGB). A divorce cannot, therefore, be prevented for good. Often an initial refusal turns into uncontested proceedings anyway, once the consequences lie fairly settled on the table.

Only one side
needs representation

Why one attorney is often enough

Before the family court, representation is mandatory: only someone represented by an attorney can file the divorce petition (§ 114 FamFG). A divorce in Germany is therefore not possible entirely without an attorney: what you save is the second attorney, not the first. Only the petitioning side has to be represented; the other spouse merely consents to the petition and needs no representation of their own for that.

One limit is often overlooked: an attorney only ever represents one side; both at once would be a conflict of interest. Anyone who wants to file motions of their own or would like an independent assessment can be represented at any time. With larger assets in particular that is often sensible, and a single hour of advice frequently suffices.

Costs
and duration

What it costs and how long it takes

Court and attorney fees follow the Verfahrenswert (value of the proceedings), which arises above all from both spouses' income and assets. How fiercely the case is fought is not decisive. The more uncontested the proceedings, the fewer matters in dispute are added, and the lower the value on which all fees hang. That the petitioning side is worse off is a widespread misunderstanding: they advance the court fee, but at the end the court regularly sets the costs in matrimonial matters off against each other, so that each side bears half the court costs and their own attorney (§ 150 FamFG).

Three levers then act on the duration. Agreement speeds things up; a dispute over maintenance, assets or children draws it out; and the court's workload sets the rest. In our experience the pension rights adjustment slows things most, because the court has to obtain information from every pension provider for it.

Estimate the costs in advance

The ancillary
matters

What should be settled, and in which form

Uncontested sounds as if agreement fell from the sky; in practice it is work. Its core lies not in the divorce petition but in the ancillary matters: maintenance, assets, the home, children. Of those the court settles only the pension rights adjustment of its own motion; everything else stays open as long as nobody raises it. Anyone who believes that legal force settles everything automatically is confusing open with done: the claims continue to exist, along with their potential for conflict. And postponing is the most expensive variant, because after legal force the strongest argument, consent to the divorce, has already been spent: memories fade, records disappear, claims become time-barred.

Agreement does not mean giving up your own claims, rather the opposite: whoever settles by agreement knows their claims and orders them, and a settlement that only comes about because one side did not know their rights rarely holds. That gives the year of separation a task as well: twelve months are enough to obtain disclosures, draft the agreement and have it recorded, so that at the end of the year the dispute does not begin but the petition is ready.

Agreement only becomes robust in the right form, though: a privately signed agreement on the equalization of accrued gains is worthless before the divorce without a notary.

Ancillary matters, the statutory default and the form an agreement needs
Ancillary matter	Without an arrangement	Form of an agreement
Pension rights adjustment	runs automatically; for marriages up to three years only on application	exclusion or change: notarized or recorded at the hearing (§ 7 VersAusglG)
Post-marital maintenance	a claim only in the statutory exceptions; self-reliance is the rule	before legal force: notarized or recorded by the court (§ 1585c BGB)
Separation & child maintenance	statutory claims; no waiver possible for the future (§ 1614 BGB)	no form required; enforceable only as a title (youth welfare office, notary, court)
Accrued gains & assets	statutory property regime: a claim to equalization on divorce	before legal force: notarial recording (§ 1378 (3) BGB)
Matrimonial home & household goods	allocation by the court only on application	no form required
Custody & contact	joint custody remains; the court decides only on application	no form required; the child's welfare remains the yardstick

Bundled and in the right form, all of that is held by the divorce settlement agreement.

Does the
route hold?

Does the uncontested route hold in your case?

Agreement needs no harmony, but a minimum of equal footing.

The route holds as a rule

where both want the divorce and not only one accepts it; where a conversation remains possible, through the attorneys if need be; where income and assets lie open on both sides; and where both want an arrangement rather than a judgment.

Advice of your own is advisable

where only one side knows the figures, that is, accounts, shareholdings and pension provision; where noticeable pressure is in play, in the form of “just sign this quickly”; where there is a marked imbalance in income or bargaining power; and in every case where fear or violence plays a part: protection then comes before proceedings.

Taking advice of your own does not mean opening the dispute; the consenting side too may have an independent assessment at any time.

If the agreement tips over on the way, the divorce continues; only the contested question becomes a separate part of the proceedings and can be heard together with the divorce (§ 137 FamFG). Anyone filing motions of their own then needs their own attorney; that applies to the side that had merely consented as well. The best protection against this is to have things recorded before the break: what stands in the divorce settlement agreement does not have to be renegotiated. And if it does turn hard, the route leads through the contested divorce.

How we
support you

First check whether the foundation holds

The professional focus of this firm lies on the uncontested divorce, and that is a decision, not an accident: what two people negotiate themselves holds longer, in our experience, than an order does, especially where there are shared children, because both parents helped write the arrangement. That has a clear limit: if the other side blocks, or if a settlement would evidently be at one side's expense, we represent you firmly in court.

Mieke Karcher, attorney at law

Conducts the proceedings. Admitted since 2010, member of the Rechtsanwaltskammer Frankfurt am Main. She describes her role less as that of a fighter than as that of an architect: first check whether the foundation holds, then build what the two of you agreed.

Dietrich Karcher, attorney at law

Takes on the side where property or business assets are involved: over 30 years of civil law, plus years in real estate, among other things as head of the property department at a state bank.

Why that counts here

A package does not hold merely because both agreed to it, but only once both can afford it in the arithmetic.

Request an initial assessment

In concrete
terms

What we take on for you

In the first conversation we clarify whether the uncontested route holds for you and when the right moment for the petition is. We draft the petition, file it with the family court and take on all correspondence. We draft and review your agreement on maintenance, assets and the home, and accompany you to the notary where needed.

For the pension rights adjustment we fill in the questionnaires with you and recalculate the adjustment; if income is not sufficient, we apply for legal aid. We prepare you for the hearing and are at your side there until the order becomes final. Meetings take place at Frankenallee in Frankfurt-Gallus or by video, in German, English or Spanish as you prefer; on request the entire case runs digitally and anywhere in Germany.

How the proceedings
run

From the year of separation to legal force

At the start stands the year of separation: twelve months apart from table and bed, not necessarily at two addresses. Once its end is in sight, the represented side files the petition and the other consents. You need little for that: the marriage certificate, birth certificates of shared minor children, details of income and both pension insurance numbers are enough to start; we gather everything else.

There is no official form to fill in yourself: the petition is a pleading drafted by an attorney whose content § 133 FamFG prescribes; what many call a “divorce form” is our intake form.

Over the following three to six months the court obtains the pension information for the pension rights adjustment, while your agreement takes shape in parallel. Then comes the hearing: short, both present in person, often a quarter of an hour where there is agreement. After that the one-month appeal period runs, § 63 FamFG. The divorce becomes final at once only if both sides waive their right of appeal at the hearing, and that waiver requires each of them to be legally represented (§ 114 (1) FamFG). If you want to save the month, have the consenting side represented for that one hearing; otherwise the period runs its course.

Guide figures as of 2026; an individual case may differ.

To the intake form

Frequent
questions

What we are asked most often about this

Do we both have to appear at the hearing?

As a rule yes: the court hears both spouses in person (§ 128 FamFG). Not even complete agreement takes that off your hands. The hearing itself is then short and ends with the divorce order.

What happens to shared children?

Joint parental custody is unaffected by the divorce. The petition must state whether and how you have settled custody, contact and child maintenance (§ 133 FamFG); the court has to decide on them only if a parent applies for it. Child maintenance cannot be waived for the future (§ 1614 BGB).

Can we change our arrangements later?

Jointly at any time, in the same form in which the arrangement was made. Unilaterally only where the law provides for a variation, for instance with maintenance after a material change in circumstances.

What comes
next

Read on where your question currently stands

Start

Sources

The provisions mentioned in the text in their official wording at “Gesetze im Internet”, the portal of the German Federal Ministry of Justice.

Contact

You do not have to take the first step alone

Tell us about your situation. We reply personally, usually within one working day.

Call us+49 69 97391424Mon–Fri · 10–13 & 15–18 Write an emailinfo@karcher-rechtsanwaelte.deReply usually within one working day Arrange an appointmentAt the office or via ZoomFrankenallee 230, Frankfurt-Gallus