Separation &
maintenance
Separation & maintenance:which claim applies when
Mieke Karcher, attorney at law · as of July 2026
With the separation, what people live on changes overnight: one household becomes two, on the same income. The question of who owes what to whom therefore usually arises at once, and often before anything else has been settled.
Maintenance law has three different answers to it. Separation maintenance applies from the separation until the divorce becomes final (§ 1361 BGB), post-marital maintenance only afterwards and only with a statutory ground (§§ 1569 ff. BGB), and child maintenance is owed to the children throughout (§ 1612a BGB). The three do not flow into one another automatically; each follows its own rules and is asserted in its own right.
Settle
first
What to settle right after the separation
First comes the date of separation. It determines not only the year of separation but also supplies the reference dates for the equalization of accrued gains and the pension rights adjustment. An unclear date has effects in several places at once later on. Record it as precisely as possible, therefore, and get an overview of accounts, powers of attorney and your tax class in the same step.
Retrospectively, maintenance is owed only from the moment you demanded it or called on the other side to disclose (§ 1613 BGB). For the time before that there is as a rule no claim, even if the need already existed. The request for disclosure is therefore one of the first steps we take with you. It preserves the date before it is even settled how high the claim will turn out to be.
The three
claims
Separation, post-marital and child maintenance
Trennungsunterhalt (separation maintenance)
From the start of the separation until the divorce becomes final, the economically weaker spouse can demand separation maintenance (§ 1361 BGB). The requirements are need on one side and ability to pay on the other; a minimum amount for the payer's own living is always preserved.
Why the marriage broke down is in principle irrelevant to this claim. Only gross misconduct can forfeit it by way of exception.
Nachehelicher Unterhalt (post-marital maintenance)
Once the divorce becomes final, the principle of self-reliance applies: everyone provides for themselves first (§ 1569 BGB). Maintenance is then owed only where a statutory ground carries it: caring for shared children (§ 1570 BGB), age (§ 1571 BGB), illness (§ 1572 BGB), no work or work that does not cover one's needs (§ 1573 BGB) or a gap caused by education (§ 1575 BGB). Without such a ground, payment ends with the divorce.
And even where a claim exists, the court can limit it in time or reduce its amount (§ 1578b BGB). What counts above all is whether real career disadvantages have remained from the marriage, for instance because one of you held back for the children or for a move.
Kindesunterhalt (child maintenance)
Both parents owe their children maintenance, only in different forms. In the usual residence model the caring parent fulfils their share through daily care, the other pays maintenance in money. Its amount follows the Düsseldorfer Tabelle, graded by the payer's adjusted net income and the child's age; the statutory minimum maintenance forms the floor (§ 1612a BGB).
If income is not enough for everyone entitled, there is a clear order of priority: minor children come before all other maintenance creditors (§ 1609 BGB).
The
calculation
How the amount is calculated
The basis of every calculation is the adjusted net income on both sides, and each can demand disclosure from the other (§ 1605 BGB). Spousal maintenance is formed from the difference as a share, with an earner's bonus deducted beforehand. In every case a protected minimum remains with the payer.
The exact rates, table amounts as well as protected minimums, change every year. A calculation that was right a year ago can be out of date today.
Estimate
it yourself
Estimating maintenance yourself
How much child maintenance is owed? Our calculator reads the requirement from the Düsseldorfer Tabelle, credits the child benefit and shows the likely amount payable; in extended mode with several children, income adjustment, cases of shortfall and optional spousal maintenance. For maintenance between spouses there is a calculator of its own.
Adjusted means monthly net income less work-related expenses, debts that can be taken into account and additional pension provision. The extended mode works those deductions out for you.
Adjust the income (optional)
Please enter a net income.
Please enter a net income.
Non-binding estimate based on the Düsseldorfer Tabelle and the maintenance guidelines of the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court (as at 1. Januar 2026), child benefit 259 €, without warranty. The advanced mode calculates in simplified form: spousal maintenance by the deduction method with an employment bonus of 1/10, the retained minimum (Selbstbehalt) and shortfall cases as flat values, the shift between brackets as a guide value. Not reflected are, among other things, the benefit of rent-free housing and investment income, special needs, maintenance for health and pension provision, and the subordinate liability towards adult children. The calculation does not replace legal advice: have your case worked out precisely.
The calculation runs only in your browser: nothing is transmitted.
After tax, social contributions and deductible items.
Account for child maintenance (prior deduction)
Please enter the income of both spouses.
Non-binding estimate under the equal-sharing principle with an employment bonus of 1/10 (OLG Frankfurt maintenance guidelines). Separation maintenance (§ 1361 BGB) runs until the divorce is final; post-marital maintenance requires a statutory ground (§§ 1569 ff. BGB) and can be limited in time or reduced (§ 1578b BGB). Not reflected are, among others, housing advantage and capital income, health and pension-provision maintenance, and the specific assessment of need at high incomes. The calculation does not replace legal advice: have it calculated precisely.
Both are free, run entirely in your browser and give a first orientation, not a calculation for your individual case.
How we
support you
The moment counts more than the formula
With maintenance, what decides is less the formula than the moment and the figures the calculation rests on: whoever demands too late loses the period before it; whoever calculates on unchecked figures calculates past the point.
In concrete
terms
First secure the date, then calculate
We first order the starting position: date of separation, reference dates, tax class. Then we request disclosure and assert the claim in time, before the amount is argued over. We carry out the calculation on the current basis: adjusted net income, share, protected minimum. For child maintenance we clarify the table amount, the minimum maintenance and questions of priority. For post-marital maintenance we examine the ground, any time limit and disadvantages caused by the marriage.
The focus lies deliberately on solutions by agreement, because a negotiated maintenance arrangement holds longer where there are shared children than an order does. If the other side blocks, or if a settlement would evidently be at one side's expense, we represent you in court. That applies in both directions: we enforce your claim, and we fend off excessive demands.
The first conversation takes place at Frankenallee in Frankfurt-Gallus or by video, in German, English or Spanish as you prefer. We reply to written enquiries usually within one working day.
How the process
runs
From the date of separation to an enforceable title
At the start stands recording the date of separation, because the other reference dates hang on it. Then comes taking stock: accounts, powers of attorney, tax class. In parallel runs the request for disclosure, which secures the date for the retrospective claim (§§ 1605, 1613 BGB).
Only once the figures are in is the calculation made. At the end stands either an out-of-court settlement or an enforceable title before the court.
That is the usual course; an individual case may differ (as of 2026).
Frequent
questions
What we are asked most often about this
Do I have to go back to full-time work straight after the separation?
During the year of separation no abrupt return to work is required. The duty to provide for yourself grows only over time and depends, among other things, on how long the marriage lasted and whether there are children to care for. Once the divorce becomes final the yardstick turns around: then self-reliance applies, and maintenance needs a statutory ground (§ 1569 BGB).
Is child benefit credited against maintenance?
Yes. The child benefit is deducted from the amount in the Düsseldorfer Tabelle: by half for minor children, in full for adult children. What remains after that is the amount payable.
What applies with shared care?
Where both parents care for the child in roughly equal shares, the basis shifts: maintenance in money can then no longer simply be assigned to one parent alone. How that affects the calculation and what the model requires we cover in detail in the article on shared care.
What comes
next
Read up on every claim in detail
Separation maintenance: who gets how much, and from when?
The amount and timing of the claim up to legal force.
ReadChild maintenanceChild maintenance: reading the Düsseldorfer Tabelle correctly
From the table amount to the amount payable.
ReadPost-maritalPost-marital maintenance: when it ends
Grounds for the claim and time limits under § 1578b BGB.
ReadImmediatelySeparation before the divorce: what applies at once
What else applies once you live apart, from the home to tax.
ReadPropertyThe property on separation: use, housing benefit in kind and ownership
If you still live together, the maintenance calculation hangs on that too.
ReadCareShared care: how it changes child maintenance
If you want to share the care in equal halves.
ReadSources
The provisions mentioned in the text in their official wording at “Gesetze im Internet”, the portal of the German Federal Ministry of Justice; the Düsseldorfer Tabelle at the Düsseldorf Court of Appeal.
Contact
You do not have to take the first step alone
Tell us about your situation. We reply personally, usually within one working day.