Okay, I've been trying to find this piece of information EVERYWHERE and I still can't find it!! What was the legal age of marriage in Nazi Germany, ie. without parents consent, c. 1934-1936? All I can find is that it was "young" but I cannot find a specific age. It's really important as the whole plot hinges on the date of marriage, and the couple getting married I want to be between the ages of 16-19, preferably more towards the 16 end of that. I also don't want the parents consent thing to cause a problem, as their parents disapprove of the marriage, so they need to be older than the age of consent. Thanks
All I could find was age of consent (though I did only look for like 5 minutes) which is 14. So, I wouldn't contest if I saw 16 in a novel without parental consent. Also, my great-grandparents lied about their age on their marriage certificate (they were 17 and said they were 18) and he fought in WWII, so lying might be a feasible option (since the state govt. didn't bother to check up on things).
I agree with blenderpie -- I don't know the age of consent and didn't attempt to look it up. BUT back then, it was much easier to lie about things like one's age. There were many men who lied about their age in order to fight in the war. And in the Third Reich, which placed a huge emphasis on having children for the Fuhrer, I would not expect that they were too stringent on issuing marriage licenses.
Wow. I am baffled as to what I said that has caused you to be so angry. If you have information that contradicts anything I said, please share it. I would appreciate any enlightenment you can share.
Just report the post and ignore, the mods will get it. Yeah I think 14 is the extreme bottom end. I wouldn't doubt 16 or 17 if I read it in a book.
Anyway, I've been looking but, yeah, no information easily at hand. Your best bet is to contact the history department at a University.
don't worry I belive you, only because the post was out of place and very abrupt. didn't seem like something one would post on purpose
From what I can find, Hitler wanted as many women to have as many children as she could, even to the point where he passed the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage in 1933. Any newlywed couple would get a government loan of about 8 months worth of wages. Depending on how many kids they had, they could have the debt erased. (25% for one kid, 50% for two, etc..) I think 15-18 is a good range for acceptable marriages.
FWIW, After seeing this thread I had a trawl through a few German genealogy pages. The typical age to be married in 1939-1945 seemed to be 19-24 years old, and the youngest I saw was 18. (Not an answer about the law, just a snapshot of what actually happened).
That's what I suspected - it's not wholly different from the situation in Britain at the time (and Britain is so much easier to research)! I mean the problem I'm coming across is the woman in this relationship (let's call her Zoe) is in love with a Jewish Guy (called Bob) but this other guy (let's call him Fred) is in love with Zoe. Fred blackmails Zoe into going out with him, and then marry him at this young age. She does it to protect Bob, but everyone (her whole family) don't know she loves Bob and assumes she loves Fred, but they are still a bit upset at her marrying that young. So I REALLY need to get the age of marriage right, as she would obviously say "we can't married we are under the age of marriage" to get out of it.
