Baden-Württemberg records 358 child marriages since 2012, only eight annulled

Hundreds of marriages involving minors

Baden-Württemberg, the state in southwest Germany, has documented 358 marriages involving minors since 2012, according to figures its government released in answer to a parliamentary inquiry from Alternative for Germany (AfD) members. Of those, eight ended in a final annulment. The Interior Ministry said the records concern marriages concluded abroad that later came to the attention of German authorities. Among the documented cases is an 11-year-old Iraqi girl married to a 17-year-old Iraqi boy, an annulment recorded in 2020. In 2018, a 14-year-old Afghan girl was married to a 30-year-old Afghan man, a marriage that was also annulled. Most of the minors involved are girls, and the people concerned come from countries including Syria, Iraq and Pakistan.

Eight annulments and 350 closed files

Only eight of the 358 cases ended in final annulment rulings, handed down between 2018 and 2024. The other 350 cases, recorded from 2015 to 2026, fall under the category 'other means of resolution'. The government said such files can close for several reasons, including the death of one spouse, the minor reaching adulthood, a decision not to seek annulment, or a new marriage concluded abroad. In none of these 350 cases was there a final court annulment. The Interior Ministry also said no annulment proceedings concerning child marriages were pending before the courts at the time of its reply.

What the federal figures show

The federal government says it has no nationwide statistics on child marriages and cannot say how many were registered per year between 2016 and 2024. The Central Foreigners Register, which holds data on foreign nationals living in Germany, offers only a partial view. As of 31 December 2024 it listed 279 foreign nationals aged 16 and 17 as married: 124 Ukrainians, 67 Syrians and 20 Afghans, with the remaining 68 spread across other nationalities. The register data was requested by the AfD parliamentary group. Federal family courts annulled three marriages in 2024 in which at least one partner was a minor at the time of the wedding.

Political reaction

AfD politicians spread the figures on social media. Nikolaos Boutakoglou wrote on X that nearly 40% of early marriages were contracted between Syrian citizens, and that marriages between two German citizens amounted to 0.3%. Emely Knoll wrote on Facebook that early marriages are incompatible with the party's values, and called for effective protection, timely intervention and firm action against forced marriages. The government of Baden-Württemberg said that no legal proceedings to annul the marriages in question are currently under way.

Wider context

The United Nations says nearly one in five women worldwide married before the age of 18, a share that reaches 32% in West and Central Africa. About one in 25 women married before 15, according to the UN. UNICEF describes early marriage as a fundamental violation of human rights. Germany adopted a law against child marriage in 2017 and added rules in 2024 aimed at children forced into marriages concluded abroad.