You must personally register your intended marriage with the civil registry office that has jurisdiction over your place of residence or habitual residence.

To expedite the process, you can submit a preliminary registration to the civil registry office, providing both your preferred wedding date and the information required to verify your eligibility to marry.

The location where you register your marriage does not have to be the same as the location where the marriage will take place. In principle, you can get married at any civil registry office in Germany.

A civil marriage and a religious wedding are independent of one another.

Witnesses do not have to be present at the wedding. However, if you wish, you may designate one or two people as witnesses.

You can decide whether you want to take a joint or separate last name when you get married or at a later date.

Do you want to get married in Germany?
Then you must register in advance:
at the civil registry office.
You can do this at any civil registry office in Germany.

You must be at least 18 years old.
You cannot be related.
And you must not already be married.

You can choose a shared last name.
Or you can keep your own last name.
You can also change your last name later.

You can have witnesses at the wedding.
Witnesses are people.
The witnesses are present at the wedding.
But you don’t have to have witnesses.

Have you been married before?
And did you get divorced abroad?
Then the divorce must be recognized in Germany.
This means:
The divorce must also be valid in Germany.

Did you get divorced in an EU country?
In that case, the divorce is automatically valid in Germany as well.