Child marriage in southern Germany: Over 350 cases recorded, some brides as young as 11
A written question by two AfD members of the Baden-Württemberg state parliament revealed 358 marriages involving minors, but only eight have so far been annulled with final legal effect.
In the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, a total of 358 so-called child marriages have been officially recorded since 2012. Only eight of these forced marriages have so far been legally annulled. According to authorities, the other 350 cases were brought to an end in other ways.
This alarming finding comes from a response by the Baden-Württemberg state government to a minor inquiry submitted by AfD state parliament members Nikolaos Boutakoglou and Emely Knorr.
The Tübingen regional authority is responsible for recording the data, the answer came from the Ministry of the Interior.
11-year-old Iraqi girl married off
The eight final annulments took place between 2018 and 2024. Among the documented cases was the marriage of an 11-year-old girl from Iraq to a 17-year-old Iraqi, which was annulled in 2020.
As early as 2018, the marriage of a 14-year-old Afghan girl to a 30-year-old man had been ended. In 2024 two further annulments were added: they concerned a 16-year-old German girl and a 25-year-old Pakistani man and a 16-year-old Syrian girl and a 27-year-old man from the same country.
State parliament member Nikolaos Boutakoglou wrote on Facebook that the issue was "really awful" but was being treated as a taboo.
According to its own account, the ministry deals exclusively with such marriages entered into abroad.
Since summer 2017, the Act to Combat Child Marriages has been in force in Germany. In 2024, the Bundestag adopted new rules to protect minors in marriages concluded abroad.
Hundreds of cases without state intervention
The significantly higher number of cases concluded in other ways raises questions about how these marriages continued. For the period from 2015 to 2026, the regional authority lists a total of 350 proceedings under the heading "other disposals."
But what became of the other child marriages? The state government cites, among other things, the death of a spouse, reaching adulthood, a decision not to seek annulment or a new marriage concluded abroad. In these cases, there was therefore no legally binding annulment.
For 2023, the records include the case of a 12-year-old Afghan girl who was married to a 21-year-old Afghan man. Girls aged 13 and 14 also appear several times in the statistics.
The most recent entries in the overview relate to 2026. They include, among other things, marriages of 16- and 17-year-old girls to adult men. The statistics record the age of the spouses at the time of marriage and their respective nationalities.
According to the Interior Ministry, at the time the inquiry was answered there were no court proceedings pending to annul child marriages.
State parliament member Emely Knorr, who co-initiated the inquiry, demanded on the social media platform Instagram: "Child marriages are incompatible with our values. Children have a right to safety, education and a self-determined future. That is why we need effective protection, early intervention and resolute action against forced marriages."
How many pupils are affected?
The two MPs wanted to know what impact forced marriages have on their schooling.
The Ministry of Education explained that no such data are collected. According to the state government, it also has no information on the countries in which the recorded marriages were contracted.
The age and nationality at the time of marriage are recorded, as these are relevant for possible annulment proceedings.
Another question from the MPs concerned how often the YASEMIN counselling centre, which is funded by the state, had been called in for cases of forced marriage involving pupils at schools in Baden-Württemberg.
In its reply of 9 September 2026, the Interior Ministry wrote that the counselling centre does not break down its cases by the school status of the people it advises or by school year.
Instead, cases are recorded by the age of those affected and by calendar year. The precise number of counselling sessions remains unclear.
Threat of forced marriage: 80 cases recorded
In the 2025 calendar year, YASEMIN recorded a total of 271 counselling cases. In 80 cases, the people concerned were at risk of being forced into marriage. Of these 80 people, 33 were minors.
Four of the minors were under 12 years old, five were 12 and another two were 13. The counselling centre distinguishes between people at risk of forced marriage and other counselling issues; it does not carry out any school-related analysis.
According to the MPs, the trigger for the parliamentary inquiry was an emergency checklist by the women's rights organisation Terre des Femmes, published at the end of July 2026 and aimed primarily at teaching staff.
In legal terms, people up to the age of 14 are considered children in Germany; from then until the age of 18 they are deemed adolescents.
Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, everyone up to the age of 18 is regarded as a child. Only once they reach adulthood are people allowed to marry in Germany. Forced marriage is defined as a separate criminal offence in the Penal Code.
With a population of around 11.24 million people, Baden-Württemberg accounts for just under 13.5% of the total German population of about 83.5 million inhabitants.
