You must register your intended marriage in person at the registry office in whose jurisdiction you have your place of residence or habitual abode.

To speed up the procedure, you can send the registry office both your preferred date for the marriage and the data required to check your eligibility to marry by pre-registering.

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

A civil marriage and a church wedding are independent of each other.

No witnesses need to be present at the marriage ceremony. However, if you wish, you can appoint one or two people as witnesses.

You can decide at the wedding or at a later date whether you wish to have a joint or separate surname.

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

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

You can choose a joint surname.
Or you can keep your own surname.
You can also change your surname later.

You can have witnesses to your marriage.
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 you got divorced abroad?
Then the divorce must be recognized in Germany.
That means
The divorce must also be valid in Germany.

Did you get divorced in an EU country?
Then the divorce is automatically valid in Germany.