Family Law in Austria: Familienrecht Overview (Divorce, Child and Spousal Maintenance)

Austrian family law, Familienrecht, covers what happens between people who marry, separate, have children together or divorce. Most of it sits in two statutes: the Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (ABGB), Austria's general civil code, and the Ehegesetz (EheG), the dedicated marriage law that governs divorce and post-divorce maintenance. Neither statute is new, but both have been amended repeatedly, and a citation that was correct a decade ago can be wrong today.

This page orients a reader across the cluster rather than repeating what the individual pages already cover in depth. It explains where the ABGB and the EheG each apply, gives a plain-language summary of how child maintenance and spousal maintenance are calculated, and explains why Austrian divorce law still asks a question German law abandoned decades ago: whose fault was it. Each section links to the page that works through the full detail, tables and worked examples.

Information last verified on 22 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Austrian law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

The framework: ABGB and EheG, not one code

Austria does not have a single, dedicated family code the way some jurisdictions do. Family-law rules are split mainly between two statutes. The ABGB, Austria's general civil code dating to 1811 but amended continually since, contains the provisions on parentage, child maintenance and spousal maintenance during marriage. The EheG, the Ehegesetz, is a separate 1938 statute that has never been fully rebuilt around a single no-fault standard and still governs how a marriage ends and what happens to maintenance afterward.

This split matters practically. A question about maintenance while a couple is still married is an ABGB question. The same question after a divorce decree is entered is an EheG question, and the answer can change because the legal test changes, not just because the facts have changed. Readers researching "Ehegattenunterhalt" often do not realize they are asking two different legal questions depending on whether the marriage has actually ended.

Child maintenance at a glance: Kindesunterhalt under § 231 ABGB

When parents separate, the parent who does not have day-to-day care of the child owes cash maintenance, commonly called Alimente. The legal basis is § 231 ABGB, not § 140 ABGB. § 140 was renumbered in a 2013 reform and today covers parentage, a different subject entirely, so any source still citing it for a maintenance figure is out of date.

§ 231 ABGB itself sets only a general standard, a proportionate contribution to the child's needs given the parent's means. The actual arithmetic, a percentage of net monthly income scaled to the child's age, comes from decades of case law rather than from the statute's own text. That percentage is then reduced for other dependants and capped by an upper ceiling, the Luxusgrenze, once income is high enough that a straight percentage would exceed what a child of that age plausibly needs.

The full child maintenance page works through the age-banded percentage scale, the deduction points for additional children or a dependent spouse, the Luxusgrenze cap and its documented grey zone around ages 10 to 12, the annually updated Regelbedarfssätze reference figures, and a worked example applying all of it to a real income. It also covers two doctrines that can move the number further: the Anspannungsgrundsatz, which lets a court impute income a parent could reasonably earn but is not earning, and Sonderbedarf, a separate claim for extraordinary one-off costs such as orthodontic treatment.

Spousal maintenance at a glance: two claims, not one

Ehegattenunterhalt, maintenance between spouses, is where the ABGB and EheG split becomes most visible. While a marriage is intact, § 94 ABGB governs. It asks about each spouse's ability and the couple's shared standard of living, and it treats the spouse who runs the household as already contributing through that work. It sets no fixed percentage, though a practitioner convention of roughly a third of the earning spouse's net income circulates in practice as a reference point, not a statutory rate.

Once a divorce is granted, § 94 ABGB stops applying and a different, fault-driven regime under Sections 66 to 68 EheG takes over. A spouse found solely or mainly at fault for the marriage's breakdown generally owes the other spouse maintenance at the marital standard of living. A spouse who is not at fault, or only marginally at fault, can claim that maintenance. Where fault is shared roughly equally, the entitlement narrows to a discretionary, potentially time-limited contribution rather than full maintenance.

The full spousal maintenance page works through both claims in detail, including a worked comparison of the competing during-marriage percentage conventions, the equity cap that can reduce a post-divorce award, and how a spousal claim interacts with an existing child maintenance obligation on the same paying spouse's income.

Divorce at a glance: Austria retains fault, unlike Germany

Divorce runs through the EheG and offers three routes. An einvernehmliche Scheidung is the consensual route, available after at least six months of separation once both spouses agree the marriage has broken down and sign a written settlement. A Verschuldensscheidung is the fault-based route, available immediately but requiring proof that one spouse's serious marital misconduct culpably destroyed the marriage. A Scheidung wegen Zerrüttung is the breakdown route, available to either spouse after three years of separation, subject to a narrow hardship defence, and granted automatically with no defence available after six years.

The point that most distinguishes Austria from its northern neighbor sits underneath these three routes. Germany abolished fault as a basis for divorce and for post-divorce maintenance in 1977. Austria did not.

A couple can divorce without a court ever ruling on fault, on the consensual or breakdown routes, but fault can still be litigated separately because it is exactly what decides post-divorce maintenance under Sections 66 to 68 EheG. General advice written for a German reader searching "Scheidung" does not transfer to an Austrian one, and assuming otherwise can mean negotiating a settlement on the wrong premise.

A reform is under discussion. Austria's Justice Ministry told the Bundesrat in February 2026 that the current government programme includes reworking post-divorce maintenance independent of fault, and that a working group is studying comparative European models. As of that statement, no draft bill existed and no timeline had been set, so the fault-based rules remain the operative law and should not be treated as likely to change on a predictable schedule.

The full divorce page works through all three routes with their statutory requirements, the realistic timeline from separation to decree, and how a specific fault finding, or the lack of one, changes the maintenance outcome for the same underlying facts.

A calculator for the most common question

Because the child maintenance percentage scale is arithmetic rather than a judgment call, it is the one figure on this page that a calculator can approximate directly. The Alimente-Rechner applies the age-banded percentage, the deduction rules for other dependants and the Luxusgrenze cap described on the child maintenance page to a specific net income and child's age, and states plainly where it cannot substitute for legal advice, including the Anspannungsgrundsatz and Sonderbedarf doctrines that require an individual court determination.

No equivalent calculator exists for spousal maintenance or for the outcome of a divorce, because both depend on a fault finding, an equity assessment, or a settlement negotiation that cannot be reduced to a formula.

Where to start

A reader dealing with separation and children typically needs the child maintenance page first, since that figure usually has to be worked out regardless of how the couple's own relationship is formally ended. A reader who is themselves married and asking about their own support, rather than a child's, should go to the spousal maintenance page, noting that the answer differs sharply depending on whether the marriage is still intact. A reader planning the divorce itself, choosing a route or estimating a timeline, should start with the divorce page. For Austrian law generally, outside family law, the Austria overview page links to the other clusters in this build.