Writing a Will in Austria: Testament Rules Under the ABGB

Writing a valid will in Austria means following one of a small number of fixed forms set out in the Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (ABGB), the Austrian civil code. Get the form wrong and the document can fail entirely, leaving the estate to pass under the statutory rules of intestate succession instead of the testator's wishes.

This page covers the two private will forms most people use, the eigenhändiges Testament and the fremdhändiges Testament, plus the notarial route, and explains the stricter rules that have applied to typed wills since the 2017 reform.

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 three forms of a valid will in Austria

Austrian law gives a testator three routes to a valid will, and each one trades off convenience against formality. Choosing the wrong form, or getting the formalities of the right form wrong, is one of the most common ways a will is later challenged or found invalid.

The first two are private wills that a testator can make without professional help, provided the formalities are followed exactly. The third shifts much of the formal burden onto the notary or judge who records the will, which can add certainty in more complex family situations, though it is used less often for straightforward estates.

Eigenhändiges Testament: the fully handwritten will

The simplest and most common form is the eigenhändiges Testament, a will written entirely in the testator's own hand. § 578 ABGB states that anyone who wants to make a written will without witnesses must write the document by hand and sign it by hand with their own name.

There are two requirements here, and both matter. The entire text must be handwritten, not just the signature, and the signature must be the testator's own handwritten name. A will that is partly typed and partly handwritten does not qualify as an eigenhändiges Testament, even if the testator signs it.

No witnesses are required for this form. That is its main appeal: a testator can write a valid will alone, without arranging for anyone else to be present.

Austrian law recommends, but does not require, adding the place and date of writing. Doing so is still good practice, since it can help establish which of several wills is the most recent one if a testator has written more than one over the years.

Fremdhändiges Testament: the typed or witnessed will

A fremdhändiges Testament is any will the testator did not write entirely by hand, most commonly a typed document, but the term also covers a will physically written out by someone other than the testator. This form is far more demanding, and the requirements were tightened significantly by a 2015 reform that took effect on 1 January 2017.

Under § 579 ABGB, a testator making a fremdhändiges Testament must sign the document by hand in the presence of three witnesses who are all present at the same time. It is not enough to have three witnesses sign separately, or to have one witness present at signing and two more sign later; all three must be there together when the testator signs.

Alongside the signature, the testator must add a handwritten note, referred to as the Nuncupatio, confirming that the document contains their last will. This confirmation must be in the testator's own hand, even though the rest of the document can be typed. A typed statement to the same effect does not satisfy this requirement.

The witnesses have their own formal role. Their identity must be recoverable from the document itself, and each witness signs with a handwritten note identifying themselves specifically as a witness to the will. The witnesses do not need to know what the will actually says; their role is limited to confirming the signing and the testator's declaration, not vouching for the content.

Because a fremdhändiges Testament depends on getting several separate formalities right at once, in front of the correct number of people, it carries a higher risk of a technical defect than a fully handwritten will.

The 2017 reform: why older advice can be wrong

The rules described above for the fremdhändiges Testament come from the Erbrechts-Änderungsgesetz 2015 (ErbRÄG 2015), a broad rewrite of Austrian succession law that took effect on 1 January 2017. Before that reform, the witness requirements for a typed will followed a looser standard.

This matters for two groups of readers. Anyone drafting a new will today needs to follow the current, stricter § 579 rules: three simultaneously present witnesses, the testator's handwritten Nuncupatio, and the witnesses' identifying details on the document. And anyone relying on a will made before 2017, or reading older guidance that predates the reform, should treat that material with caution, since it may describe requirements that no longer reflect the law.

A will's formal validity is generally judged by the rules in force at the time it was made, so an older will is not automatically invalid simply because the law has since changed. It is still worth having any pre-2017 will reviewed, particularly a typed one, to confirm it actually met the witness and signature formalities that applied at the time.

When the testator cannot write or read

§ 580 ABGB provides for testators who cannot physically write or cannot read the document themselves. A testator who cannot write may use a Handzeichen, a hand mark made in place of a signature, done in the presence of the three witnesses required under § 579, and must expressly declare to those witnesses that the document is their last will.

A testator who cannot read must have the fremdhändiges Testament read aloud to them by one of the witnesses, in the presence of the other two, and must then confirm that the document reflects their wishes. These procedures exist precisely because the ordinary § 579 formalities, a handwritten Nuncupatio and a handwritten signature, are not available to someone who cannot write or read.

Common mistakes that can void a will

Several recurring errors turn up in disputed Austrian wills, and most trace back to a form's formal requirements not being followed exactly.

A frequent problem with the eigenhändiges Testament is a document that is only partly handwritten, for example a typed template with handwritten additions, or a will drafted on a computer and then copied out by hand from a printed draft in a way that leaves gaps. The entire operative text needs to be in the testator's own hand.

For the fremdhändiges Testament, the most common defect is a missing or incomplete Nuncupatio. A testator who signs a typed will in front of three witnesses but forgets to add the handwritten confirmation that the document is their last will has not completed a valid fremdhändiges Testament, even though every other formality was observed.

Witnesses also cause problems. If fewer than three witnesses are present at the same time, or if a witness's identity cannot be established from the document itself, the will can fail on that basis alone. Using a witness who does not meet Austria's general witness eligibility rules, for example someone with a direct interest in the estate, is another recurring issue worth raising with a notary before finalizing any fremdhändiges Testament.

Because the consequences of a defective will are significant, the estate falling back to statutory intestate succession or to an earlier will instead of the testator's actual wishes, it is worth reviewing a draft carefully against these formalities, or using the notarial route where the notary takes responsibility for the formal requirements.

Related pages

For what a will cannot override, see compulsory share, which explains the Pflichtteil that certain close relatives are entitled to regardless of a will's terms. For what happens after a death, whether or not a valid will exists, see probate process, which covers the Verlassenschaftsverfahren.