Divorce Costs in Germany (Scheidungskosten): How Court and Lawyer Fees Are Calculated

There is no price list for a German divorce. Court fees and lawyer fees are both calculated backward from a single figure, the Verfahrenswert (procedural value), which is built from the spouses' own income and, in most cases, from the value of the pension rights being split. Two couples with identical circumstances except income will pay different amounts, by design.

This matters more than usual right now because the KostBRÄG 2025 raised both the court fee table and the lawyer fee table by roughly 6 to 9 percent, in force since 1 June 2025. A great deal of material still online, including calculators and older articles, quotes the rates that applied from 2021 through May 2025. Any total built from those older rates understates the real cost today.

This page works through how the Verfahrenswert is actually built, how it becomes a court fee and a lawyer fee under the current, post reform tables, and a full worked example using one set of assumed incomes. The example is an illustration of the method, not a quote or an average for any real case.

Information last verified on 19 July 2026. This page provides general legal information and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

Why the cost is not a flat fee

Every figure on this page traces back to one number: the Verfahrenswert. § 43 Abs. 1 FamGKG requires a court to set that value for a divorce case with reference to all the circumstances, in particular the scope and significance of the matter and the spouses' financial and income circumstances, with a statutory floor of EUR 3,000 and a ceiling of EUR 1,000,000. § 43 Abs. 2 FamGKG is more concrete about the income side: the figure used is the net income the spouses together earned over three months.

That single number then drives both the court fee, taken from the FamGKG's own fee table, and the lawyer's fee, taken from the RVG's fee table, because § 23 Abs. 1 RVG sets the lawyer's Gegenstandswert (the value the lawyer's own fee is based on) by reference to the same value rules that apply to the court fees. Higher combined income means a higher Verfahrenswert, which means both bills go up together.

Building the Verfahrenswert: income first, then the pension split

Take a couple where one spouse nets EUR 2,500 a month and the other nets EUR 1,800 a month. Their combined monthly net income is EUR 4,300, and three months of that, the figure § 43 Abs. 2 FamGKG actually uses, is EUR 12,900. That sits comfortably above the EUR 3,000 floor, so EUR 12,900 is the starting Verfahrenswert for the divorce itself.

The Versorgungsausgleich, the automatic pension split described on divorce in Germany, is not free of charge. § 50 Abs. 1 FamGKG adds 10 percent of the same three month combined net income for every individual pension entitlement (Anrecht) being divided, with an overall minimum of EUR 1,000 for this component. If each spouse has one statutory pension entitlement from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung, that is two Anrechte: 2 times 10 percent of EUR 12,900, which is EUR 2,580.

Adding the two components together gives a combined Verfahrenswert of EUR 15,480 (EUR 12,900 for the divorce itself plus EUR 2,580 for the Versorgungsausgleich). A couple with more pension entitlements, for example an occupational pension on top of the statutory one for one or both spouses, would see this component increase further, since § 50 FamGKG charges per Anrecht, not per spouse.

From Verfahrenswert to the court fee

The FamGKG's own Anlage 2 fee table converts a Verfahrenswert into a base fee amount. Under the table currently in force, reflecting the KostBRÄG 2025 rates, a Verfahrenswert of EUR 15,480 falls in the bracket up to EUR 16,000, which carries a base fee of EUR 344.00.

That base fee is not the final court fee for a divorce. Anlage 1 FamGKG (Kostenverzeichnis) Nr. 1110 charges the divorce procedure, described as covering the Ehesache together with all its Folgesachen, at 2.0 times the base fee. For this example that is 2.0 times EUR 344.00, which is EUR 688.00 in total court fees for the whole case.

A detail worth stating plainly because it surprises people: KV FamGKG Nr. 1111 reduces that 2.0 multiplier to 0.5 for several kinds of early or consensual case endings, but the provision explicitly excludes the final decision in a divorce matter itself from that reduction. An uncontested, fully agreed divorce does not get a discounted court fee simply because nobody argued; the 2.0 multiplier applies to the Scheidungssache either way.

Under § 150 Abs. 1 FamFG, once the divorce is granted, the court costs of the divorce and its Folgesachen are offset between the spouses, which in practice means each spouse pays half. In this example, that is EUR 344.00 each.

From Verfahrenswert to the lawyer's fee

The RVG has its own Anlage 2 fee table, separate from the FamGKG's, but built on the same idea: a base fee that scales with the Gegenstandswert. At a Gegenstandswert of EUR 15,480, again the bracket up to EUR 16,000, the current RVG table gives a base fee of EUR 762.00.

A lawyer representing a spouse in a first instance family court proceeding is normally entitled to two fee components on top of that base figure, set out in Anlage 1 RVG (Vergütungsverzeichnis): a Verfahrensgebühr (procedural fee) under Nr. 3100 at a factor of 1.3, and a Terminsgebühr (hearing fee) under Nr. 3104 at a factor of 1.2. Applied to the EUR 762.00 base:

• Verfahrensgebühr: 1.3 times EUR 762.00 = EUR 990.60
• Terminsgebühr: 1.2 times EUR 762.00 = EUR 914.40
• Subtotal: EUR 1,905.00

On top of that, Nr. 7002 adds a flat allowance for postage and communication costs, 20 percent of the fees above, capped at EUR 20.00. Twenty percent of EUR 1,905.00 would be EUR 381.00, well over the cap, so the cap applies and EUR 20.00 is added, bringing the subtotal to EUR 1,925.00. Finally, Nr. 7008 adds statutory VAT at 19 percent on the full amount: 19 percent of EUR 1,925.00 is EUR 365.75.

The lawyer's total fee for handling the whole case, divorce plus the Versorgungsausgleich Folgesache, in this example comes to EUR 2,290.75.

The full worked example, put together

Using the same couple: combined three month net income of EUR 12,900, two statutory pension entitlements adding EUR 2,580, for a total Verfahrenswert of EUR 15,480.

Total court fees for the case: EUR 688.00, split under § 150 FamFG into EUR 344.00 owed by each spouse.

Assume this is an einvernehmliche Scheidung: one spouse retains a lawyer to file, and the other spouse consents to the petition under § 114 Abs. 4 Nr. 3 FamFG without hiring their own. The filing spouse's lawyer fee, as calculated above, is EUR 2,290.75, and that spouse bears it alone, since § 150 FamFG does not make the other spouse contribute to it.

On these assumptions, the filing spouse's own total outlay is roughly EUR 2,634.75 (their EUR 344.00 half of the court fee plus their EUR 2,290.75 lawyer fee). The consenting spouse's own outlay is roughly EUR 344.00, their half of the court fee, plus whatever they choose to spend on their own independent advice outside the case itself, which is not included in this calculation. These figures are illustrative only, built from one assumed set of incomes and one assumed number of pension entitlements; a real case with different income, more Folgesachen, or a contested hearing will produce a different Verfahrenswert and a different total.

Bringing in more than the divorce: additional Folgesachen add cost

The example above only bundles the divorce and the Versorgungsausgleich, which is the one Folgesache that enters the Verbund automatically. If a spouse also asks the court to decide the Zugewinnausgleich (see equalization of gains) or spousal maintenance (see spousal maintenance) as part of the same proceeding, each of those matters carries its own separate value that is added into the overall Verfahrenswert, increasing both the court fee and the lawyer fee beyond what this page's baseline example shows. A case that stays limited to the divorce and the automatic pension split is, all else equal, the cheaper path.

Verfahrenskostenhilfe: help for a spouse who cannot afford it

A spouse who cannot afford the court fees or a lawyer can apply for Verfahrenskostenhilfe. § 76 Abs. 1 FamFG applies the Zivilprozessordnung's rules on Prozesskostenhilfe to family proceedings correspondingly, meaning the same income and asset based means test used in ordinary civil litigation decides eligibility here too.

Where it is granted, Verfahrenskostenhilfe can cover the applicant's share of the court fees and, where the court assigns a lawyer as part of the grant, that spouse's own lawyer fee as well. It does not cover the other spouse's costs and does not change how those other costs are split under § 150 FamFG; it only affects what the applicant spouse personally has to find from their own resources.

Why an uncontested, one lawyer divorce costs less

The mechanics above explain the practical advice given constantly in Germany to keep a divorce cheap: agree on the outcome, use one lawyer, and limit what gets bundled into the Verbund. Only one spouse's lawyer generates a Verfahrensgebühr and Terminsgebühr under the calculation above; the other spouse's consent under § 114 Abs. 4 Nr. 3 FamFG generates no lawyer fee at all if that spouse chooses not to retain one.

A contested case, where the spouses disagree on the divorce itself or on a Folgesache such as custody or maintenance, typically needs a second lawyer for the other spouse the moment that spouse wants the court to decide something in their own interest, doubling the lawyer fee side of the calculation, and can also mean more than one hearing, which can add further Terminsgebühr charges. The Verfahrenswert calculation is the same set of rules either way; what changes is how many lawyers and how many contested Folgesachen actually feed into it.

For the divorce process this cost calculation sits inside, see divorce in Germany. For the wider picture of German family law, see the Germany law hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a divorce cost in Germany?

There is no fixed price. Both court fees and lawyer fees are calculated from a Verfahrenswert built from the spouses' combined net income and any Versorgungsausgleich pension entitlements under § 43 and § 50 FamGKG, so the total scales with income and with how many pension entitlements exist rather than following a flat schedule.

What changed with the KostBRÄG 2025?

The KostBRÄG 2025 raised the FamGKG court fee table and the RVG lawyer fee table by roughly 6 to 9 percent, in force from 1 June 2025. A number calculated from a fee table published before that date understates the current cost.

Do both spouses need to pay for a lawyer?

No. Only the spouse filing the petition needs a lawyer under § 114 FamFG. The other spouse can simply consent to the divorce under § 114 Abs. 4 Nr. 3 FamFG without hiring their own, which is the main reason an einvernehmliche Scheidung costs less than a contested one.

Who pays the court fees, one spouse or both?

§ 150 Abs. 1 FamFG splits the court costs of the divorce and its Folgesachen equally between the spouses once the divorce is granted, regardless of which spouse filed. Each spouse's own lawyer fee, by contrast, is normally paid by that spouse alone.

Can I get help paying for a divorce if I cannot afford it?

Possibly, through Verfahrenskostenhilfe, applied for under § 76 FamFG by reference to the Zivilprozessordnung's means tested legal aid rules. Depending on income and assets it can cover court fees and, where a lawyer is assigned, that spouse's own legal fees.

Does adding property division or maintenance to the divorce increase the cost?

Yes. Bringing the Zugewinnausgleich or spousal maintenance into the Verbund as a Folgesache adds its own separate value to the overall Verfahrenswert, which increases both the court fee and the lawyer fee beyond the baseline cost of the divorce and the automatic pension split alone.

Are online divorce cost calculators accurate?

Treat them with caution. Many still use the fee tables that applied before the KostBRÄG 2025 took effect on 1 June 2025, understating the true cost by roughly 6 to 9 percent, and few properly account for the Versorgungsausgleich value addition under § 50 FamGKG or for additional Folgesachen.