Equalization of Gains (Zugewinnausgleich): How German Marital Property Actually Works

Most people arriving in Germany from a fault based or community property system assume marriage automatically pools everything a couple owns. Zugewinngemeinschaft, the default German marital property regime, does not work that way at all.

§ 1363 BGB makes Zugewinngemeinschaft the standard regime for every marriage in Germany, unless the couple agrees otherwise in a notarised Ehevertrag (marriage contract). The name is often loosely translated as community of property, and that mistranslation is the single biggest misunderstanding English speaking readers bring to this topic.

The structural point to get right first: nothing is shared during the marriage. Each spouse owns, manages and can sell their own property throughout the marriage exactly as if they were unmarried; there is no joint pot and no automatic co ownership of the family home, savings or investments just because a couple married. What is shared, and only once the marriage ends, is the increase in each spouse's net worth over the course of the marriage, the Zugewinn. The spouse whose net worth grew less receives a cash claim, the Ausgleichsforderung, equal to half the difference between the two gains. Nobody transfers ownership of any specific asset because of this claim; it is simply a debt one spouse ends up owing the other.

This page works through how that gain is measured, what happens to inheritances and gifts received along the way, the cap on the claim, the safeguards against a spouse quietly reducing their assets before a divorce, and the alternative regimes a couple can choose instead.

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

Zugewinngemeinschaft is not community of property

Germany's matrimonial property law has three possible regimes, but almost every married couple in Germany is in the first one by default. Under § 1363 BGB, Zugewinngemeinschaft applies automatically from the moment of marriage unless the spouses sign a notarised Ehevertrag choosing something else.

A couple in Zugewinngemeinschaft each keep their own property separately for the entire length of the marriage. If one spouse owns a car, an investment account or a share in a business before or during the marriage, it stays that spouse's property; the other spouse acquires no ownership interest in it simply by being married to them. Each spouse can also take on debt in their own name without automatically binding the other.

What the regime actually does is defer a single calculation to the point the marriage ends, whether through divorce or death. At that point, and only at that point, the law compares how much each spouse's own net worth grew during the marriage and requires the spouse who did better to hand the other spouse cash equal to half the gap. Until that moment arrives, day to day ownership looks exactly like it would for an unmarried couple living together.

How the gain is measured: Anfangsvermögen and Endvermögen

§ 1373 BGB defines Zugewinn in one sentence: it is the amount by which a spouse's Endvermögen (final assets) exceeds their Anfangsvermögen (starting assets). Both terms have precise statutory definitions.

§ 1374 Abs. 1 BGB defines Anfangsvermögen as everything a spouse owns, after deducting debts, at the moment Zugewinngemeinschaft begins, which in practice is the date of the wedding for a couple who did not have an earlier Ehevertrag. § 1374 Abs. 3 BGB is easy to miss: debts are deducted even beyond the value of the assets, so a spouse who married with more debt than assets starts with a negative Anfangsvermögen. That negative figure is not floored at zero, and it actually increases the eventual Zugewinn calculation in that spouse's favour.

§ 1375 Abs. 1 BGB defines Endvermögen the same way at the other end: everything a spouse owns, after deducting debts, at the point the matrimonial property regime ends. For a divorcing couple that cutoff is the date the divorce petition is served on the other spouse, the same date that fixes the Ehezeit for the separate pension split discussed later on this page.

§ 1376 BGB fixes the valuation dates for each figure: Anfangsvermögen is valued as of the start of the marriage (or as of the date an item was later acquired, for anything added to it under the inheritance rule below), and Endvermögen is valued as of the date the regime ended. A jointly prepared inventory of the Anfangsvermögen, kept under § 1377 BGB, is presumed accurate between the spouses and is worth doing at the start of a marriage precisely because it heads off a dispute about starting values decades later.

Inheritances and gifts received during the marriage: privilegiertes Vermögen

The rule that surprises people most often concerns money or property that arrives well into the marriage rather than at the start of it. § 1374 Abs. 2 BGB provides that anything a spouse receives during the marriage by inheritance, in anticipation of a future inheritance, by gift, or as a Ausstattung (a parental gift on marriage or starting a household) is added to that spouse's Anfangsvermögen, after deducting any related debts, rather than counted as part of their Zugewinn.

The practical effect is that this category of asset, often called privilegiertes Vermögen, is treated as if the receiving spouse already had it when the marriage began. If its value grows after it is received, that later growth is still counted as part of the Zugewinn; only the value at the point of receipt is protected from the equalisation claim. The exception in the statute is narrow: it does not cover ordinary income or earnings, only the categories the section actually lists.

A full worked example

Anna and Ben marry. At the wedding, Anna's Anfangsvermögen, after debts, is EUR 20,000. Ben, who is finishing his studies, has more debt than assets, so his Anfangsvermögen under § 1374 Abs. 3 BGB is a negative EUR 5,000.

Five years into the marriage, Anna's mother dies and Anna inherits EUR 50,000. Under § 1374 Abs. 2 BGB, that inheritance is added to Anna's Anfangsvermögen rather than treated as part of her gain, so her adjusted Anfangsvermögen becomes EUR 70,000 (the original EUR 20,000 plus the EUR 50,000 inheritance).

The couple separates and Ben's divorce petition is served on Anna twelve years after the wedding. At that point, Anna's Endvermögen, mostly home equity and savings that grew from her salary and from investing part of the inheritance, is EUR 180,000. Ben's Endvermögen, built up from his own career, is EUR 60,000.

Anna's Zugewinn is her Endvermögen minus her adjusted Anfangsvermögen: EUR 180,000 minus EUR 70,000, which is EUR 110,000. Ben's Zugewinn is his Endvermögen minus his Anfangsvermögen: EUR 60,000 minus negative EUR 5,000, which is EUR 65,000.

Anna's gain exceeds Ben's by EUR 45,000 (EUR 110,000 minus EUR 65,000). Under § 1378 Abs. 1 BGB, Ben is owed half of that difference: an Ausgleichsforderung of EUR 22,500. Anna keeps ownership of the house, the savings and everything else titled in her name; she simply owes Ben EUR 22,500 in cash, payable once the regime ends. Note that the EUR 50,000 inheritance itself was never split between them; only the growth on top of it, and Anna's other gains, entered the calculation.

The cap on the claim: § 1378 Abs. 2 BGB

A Zugewinn calculated on paper is not always still sitting in the paying spouse's bank account by the time the marriage ends. § 1378 Abs. 2 BGB caps the Ausgleichsforderung at the value of the paying spouse's own net assets, after debts, at the point the regime ends.

This matters most where a spouse's calculated gain was concentrated in a single asset, for example a business or an investment, that lost most of its value before the divorce petition was served. Even if the arithmetic under § 1373 BGB produces a large gain on paper, the other spouse cannot collect more than the paying spouse's actual remaining net worth at the relevant date. The cap protects the paying spouse from being forced to sell unrelated assets, or to go into debt, to satisfy a claim based on money that has genuinely disappeared through no fault connected to the marriage.

Guarding against last minute asset dissipation: § 1375 Abs. 2 BGB

The cap above creates an obvious temptation: a spouse who expects to owe an equalisation claim could try to reduce their own Endvermögen before the divorce petition is served, whether by giving assets away, spending recklessly, or acting specifically to disadvantage the other spouse. § 1375 Abs. 2 BGB closes that gap.

Where a spouse has, after the marriage began, made a gift not required by moral duty or common decency, wasted assets, or acted with the intent of disadvantaging the other spouse, the value of that reduction is added back into their Endvermögen for the calculation. The statute also shifts the burden of proof: if a spouse's disclosed Endvermögen is lower than what they reported as their assets at the point of separation, that spouse has to show the reduction was not one of these disloyal acts.

Two exceptions limit this rule. The reduction is not added back if it happened at least ten years before the regime ended, or if the other spouse actually agreed to the gift or the spending at the time. Both exceptions are meant to stop the rule from reaching ordinary, long settled financial decisions a couple made together.

The duty to disclose: § 1379 BGB

None of the calculations above work if a spouse cannot find out what the other spouse actually owns. § 1379 BGB gives each spouse the right to demand information about the other's assets once the regime has ended, or once a divorce, annulment, or early equalisation has been applied for, covering both the assets at the point of separation and the assets relevant to the Anfangs- and Endvermögen calculation.

A spouse can demand supporting documents, request to be involved when an inventory is drawn up, and have the value of assets and debts established by an expert at their own cost if they choose. Separately, § 1379 Abs. 2 BGB gives each spouse a standalone right to demand a disclosure of the other's assets as of the date of separation itself, which is often the first concrete figure either spouse sees and is frequently used as an early benchmark even before a divorce petition is filed.

Opting out by Ehevertrag: Gütertrennung and Gütergemeinschaft

§ 1408 BGB lets spouses regulate their own property relationship by contract, including changing or abolishing the default regime after the wedding has already taken place, not only before it. Two alternatives are available.

Gütertrennung (separation of property). Under § 1414 BGB, if the couple excludes Zugewinngemeinschaft or excludes the equalisation claim specifically, Gütertrennung applies instead, unless the Ehevertrag itself says otherwise. Under Gütertrennung there is no Zugewinnausgleich at all on divorce: each spouse simply keeps whatever is titled in their own name, with no equalisation calculation of any kind. This is the regime most often chosen by couples where one spouse owns a business and wants to keep the other spouse's exposure to that business, and any later equalisation claim tied to it, off the table entirely.

Gütergemeinschaft (community of property). § 1415 BGB allows spouses to agree to true pooled ownership instead, where most property becomes Gesamtgut, jointly owned property administered under detailed rules set out in the following sections of the BGB. This regime is genuinely uncommon in modern German practice; it requires a notarised Ehevertrag and creates ongoing joint administration obligations that most couples find more complicated than either the default regime or Gütertrennung.

A family court retains the power to review an agreement affecting the equalisation claim for fairness at the point of divorce, so an Ehevertrag is not automatically the final word if its outcome would be grossly one sided at that point.

Zugewinnausgleich and Versorgungsausgleich are two separate splits

A German divorce commonly involves two distinct equalisation processes, and it is easy to confuse them. Zugewinnausgleich, described on this page, divides the growth in each spouse's other net worth, savings, property, business interests and similar assets, and only happens if a spouse brings it into the divorce proceeding as a Folgesache.

Versorgungsausgleich is different in every respect that matters. It divides pension rights specifically, under the Versorgungsausgleichsgesetz rather than the BGB provisions on this page, and under § 1 VersAusglG it happens as part of every divorce, subject to two qualifications that sit elsewhere in the same Act. Under § 3 Abs. 3 VersAusglG a marriage of three years or less is equalised only if a spouse applies for it, so it drops out by default rather than being excluded, and under § 6 VersAusglG the spouses can exclude or limit it by agreement. See divorce in Germany for how the Versorgungsausgleich itself works, and how the two processes fit together within a single divorce case.

For the costs of bringing a Zugewinnausgleich claim into a divorce, see divorce costs in Germany. For the wider picture of German family law, see the Germany law hub.

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