Gesetzliche Erbfolge: Who Inherits in Germany Without a Will

When someone dies in Germany without a valid will, the estate does not simply go to the nearest relative in some general sense. It follows a specific, ranked structure set out in the BGB, and the surviving spouse's share depends on a detail that is easy to overlook entirely: which marital property regime the couple actually had.

This page works through the three Ordnungen, ranked orders of relatives, that decide who inherits at all, how a share splits inside an order, the surviving spouse's share and the extra quarter that applies only in one specific circumstance, the Erbengemeinschaft that forms when several people inherit together, and what happens where no relatives exist at all.

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

Three ranked orders, not a flat list of relatives

German intestate succession works through Ordnungen, ranked orders of relatives, set out in §§ 1924 to 1926 BGB. The rule that governs everything else here is simple to state and easy to get wrong in practice: a single living member of a nearer order excludes every relative in every more distant order, completely.

§ 1924 BGB puts the deceased's descendants, meaning children and, further down, grandchildren, in the first order. § 1925 BGB puts the deceased's parents and their descendants, meaning the deceased's own siblings, nieces and nephews, in the second order. § 1926 BGB puts the deceased's grandparents and their descendants in the third order.

This means that if the deceased leaves even one surviving child, that child's grandparents, parents, siblings and cousins inherit nothing at all under the statutory rules, however close those relationships were in life. Second-order relatives only inherit if no first-order descendant survives, and third-order relatives only inherit if neither a first nor a second-order relative survives.

How a share splits inside an order

Within the first order, § 1924 BGB provides that children inherit in equal shares. Where a child of the deceased has already died, that child's own descendants step into their parent's position and divide that parent's share among themselves, a mechanism generally described as per stirpes distribution rather than dividing everything equally by head among every living descendant regardless of generation.

The second and third orders work on a comparable logic. § 1925 BGB gives both surviving parents an equal share of the second-order portion; where one parent has already died, that parent's own descendants, the deceased's siblings and their children, take that parent's place. § 1926 BGB applies the same substitution logic one generation further out, among the deceased's grandparents and their descendants.

The surviving spouse's share

§ 1931 BGB sets the surviving spouse's basic statutory share, and it depends entirely on which order of relatives also survives.

That table states the basic rule only. A further quarter, and a separate rule that applies under a specific marital property regime, can change these figures considerably, and that is where most of the confusion around German inheritance actually sits.

The extra quarter: § 1371 BGB, and only under Zugewinngemeinschaft

German default matrimonial law is Zugewinngemeinschaft, community of accrued gains, which applies automatically to any marriage where the couple did not sign a marriage contract choosing something else. Under this regime, § 1371 BGB adds a flat additional quarter to the surviving spouse's basic share from § 1931 BGB, described as a pauschalierter Zugewinnausgleich, a flat-rate equalisation of what each spouse gained financially during the marriage, paid this way specifically because one spouse has died rather than divorced.

This is the origin of the shorthand often repeated as one quarter plus one quarter equalling one half for a spouse alongside children. It is correct, but only where the marriage was in fact a Zugewinngemeinschaft. Where the couple signed a marriage contract (an Ehevertrag) setting Gütertrennung, separation of property, or the far less common Gütergemeinschaft, community of property, § 1371 BGB simply does not apply. A Gütertrennung couple has no Zugewinnausgleich claim at all, however the marriage ends, which is the whole point of choosing that regime; instead § 1931 Abs. 4 BGB gives the spouse an equal share alongside one or two children. (§ 1372 BGB is a different matter again: it governs a Zugewinngemeinschaft couple whose marriage ends by divorce rather than by death.) Stating the additional quarter as automatic for every marriage is wrong for any couple who agreed a different property regime.

A different rule under Gütertrennung: § 1931 Abs. 4 BGB

Where the couple had Gütertrennung and the deceased leaves one or two children as statutory heirs alongside the spouse, § 1931 Abs. 4 BGB does not simply leave the spouse at the basic one quarter. Instead it gives the surviving spouse and each of those one or two children an equal share by headcount: with one child, spouse and child each take one half; with two children, spouse and each child each take one third.

With three or more children, this special equal-share rule stops applying, and the spouse's share reverts to the standard one quarter from § 1931 Abs. 1 BGB, with the remaining three quarters divided equally among the children. In that specific situation, the spouse's one quarter coincides with what each child receives, purely because three shares of the remaining three quarters happen to work out to one quarter each.

Two worked examples: same estate, two different property regimes

Example one: Zugewinngemeinschaft. A married couple never signed a marriage contract, so the default Zugewinngemeinschaft regime applied throughout the marriage. One spouse dies, survived by the other spouse and two children, leaving an estate worth 900,000 euros. The spouse's basic share under § 1931 Abs. 1 BGB is one quarter, and § 1371 BGB adds a further quarter, for a combined one half. The spouse receives 450,000 euros. The remaining one half is split equally between the two children under § 1924 BGB, so each child receives 225,000 euros.

Example two: Gütertrennung. A different couple signed a marriage contract choosing Gütertrennung before marrying. One spouse dies under otherwise identical circumstances, survived by the other spouse and two children, with the same 900,000 euro estate. § 1371 BGB does not apply at all under this regime. Because exactly two children survive, § 1931 Abs. 4 BGB instead gives the spouse and each child an equal one third share. The spouse receives 300,000 euros, and each child also receives 300,000 euros.

The spouse is 150,000 euros worse off under Gütertrennung than under Zugewinngemeinschaft on the identical estate, and each child is 75,000 euros better off. Whether a couple had a marriage contract, and what property regime it chose, is therefore not a technicality. It changes six-figure outcomes on an ordinary-sized estate, which is exactly why the flat one-quarter-plus-one-quarter shorthand needs the condition attached to it every time it is used.

Adopted children, non-marital children and registered partners

A child adopted as a minor has, under § 1754 BGB, the same legal status as a biological child of the adopter, including for inheritance. A child born outside marriage inherits on identical terms to any other child under current German law; the reduced share that once applied to non-marital children was removed by reform decades ago and no longer has any effect.

A registered life partner under the Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetz is treated like a spouse for intestate succession. § 10 LPartG gives the surviving partner the same basic shares set out in § 1931 BGB, one quarter alongside first-order relatives, one half alongside second-order relatives or grandparents, and the whole estate if neither survives, along with a comparable Pflichtteil position if disinherited. Germany has not created new registered partnerships since same-sex marriage became available in 2017, but existing partnerships continue with these same statutory inheritance rights.

Several heirs together: the Erbengemeinschaft

Where more than one person inherits, § 2032 BGB does not simply divide the estate into separate individual portions on the day of death. It creates an Erbengemeinschaft, a community of heirs who jointly own the entire estate together, asset by asset, until it is formally divided.

This joint ownership is why an inheritance shared between several heirs, for example the two children in the worked examples above, is often harder to unwind than people expect. § 2038 BGB requires every co-heir to cooperate in measures needed for the estate's ordinary administration, with only a narrow exception for urgent steps to preserve the estate from loss. A co-heir can sell or otherwise dispose of their own overall share in the estate under § 2033 BGB, and that disposal has to be notarised, but no co-heir can unilaterally sell or dispose of one specific asset, such as a particular house, out of the joint estate on their own. Where co-heirs disagree about what to do with a specific asset, resolving that disagreement, or formally dividing the estate, is frequently what actually delays an inheritance rather than the succession rules themselves.

Proving an inheritance: the Erbschein

Banks, the land registry and other institutions generally will not simply accept a person's own word that they are an heir. § 2353 BGB lets the probate court issue an Erbschein, a certificate of inheritance, stating who the heirs are and, where relevant, the size of each heir's share. Applying for one takes time and carries a court fee scaled to the estate's value. Where the deceased left a notarial will instead of relying on the statutory rules, § 35 GBO can let a land registry accept that will together with the court's record of its opening in place of an Erbschein, which is one of the practical reasons some people choose a notarial will over relying on intestate succession or a simple handwritten one. See writing a will for how that form works.

No relatives at all

Where a person dies leaving no spouse, no registered partner and no relative in any of the three orders, the estate is not left unclaimed. § 1936 BGB provides that it passes to the Bundesland where the deceased had their last residence, or to the federal government if that residence cannot be determined.

Whatever a person actually receives under these statutory rules, it may still be reduced or affected by a Pflichtteil claim from someone else, or by inheritance tax. See the compulsory share page for how that claim works, and German law explained for the wider set of topics relevant to living or holding assets in Germany as a foreign national.