By Europe’s immigration debate is increasingly a fight over which customs its governments will tolerate—and whether legal protections hold when those customs cross its borders. In Germany’s Baden-Württemberg state, authorities have documented 358 marriages involving minors, including girls as young as 11, but formally annulled only eight.
The figures, released following a parliamentary inquiry by Alternative for Germany lawmakers Nikolaos Boutakoglou and Emely Knorr, have prompted demands for stronger protections, writes The Daily Mail. The state recorded 350 cases closed without a final annulment and reported no pending annulment proceedings when officials answered the inquiry.
Many cases involved spouses from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. Boutakoglou wrote on X that “Nearly 40 per cent of child marriages were contracted between Syrians, while child marriages between two Germans account for only 0.3 per cent.”
Knorr called for authorities to intervene earlier and act decisively: “Child marriages are incompatible with our values. Children have a right to safety, education, and a self-determined future. That is why we need effective protection, early intervention, and decisive action against forced marriages.”
The eight annulments included a marriage between an Iraqi girl who was 11 at her wedding and a 17-year-old Iraqi boy, as well as one between a 14-year-old Afghan girl and a 30-year-old Afghan man. Those annulments were recorded in 2020 and 2018, respectively. Among cases closed without annulment were marriages involving 12-year-old girls.
Officials cited several possible reasons cases ended without annulment, including a spouse reaching adulthood, the death of a spouse or a subsequent marriage abroad. The figures therefore do not establish that all 350 marriages remain legally valid—or that the spouses are still minors.
German law generally treats foreign marriages involving children younger than 16 as invalid, while those involving 16- or 17-year-olds can require a court order to dissolve. Parliament revised the law in 2024, retaining the under-16 rule while adding financial protections and allowing couples to marry again after reaching adulthood. Automatic invalidity and a formal annulment are separate legal outcomes.
The findings arrive as some conservative commentators warn that Europe is undergoing a deeper cultural and political transformation, mostly pushed by leftist billionaires. A Fox News investigation identified communist organizations, far-left parties and activist networks amplifying French student protests and expanding school-related grievances into campaigns against capitalism, policing and Western foreign policy.
Oliver Lane described hard-left activists as seeking to push European countries toward a “pre-revolutionary state.” Heritage Foundation senior fellow Nile Gardiner offered a broader warning: “We are witnessing the end of Europe as we know it.” Those assessments concerned the unrest across Europe; the reporting established no direct connection between the protests and Germany’s child-marriage cases.
The German findings add to a broader European debate over whether public institutions are defending established cultural standards in the West or abandoning them in the face of a growing migrant population. In Britain, for example, NHS material describing potential benefits of first-cousin marriage provoked a backlash and renewed calls to ban the practice.
Good luck with all that.
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