In short, Germany is the perfect place to discover how out-of–control and mismanaged local governance (combined with national & international arms of bureaucracy) can be in the way they destroy-and overburden-- families and unduly inhibit marriage- and settlement of married partners across borders.
GO TO DENMARK-YOU CAN´T GET MARRIED HERE
My first example of bureaucracy run-amok stems from the marriage of a German and American couple last autumn in Baden-Württemberg.
The American bride-to-be had actually grown up most of her life in Belgium but she had kept her American citizenship. This was her second marriage. Her first had been to a local Belgian. So, most all official paperwork of hers was in Belgium.
As the wedding date in September 2008 drew near, the local government near Karlsruhe, Germany was continuing to ask for more and more paperwork. Every time, the Belgium government provided the paperwork for the women promptly. She brought it over the border to Germany. These successive and growing demands for more paperwork by a local mayor's office in Germany were sent back to Belgium with the bride-to-be.
Again, the courthouse in Belgium promptly provided papers for each new request from the German side. This dismaying process went on throughout the summer of 2008. The couple’s big church wedding in Germany was drawing near and the couple was extremely worried.
So, what did the American and German couple do?
At the end of August 2008, this couple flew to Denmark and had a civil wedding done there. This took less than a week. The couple returned to Southwest German and held their church wedding as scheduled in early September 2008.
GETTING MARRIED IN DENMARK BECAUSE OF GERMAN BUREACRACY
Well, since I met that American and German couple in February this year, I have learned that it is quite common for people in central Europe to travel to Denmark because the bureaucracy for marriage is much more endurable there. click here.
One online advertisement for weeding assistance in Denmark notes that "getting married in Denmark is quicker than in Las Vegas." Click here.
I doubt that, but perhaps the advert is true if one considers the time it takes to fly to Las Vegas and back from Germany. All I know is that bureaucracy and the power of a single government bureaucrat in Germany remains a bit like it was in the Middle Ages-byzantine and monarchal.
Likewise European law up-till-last year was so non-aligned across the continent that for example, one Portuguese man (i.e. a citizen of an EU land) who married a woman from Brazil (a non-EU land) was allowed to bring his wife along to live in Germany (with no German visa required) when he decided to move to Germany to work (from his original place of residence in Lisbon).
Meanwhile, a German man (i.e. a German and an EU citizen) , who, married a woman from Namibia, was still not able to bring his wife directly to live in Germany (his homeland) without getting a visa for his wife first
Believe me! Getting a visa for one's wife is quite difficult-even for Germans. I've talked to quite a few mixed national couples about the process.
NOTE: I myself have been trying for several months to bring my own wife over from Kuwait to Germany. (So you can bet the bureaucracy is still harder on me and my bride.)
