Meetings

NEXT MEETING: Friday, Nov 7, 2025, 12:30pm (Pacific Time).

Topic: About Civil Marriage in Germany in 19th Century. In Germany, there are two types of marriage – a civil ceremony performed at the registry office, and a religious ceremony in the Catholic Church. This system has been in place for over 200 years on the western side of the Rhine River, as a result of the occupation and annexation by French forces following their revolution. At that time, it was decreed that a civil ceremony must always precede a religious wedding. On the other side of the Rhine, the old system remained in place, whereby Catholics could only marry in the church. Protestants never married in church, as Martin Luther had declared that marriage was a secular matter. Among Protestants, the couple entered into a formal contract, which was then celebrated in church before the congregation. In his presentation on civil marriage in Germany, Roland Geiger explores this topic in more detail, using examples to illustrate the content of the contracts and marriage records, and the information that can be gleaned from them.

Presenter: Roland Geiger is a regional historian and genealogist, as well as a tour guide in his hometown of St. Wendel (located in southwestern Germany, between Luxembourg and the Ramstein Air Force Base near Kaiserslautern). He has been active in both fields for over 30 years and has rarely focused on a specific area, always curious to look beyond his immediate sphere of expertise to discover connections and broader contexts. His presentations are generally entertaining, thanks in part to his sometimes quirky sense of humor. He speaks German and English and knows how to swear in French and Russian.

We meet virtually on the first Friday of each month except July and August at 12:30 pm Pacific Time or 10:30 am PT, if the speaker lives outside of the United States. (To convert the meeting time, consider using https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter and Seattle, Washington as our location.)

Visitors are always welcome at our meetings but attendees must register for each meeting. Registrants should save the Zoom registration email containing the meeting link. Attendees can join the Pre-meeting chat 15 minutes prior to the beginning of the meeting.

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