Marriage and Divorce in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century
- Autor(en)
- Andrea Griesebner
- Abstrakt
After an explanation of marriage and divorce law at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the article turns to divorce practice. The focus is on three women opera singers who, with the consent of their parents, entered into Catholic marriages between 1814 and 1822, had their first child at a young age, and demanded a divorce from bed and board after only a few years. The first microstudy on Henriette Teimer and Anton Forti provides an insight into the conditions of a divorce by mutual consent. Since the spouses had agreed on community of property in the marriage contract, the divorce settlement mainly provides information on how they divided the joint assets. Katharina Weidner and Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller had not concluded a marriage contract, which meant that the marital property regime of separation of property applied to them. Their divorce settlement mainly deals with the issue of custody and maintenance for their three children. This microstudy also provides extraordinary insight into the practice of custody over many years as the couple left behind a significant volume of documentary evidence: Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller claimed custody in three separate lawsuits, the couple reunited after eleven years apart, and divorced again a few months later. The third microstudy on Franziska Nestroy and Franz Hoffmann shows how difficult it was to enforce a divorce against the husband’s will. The proceedings, conducted in writing because of the husband’s detention, were first rejected on formal grounds. It was only after an imperial court decree ordered the reopening and investigation of the divorce claim that Franziska was judicially divorced without fault. Only then was she able to sue for the annulment of the marriage contract and thus the end of the community of property. Common to all three microstudies is the fact that the young women were supported by their parents and were able to waive alimony thanks to their own occupation. The article addresses the many factors and variables — from marriage and divorce law to social capital — that strengthened or weakened the position of wives and husbands in negotiating the consequences of divorce.
- Organisation(en)
- Institut für Geschichte
- Band
- 1
- Seiten
- 99 - 135
- Anzahl der Seiten
- 37
- Publikationsdatum
- 2024
- Peer-reviewed
- Ja
- ÖFOS 2012
- 504014 Gender Studies, 601028 Geschlechtergeschichte, 601008 Geschichtswissenschaft
- Link zum Portal
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/ce0235af-a54a-47c0-a9d4-bb9c57f6d1a2