Even before Corona, the number of weddings in Thuringia was declining, the restrictions in the pandemic, including for family celebrations, did the rest afterwards. Will the marriage mood pick up again this year?
Erfurt (dpa/th) – Registry offices in Thuringia expect a similar number of marriages this year as in 2022. The current demand for wedding dates in Gera corresponds approximately to that of the previous year, said a spokeswoman for the local city administration on request. Representatives of the city administrations of Weimar and Jena made similar statements. According to the city, more couples could tie the knot again this year in Erfurt after the corona restrictions have been lifted.
In the corona pandemic, some couples had postponed their wedding plans because, among other things, the contact restrictions made it impossible to celebrate the marriage on a large scale with family and friends. According to figures from the State Statistical Office, only about 7,700 marriages were concluded in Thuringia nationwide in 2021. Nationwide data on marriages for 2022 is not yet available.
In Gera, according to the information, 47 couples have registered at the registry office to exchange rings. “The Weimar registry office currently has 149 marriage registrations for the year 2023,” said a spokeswoman for the city administration. In 2022, 325 couples said yes in Weimar. In Jena, 380 couples appeared before the registrars.
The decline in marriages had already started in Thuringia before the corona pandemic. Data from the State Statistical Office shows that in 2018 around 10,400 couples were still married in a civil ceremony in Bavaria. In 2019 – the last year before the start of the corona pandemic – around 9,400 marriages were still concluded. In 2022, the number of marriages had fallen to 7,728, the lowest level since 1980.
The marriage of same-sex couples remains the exception in Thuringia. In Erfurt, for example, 26 same-sex couples got married last year, with a total of 802 marriages. The relationship was similar in previous years. In Gera, Jena and Weimar, between 7 and 15 same-sex couples have married each year in the past three years.
