In August 2015, then-Chancellor Angela Merkel stated she could address concerns about the influx of migrants from Islamic terrorist hotbeds. Now, nearly a decade later, officials in southwestern Germany have reported hundreds of child marriages since that time.
A September report by the Baden-Wurttemberg interior ministry revealed that between 2017 and 2026, the Tübingen Regional Council recorded 358 child marriages with victims as young as 11. Under German law, minors aged 14 and younger are classified as children, while those 15 to 18 are adolescents—a classification consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The men marrying these minors were predominantly from Syria, Turkey, Bulgaria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Only eight of the recorded child marriages since 2012—including a marriage between a 16-year-old German girl and a 25-year-old Pakistani man, and a marriage between a 14-year-old Afghan girl and a 30-year-old Afghan man—were terminated with legally binding annulments. The state report noted that no legal proceedings are ongoing to dissolve the remaining marriages.
Additionally, a state-funded counseling center recorded 271 cases involving individuals at risk of forced marriage in the past year, with 80 cases including minors. Of those, 33 were under age 14—four below age 12 and nine aged 12 to 13.
Martin Rothweiler, leader of the Alternative for Germany party in Baden-Wurttemberg’s state parliament, stated: “Our country and our values are being abolished before our very eyes.” Emely Knorr, an AFD politician who requested the data, added: “Child marriages are incompatible with our values. Children have a right to safety, education, and a self-determined future.”
Nikolaos Boutakoglou, another AFD politician behind the query, emphasized: “Almost every single child marriage in Baden-Württemberg since 2017 can be traced back to mass migration!” He further noted that nearly 40% of child marriages contracted between 2017 and 2026 involved Syrians, while child marriages between Germans accounted for just 0.3%.
