Today divorce is recognised all over Europe and the numbers of divorces are consistently high. In Austria, the divorce rate has almost doubled in the last forty years. In 2001, the highest number of divorces (20.582) has been reached so far. In comparison, in the same year 34.213 marriages were concluded. Although the number of divorces has been declining since 2007, the probability that a marriage, which was concluded in 2013, will be divorced is around 40 per cent1 . These figures clearly demonstrate that divorce has become an increasingly important aspect of society and could therefore not have been disregarded from the legal perspective