Yes word on Schnapszahl date | Rhine-Main

• OfAnnette Schlegl

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Marriage on February 22, 2012 was particularly popular in Darmstadt. In Frankfurt, on the other hand, the big “run” on the special date didn’t materialize.

For many women, forgetting the wedding date is the biggest faux pas a man can afford. To prevent this from happening, a Schnapszahl appointment for the marriage is a tried and tested means. February 22, 2022 is such a date that the better half should easily remember. That should have triggered a run on the registry offices for Tuesday. Or?

On this special date, the people of Darmstadt are actually particularly keen to get married. The demand for 22.2.22 was “surprisingly high”, says David Zulauf, head of the registry office. That’s why they offered 25 extra wedding dates outside of the series, all of which are fully booked; However, two couples – one of them a gay couple – had to cancel their wedding at short notice due to a corona quarantine. “We normally only have weddings on Thursdays, Fridays and every two weeks on Saturdays,” says Zulauf.

The office manager recorded 32 inquiries for February 22, “but not every reservation is taken care of”. After all, appointments can be reserved online twelve months in advance. “We therefore assume that every couple who wanted to get married on 2/22/22 can also get married here,” he says. Incidentally, the registry office also offered ten out-of-order appointments on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022, seven of which were attended.

14 couples now say yes in the wedding tower, Darmstadt’s landmark on the Mathildenhöhe, nine couples are married in the wedding room of the old town hall. The majority of marriages take place during the regular working hours of the registrars. “Instead of sitting at your desk on Tuesday, you just stand in the wedding room.” From 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., however, an additional shift had to be pushed in in the wedding tower.

But that is no comparison to August 18, 2018, according to Zulauf. On that Saturday, “the weddings started at 9:30 a.m. and ended at 10 p.m. in the evening”. 836 weddings took place in Darmstadt last year; before the pandemic it was “over 1000”, according to Zulauf.

In the Frankfurt registry office, on the other hand, there were no additional dates for February 22, 2022. “We were of the opinion that a larger offer was the wrong signal because of the corona pandemic,” says Andrea Hart, head of the department. On February 22nd, eleven marriages will take place in the Römer – just like on any other day of the week. These eleven dates were booked up relatively early – “already in August, September, October”. “We’ve had to turn some couples away, but that also happens on Fridays or Saturdays,” she says. A lesbian couple tied the knot in the Römer on February 22nd. The FR learned from well-informed circles that Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) would personally congratulate one or the other bridal couple in front of the Römer on this day and give them a bottle of sparkling wine from the city’s winery.

“When the real Schnaps numbers were available, we expanded our wedding quota,” says Hart, naming 11/11/11 or 12/12/12. “On September 9th, 1999, the demand was exorbitantly high. We had 100 marriages there. But that was also a Friday on the one hand, and on the other hand it was summer.”

According to Hart, 2,768 marriages were concluded in Frankfurt last year, 140 of them same-sex marriages. Around 5000 registrations for the marriage were counted. A marriage ceremony is not tied to one’s place of residence, one can get married anywhere, she justifies this difference. Before the pandemic, in 2018, 3197 weddings were counted. “Some have postponed their wedding because they couldn’t have a big celebration,” Hart said.

Incidentally, there are plenty of opportunities to get married in Frankfurt. On 30 Saturdays a year, those willing to marry are also married, on Wednesdays and Fridays also in the Bolongaro Palace in the Höchst district and from May to September every Friday in the Rosenbrunn House in the Palmengarten. “On selected dates,” says Hart, you can also exchange vows in the Nikolaus chapel in Bergen-Enkheim and in the Seckbach town hall.

Additional dates for February 22, 2022 were offered in Wiesbaden. “Tuesday is not usually a wedding day for us, but we always offer out-of-order marriages on such special dates,” says Ralf Munser, head of the press department. 16 couples chose the Schnapszahl date for their marriage bond; the registry office did not have to turn anyone down. On February 2nd, 2022, 15 couples were married in the state capital, “three dates would have been free at the time,” says Munser. Around 1,500 marriages have been concluded in each of the past two years.

In Offenbach, on the other hand, the big run on February 22nd, 2022 did not happen. “Not a single wedding,” reports registrar Michael Herzberg. It was the same on February 2nd, 2022. There were only two inquiries about these dates that came shortly before February 2nd.