Compare with pension splitting and factor in remarriage
The widow pension is not the only route. The law allows a split of pension entitlements instead, and on remarriage the pension is bought out with a one-off sum.
✓ Verified: 11/08/2026
WHAT TO DO
Deutsche Rentenversicherung (DRV)
Public bodyPension, account clarification and rehabilitation all run through the Deutsche Rentenversicherung — with in-person advice and online services (eService).
› Details and tips
Splitting is calculated, not guessed: it helps where the survivor has few entitlements of their own and rarely pays off where their own pension is comparable. The pension insurance provides a comparison calculation.
The buy-out on remarriage is one-off money instead of an ongoing pension. Most people learn about it after the wedding, when payments have already stopped — the sums are better done beforehand.
Useful Tools
- Sozialverband VdK social
Social association: supports applications and appeals on disability, pensions and care. Membership is paid, advice included.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is pension splitting? ▾
It divides the pension entitlements acquired during the marriage. After the death of a spouse the survivor can bring it about alone — but then there is no entitlement to a widow or widower pension, and any award already made is revoked from that point.
Who can use splitting at all? ▾
It is permitted where the marriage was concluded after 31 December 2001, or existed on that date and both spouses were born after 1 January 1962. In addition the survivor needs 25 years of pension-relevant periods.
What happens on a new marriage? ▾
On the first remarriage the pension is bought out with 24 times the monthly amount. For the small pension that multiple is reduced by the number of months already paid.
Can the pension be resumed after a buy-out? ▾
The entitlement can revive if the new marriage is dissolved or declared void — the statute calls it a pension after the last but one spouse. Pension splitting, by contrast, is excluded once a buy-out has been received.
Do children lose their pension if the widow remarries? ▾
No. The orphan pension follows its own rules: until 18, and until 27 during education requiring more than 20 hours per week in practice. A new marriage of the parent does not end it, nor does adoption.