[Olog-hai]

Found this in the Grundgesetz:

Men and women shall have equal rights. The state shall promote the actual implementation of equal rights for women and men and take steps to eliminate disadvantages that now exist.

That is Article 3, Section 2.

It echoes Article 122 of the USSR’s 1936 constitution, Article 35 of the 1977 USSR constitution, and Article 48 of Red China’s constitution.

[Moltke]

Art. 3(2) GG originally was only the first sentence. The rest was (had to be) added in 1994 after the Constitutional Court decided to legislate and decreed that active measures were needed to ensure their vision of sentence 1.

The reality of how divorce laws are implemented by the courts to the disadvantage of men long predates that amendment. It goes back to the '70s womens movement, inspired no doubt by the heated US ERA movement of the time. And then the German birthrate took a nosedive. Quelle surprise, eh?