Hmmmm.

As a "civil code" country, like France, Germany has that thing where marriage is definitely a civil state and may also be religious sacrament. Of the two rites of passage, the one that takes place at the Rathaus (town hall) is compulsory; going to church is entirely optional.

Under the Nazi regime, all public offices from Chancellor to municipal dog-catcher -- and definitely including the German equivalent of Justice of the Peace -- were open only to members of the Party.

My parents always said that Hitler revealed his essentially petit-bourgeois nature in marrying Eva Braun at the last minute -- "making an honest woman of her, and an honest man of himself," as my mother put it.