A German who wants a divorce must normally wait. Under § 1566 of the Civil Code, a marriage is presumed to have failed wenn die Ehegatten seit einem Jahr getrennt leben, when the spouses have lived apart for one year and both want the divorce or one agrees. If one spouse does not agree, the period is three years. Germans call this the Trennungsjahr, the year of separation. A legal advice site explains its purpose: Das Einhalten des Trennungsjahres soll übereilte Scheidungen verhindern. The year is meant to prevent hasty divorces. Couples can also separate inside one apartment. They must then keep separate households, with no shared bed, meals, shopping or laundry. A divorce before the year is over is possible only in cases of severe hardship, such as violence, and the courts set a high bar for it.