Patrick Stübing

The Cases of Stübing v. Germany involve a series of criminal prosecutions and appeals surrounding Patrick Stübing and Susan Karolewski, two German siblings who have had four children in an incestuous relationship with each other. Stübing has served several prison sentences for violating German laws prohibiting sexual intercourse between siblings, and Karolewski has been held under supervision for the same. The couple have been allowed to keep only their fourth child. Stübing eventually obtained a vasectomy. Their case has featured in public debate about whether sibling sexual relations should be decriminalised in Germany.

Background Stübing, a locksmith, was born in 1976 at Leipzig, East Germany, the second of five children. Karolewski was born in 1984. Stübing met his mother, who had separated from his father and had a new partner, and his sister in 2000, when he was 23 and Karolewski was 16. Neither was assigned a lawyer; Stübing appealed the verdict. By November 2006, he had served the time and been released. His lawyer appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court; but by 2012 they had split up.

The sister and ex-girlfriend of Patrick S., who was convicted of incest, said in an interview: "It's okay that incest is punishable. I feel guilty about it. I used to be young and somehow longed for love. But I would never do that again. I wouldn't advise anyone to do that either. I don't want to have anything to do with Patrick anymore."

Legal issues Under paragraph 173 of the German criminal code, sexual relations between close relatives are illegal and punishable by up to three years in prison. However, most cases of incest are instead prosecuted as child abuse.

In 2014, in response to the case of Stübing and Karolewski, the German Ethics Council voted in favour of decriminalising consensual incest between siblings, while the CDU party of then-Chancellor Angela Merkel opposed abolition of the law. Legality of incest between adult biological siblings is not always treated the same as other kinds of incest such as between adult cousins or between parents and their adult children, and laws have been amended in the case of consensual adult incestuous relationships in Brazil, France, Japan, and Turkey.