Judgment: Handwritten will: When the signature counts

Will you have a will without a notary? That is quite possible. However, it must be written and signed by your own hand. And there are several requirements for the signature, as can be seen from a decision of the Munich Higher Regional Court (Az.: 33 Wx 202/25), which the Working Group on Inheritance Law of the German Bar Association (DAV) points out.

In this case, a widowed man had drawn up a total of eleven wills. All of them were signed with first and last name, with the signatures resembling each other.

The man then drafted a twelfth handwritten document in which he "revoked" his eleven previous wills. This document contained only a scribbled, wavy line as a "signature".

The son considered himself to be the sole heir by law due to this document, since all previous testamentary dispositions had been revoked. Unjustly, the court ruled.

A notarial will can indeed be revoked by a handwritten will. However, the handwritten will with which the man had "revoked" his wills did not correspond to the statutory form prescribed for a revocation will.

The law requires a document consisting of letters. This must be handwritten and signed if it has not been notarized. The first name does not have to be included in the signature. The signature also does not have to be legible or comparable to previous signatures.

There is no protection of trust in the recognition of a writing performance as a signature, according to the court. A pure wavy line, however, is not sufficient according to the judges. A signature requires a document consisting of letters of a usual script. A sign without recognizable letter structure does not meet the requirements of the Civil Code (§ 2247 Abs. 3 BGB) - even if it is undoubtedly established that it comes from the testator.