Divorce & maintenance in Germany

[LadyLapsang]

Does anyone have any up to date knowledge of divorce and maintenance in Germany?

Close relative (UK national) married to German in Germany and have spent most of their married life in Germany, two school aged children. Marriage 15 years plus in length. He works full-time, very high earning; she works p-t, her earnings are less than 10% of his income.

Now divorcing after long period of separation, in agreement regarding bringing up the children etc. but not regarding finances. She has sought legal advice and has been told that all she is entitled to in maintenance for the children is 500 euros per month (less than 20% of what he has been giving her voluntarily) and half of any money accumulated during the marriage, although we understand he has placed assets in foreign bank accounts. There is no marital home. Any advice?

If you identify us , please do not 'out' us.

Briefly in Germany assets accrued during the marriage are usually shared around 50:50 and a spouse is only entitled to maintenance in respect of themselves if there is evidence they are unfit to work.
The basics for child support are set out in tables used by courts, the most famous being the Dusseldorf Tables. This calculates a fixed amount according to the monthly net income of the non-resident parent and the age of the child. CM is set at a minimum amount and increased in line with the payer's income to with a maximum limit of around 2.5 times the minimum amount. For example if the minimum CM for one child is 150Euros a higher earner would be limited to paying around 375Euros. The rules are treated as court guidelines rather than a rigid requirement but higher earners tend to pay less CM than they would in the UK.

Sorry, I don't know what happened to the paragraphs and some of the punctuation but the gist is there.