• You will receive a widow's or widower's pension from the Agricultural Pension Fund if the deceased person has fulfilled the minimum insurance period (waiting period) of 5 years.
  • The waiting period of 5 years takes into account all compulsory and voluntary contributions paid or deemed to have been paid to the agricultural pension fund. Contributions for periods prior to 01.01.1995 are generally only taken into account if they have been paid without gaps.
  • The waiting period of 5 years is fulfilled prematurely if the insured person died as a result of an accident at work or an occupational illness (insured event) and was subject to compulsory insurance at that time.
  • If a pension equalization was carried out in favour of the deceased, the transferred entitlement is converted into waiting period months.

Periods from other pension schemes

• Periods from other pension schemes, e.g. periods in the statutory pension insurance scheme, can also be counted towards the qualifying period if the deceased paid contributions to the LAK for at least one month.
• If the external periods overlap with those of the LAK, the external periods cannot be credited at the same time.
  • This also applies if the deceased was exempt from compulsory insurance to the pension fund as an entrepreneur during the same period.
  • However, an exemption from compulsory insurance as a contributing family member does not preclude the crediting of third-party periods completed during this time.

The following periods from other pension schemes can be taken into account:

• Compulsory contribution periods in the statutory German pension insurance scheme and equivalent periods in the social insurance scheme of the former GDR,
• periods of exemption from insurance in the statutory pension insurance scheme, for example as
  • civil servant
  • Judge
  • a professional or regular soldier and
  • as another person with similar civil servant status,
• periods of exemption from compulsory insurance in the statutory pension insurance scheme, for example
  • Employees and self-employed persons who belong to a professional pension scheme;
  • Teachers and educators at private schools, if there is civil servant-like cover,
• certain foreign periods under supranational and intergovernmental law

Further general requirements:

• You have not remarried.
• You had been married or a partner for at least one year at the time of death.
  • Exception: Sometimes it is sufficient if you were married for less than a year. This applies, for example, if your partner died in an accident.
  • If you remarry, your widow's or widower's pension ends.

You can receive a widow's or widower's pension if you

• reach the current age limit:
  • Age limit in the event of death in 2021: 45 years and 10 months
  • This age limit will gradually increase to 47 years by 2029.
• have reached the current age limit or
• are reduced in earning capacity or
• are raising their own child or a child of the deceased under the age of 18 or
• are caring for a disabled child of their own or of the deceased, regardless of the child's age.

You may be entitled to a widow's or widower's pension under the old law if

• your partner died before 01.01.2002 or
• you married before 01.01.2002 and
• your partner was born before 02.01.1962.

In these cases, you can also receive the pension if you

• were married for less than 1 year.

If your marriage was divorced before 01.07.1977, you can, under certain conditions

• despite an already divorced marriage or
• a new marriage or civil partnership that has been dissolved again

receive a special widow's or widower's pension.

You can receive a so-called widow's or widower's pension after your penultimate spouse if you

• have remarried or registered a civil partnership after the death of your former partner and
• the new relationship has now been dissolved or annulled.