The process of the informalization of marriages raises the question of how and why marriages and marriage ceremonies ever came under the realm of state and/or church regulation. Michael Schröter explores this question in his study focused on the German-speaking world. According to Schröter's thesis, the emergence of church-state forms of marriage cannot be truly understood without considering it against the backdrop of state formation processes, that is, of conflictual changes in the organization of human coexistence. This perspective explicitly distinguishes Schröter's investigation from legal and, above all, church law historical traditions. Schröter primarily highlights two developmental lines characterized by the terms "institutionalization" and "individualization.".