Bavarian Higher Court Says Handwritten Will Signature Must Contain Letters

The Higher Regional Court of Munich ruled that a handwritten testament must be signed with a recognizable letter‑based signature; a simple wave line does not satisfy the legal requirements of the German Civil Code (§ 2247 Abs. 3 BGB). The case involved a widowed man who had previously executed eleven notarised wills and then drafted a twelfth handwritten document to revoke them. The revocation was signed only with a wavy line, which his son claimed gave him sole inheritance. The court rejected the claim, stating that a valid revocation must be handwritten and signed with a letter‑based mark, even though the first name need not appear and the signature need not be identical to earlier ones. The decision clarifies that there is no trust protection for non‑letter signatures in wills.