Divorce Fair Held in Vienna

Lawyers, detectives, psychologists, real estate agents, insurers, travel agents and even psychics and hairdressers – representatives of all these professions claim that for a reasonable fee they will help painlessly part with the past. True, not everyone is ready to advertise their specialization. Not only those who order private detective services<\/a> keep their secrets, but also the performers themselves. When the organizer of the divorce fair, Anton Bartz, first announced plans to hold such an unusual event, his idea attracted about 600 companies. However, in the end, only 16 agreed to participate, which is clearly less than at wedding fairs, which Bartz had previously organized and run.<\/p>

His bet on Vienna also did not pay off – the capital of a country where, according to statistics, every second marriage ends in divorce. Overall in Austria, the percentage of failed marriages is even higher – 66%, which makes this country a European leader in the number of broken families. However, as RIA Novosti reports, on the first day of the fair, only about 180 people came to see the offers for a painless divorce. And the vast majority just came to gawk; only a few actually turned to professionals for help and advice.<\/p>

Meanwhile, a whole range of services was presented for unhappy spouses. Jealous partners were offered help from detective agencies capable of quickly refuting or confirming any suspicions of marital infidelity with facts in hand. A biological company also builds its business on suspicion, offering DNA testing for less than €500, which can determine a child's father with a high degree of probability. The owner of this company, Susanna Haas, claims that 'confirmation of paternity can play a key role in a divorce.'<\/p>

And if the work of private detectives and biologists does not necessarily lead to divorce, and sometimes even helps to save the family, then all other companies presented at the fair openly work towards breaking relationships. According to an Associated Press report, the conference room of the Vienna Marriott hotel gathered real estate agents ready to sell and divide property between spouses, lawyers specializing in divorce proceedings, psychologists offering a course of post-marital rehabilitation, travel agents with 'restorative' tours for singles, and... marriage agencies not ashamed to offer a person who has just broken marital ties the same, only new ones. The third category of fair participants is social institutions for single mothers.<\/p>

The attempt to so openly put divorce proceedings on a financial footing, apparently, did not appeal to Anton Bartz's critics, nor to many visitors to his exhibition. However, the weak public interest and generally critical mood did not seem to discourage him. After Vienna, he plans to organize similar fairs in two more Austrian cities, and then enter the international market – as he himself claims, companies that profit from divorce proceedings in neighboring Germany, Italy, and France are showing interest in such events.<\/p>