When my wife and her first husband divorced, he was the one with the 'Höhere Anrechte', as he had worked throughout their 19-year marriage, while his then wife had stayed at home, bringing up the children.

As a result, though she benefited from 'compensatory allowances' in respect of pension entitlement for each child, her husband had to give up a proportion of his pension rights, as the one who had 'höhere Anrechte', to his ex-wife.


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Note added at 22 hrs (2013-11-30 17:02:54 GMT)
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If both partners are working, and thus both establishing an 'Anrecht' to a pension to be paid on retirement, the higher-paid will be paying higher contributions and be building up a higher 'Anrecht'. IOW, will have an ENTITLEMENT to receive a higher pension on retirement. To compensate for this inequality, then, the partner with the higher Anrecht - whether it be the husband OR wife - is, according to German divorce legislation, required to give up part of this pension Anrecht to the other, less affluent, partner.

I trust this explains the situation to everyone's satisfaction?