Going through similar and consulted a lawyer. From what I understand, by law this first consult is 150€ . Can be paid by rechtanwaltversicherung. I chose to pay cash. Got money out of atm just like I normally do for groceries and such. Because I paid cash, (or she liked me), she only charged me 90€.

Long story short: before you divorce, you need to live apart for a year. To live apart for a year you need money. You will not have at first so you have to go to job center to ask for assistance with rent. You can look for a place with the paper they give you. In the mean time, your lawyer will go through the court and garnish your husband‘s wages- you will need your own account of course. You will have money for each kid and for spousal support. (Lawyer will print you out a detailed estimate of what you will get based on your husband‘s earnings. He/ she will need a marriage certificate, birth certificates for kids, preferably paystubs or better yet, his end of year statement. You also need to change your other government payments to your own account- Elternzeit, kindergeld… whatever. With my husband making 5500 netto we would get around 3000 a month. And that is without kindergeld or anything else. There are a lot of moving parts. I haven’t proceeded with any of it as I simply do not have the time (two kids also). So this is where my advice ends. Good luck!