backend/pom.xml

@@ -253,6 +253,13 @@
 			<version>1.18.1</version>
 		</dependency>
 
+		<!-- JsonNullable<T> for PATCH DTOs: distinguishes absent (unchanged) from explicit null (clear) -->
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>org.openapitools</groupId>
+			<artifactId>jackson-databind-nullable</artifactId>
+			<version>0.2.6</version>
+		</dependency>
+
 		<!-- Observability: Prometheus metrics scrape endpoint (version managed by Spring Boot BOM) -->
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>io.micrometer</groupId>

backend/src/main/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/config/JacksonConfig.java

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+package org.raddatz.familienarchiv.config;
+
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
+import org.openapitools.jackson.nullable.JsonNullableModule;
+import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.jackson.Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilderCustomizer;
+import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
+import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
+
+@Configuration
+public class JacksonConfig {
+
+    @Bean
+    public Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilderCustomizer jsonNullableModule() {
+        return builder -> builder.modulesToInstall(new JsonNullableModule());
+    }
+}