GERMAN CIVIL CODE - From Legal Fragmentation to the Codifcation of Civil Law

Abstract

The German Reich, often called the Second German Empire, was formed in 1871. Despite its almost one thousand-year-long, the Holy Roman Empire, which preceded the German one, had never had a strong, clear shape to contain the modern concept of a state. The German Reich is therefore described as the first modern state of the German people, even though Germany (organized as the German Reich) is considered to be “a belated state”, and the German people “a belated nation” [die verspätete Nation]78 compared with other western European nation states. The heritage, derived from centuries of fragmented German statelets [Kleinstaaterei] finally assembled in one country, was legal fragmentation. The national unity of the German people led to the political unity of Germany, which, in turn, inevitably resulted in the unity of law. This paper sheds light on the legal and political aspects of the process of codification of the German Civil Law. This analysis includes the work of expert commissions responsible for writing the German Civil Code [Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch-BGB], with special emphasis on the importance of Bernhard Windscheid, as well as the general development of the ideas related to the need for codification of civil law in Germany at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Finally, the paper deals with the influence of the existing European codifications, primarily of the French Civil Code [Code Civil].