Introduction of the Civil Code

A reform introduces a single code of private law throughout Germany

In 1871, the 26 constituent states of imperial Germany all maintained their own particular legal system, to which their people had become accustomed, and which they did not wish to replace. In an attempt to address the resulting chaos in many areas of law, a number of commissions of lawyers spent almost 25 years drafting a unified civil code to regulate contracts, property ownership, family law and inheritance law. This code, comprising some 2,400 paragraphs, was signed by Wilhelm II on 18 August 1896 and came into force in 1900.

The new code survived five political systems – imperial Germany, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the DDR, and the Federal Republic of Germany – almost intact, although it was updated in West Germany to reflect social and political developments. These included the legal equality of men and women, the advent of consumer protection legislation and the inheritance rights of children born out of wedlock. A new civil code was announced after reunification, and this was followed by further changes, but the core of the German Civil Code has remained unchanged for 125 years.