About Otto von Gierke
Otto Friedrich von Gierke, born Otto Friedrich Gierke (11 January 1841 – 10 October 1921), was a German legal scholar and historian. He is considered today as one of the most influential and important legal scholars of the 19th and 20th centuries. In his four-volume magnum opus entitled Das deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht (German Law of Associations), he pioneered the study of social groups and the importance of associations in German life, which stood between the divide of private and public law. During his career at Berlin University's law department, Gierke was a leading critic of the first draft of a new civil code for Imperial Germany. Gierke argued that it had been molded in an individualistic frame that was inconsistent with German social traditions. Gierke became known as a vocal Germanist within the German Historical School of Jurisprudence. The draft was revised to remove Roman law influences and the German Civil Code came into effect in 1900. Gierke established his reputation as foremost academic expert on Germanic jurisprudence in 1868, when he published the first volume of The German Law of Associations (Das Deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht). While serving as acting rector, Gierke became prominent in academic circles for his research on Johannes Althusius. In his four-volume magnum opus entitled Das deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht, he pioneered the study of social groups and the importance of associations in German life, which stood between the divide of private and public law.
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