Book of five men
The supplements and explanations of the Prussian legal books by legislation and science , the so-called five - man book , was a multi-volume compendium of Prussian law, which was of outstanding practical importance for the period from the Vormärz to the German Empire .
The work should initially (1st edition from 1838) cover the entire Prussian law, especially the general land law of 1794 (civil law, public law, criminal law) with changes as well as the general court system. In the course of its publication (7th and last edition from 1885/1888) its program was reduced (among other things, the General Court Rules were omitted).
Legal texts, ordinances, corresponding decrees and the like were reproduced, often with material on the history of the legal clauses. In many cases, but not systematically, the case law (primarily that of the Prussian higher tribunal ) was documented, possibly with extracts from decisions. Information on legal literature is often found. However, comments were not made throughout.
The first edition was written and edited by a number of authors. That was a novelty, due to the abundance of material. It was about four judges and one lawyer (hence the proverbial name of the book of five men), namely Christian Friedrich Koch , Ludwig von Rönne , Heinrich Simon , August Wentzel and Heinrich Gräff , who were active at the time in Breslau, at the headquarters of the first publishing house soon published independently (on general land law, Prussian and German constitutional law, etc.). All five were politically active. Particular mention should be made of Simon (who later became a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly , the Stuttgart Rump Parliament) and von Rönne (who still sat for the National Liberals in the German Reichstag). The composition changed; At times Adalbert Falk played a key role. Until the end, only von Rönne was involved.
The five-man book survived not only when larger and larger areas of law were separated from the general land law and rearranged, but also when imperial law increasingly replaced Prussian law, and also because the need for more specific literature and more detailed commentary had grown.
The book of five men is a good introduction to Prussian legal history.
The work is largely accessible via the internet portals of the Berlin State Library and the Bavarian State Library.
literature
- Meyers Konversations-Lexikon , Volume VII, 6th edition, 1908, p. 209
- Pierers Universal-Lexikon , Volume X, 4th ed., 1860, p. 86 (keyword Landrecht)
- Hellmuth Günther, About the Book of Five Men, in: The Public Service , 2014, pp. 164–176