Book1 Chapter02

GERMAN CIVIL CODE OF 1896

• Based on the English Translation by: Wang, Chung Hui (1907). The German Civil Code, translated and annotated with historical introduction and appendices. London: Stevens and Sons. [available on Archive.org]

BOOK I. General Principles.

Chapter II. Things.

Section 90.

• Things, in the legal sense, are corporeal objects only.

Section 91.

• Fungible things, in the legal sense, are movable things which in ordinary dealings are customarily determined by number, measure, or weight.

Section 92.

• [I] Consumable things, in the legal sense, are movable things whose ultimate use consists in being consumed or disposed of.
• [II] Consumable things include also movables which constitute a stock-in-trade or other aggregate of things whose ultimate use consists in being disposed of piecemeal.

Section 93.

• Component parts of a thing which cannot be separated from one another without destroying or essentially changing the one or the other (i.e., essential component parts) may not be the object of separate rights.

Section 94.

• The essential component parts of land are things which are firmly affixed to the soil, e.g., buildings, and the products of the land, so long as they are connected with the soil. Seed upon being sown, a plant upon being planted, respectively become essential component parts of the land.
• [II] The essential component parts of a building are things which are parts of the structure of the building.

Section 95.

• [I] Things do not become component parts of land which are affixed to the soil only for a temporary purpose. The same rule applies to a building or other structure which, in the exercise of a right over another person's land, has been affixed to the land by the person who has such right.
• [II] Things which are attached to a building only for a temporary purpose do not become component parts of the building.

Section 96.

• Rights which are connected with the ownership of land are deemed to be component parts of the land.

Section 97.

• [I] Accessories are movables, which, without being component parts of the principal thing, are intended to serve the economic purpose of the principal thing, and stand in a local relation to it suitable for the carrying out of this intention. A thing is not an accessory if it is not regarded in ordinary dealings as an accessory.
• [II] The temporary use of a thing to serve the economic purpose of another does not constitute it an accessory. The temporary separation of an accessory from the principal thing does not terminate it as accessory.

Section 98.

• The economic purpose of the principal thing is served:
• (1) In the case of a building permanently fitted up for industrial operations, as a mill, a forge, a brewery, a factory, by the machines and other implements intended for the operations;
• (2) In the case of a farm, by the tools and cattle intended for the operations of husbandry, the farm products, so far as they are necessary for the continuation of the husbandry up to the time at which a new supply of the like or similar products will presumably be obtained, and the existing stock of manure produced upon the farm.

Section 99.

• [I] Fruits of a thing are the products of the thing, and such other yield as is obtained from the thing consistently with the use for which the thing is intended.
• [II] Fruits of a right are the proceeds which the right affords consistently with its object, e.g. in the case of a right to the acquisition of component parts of the soil, the component parts acquired.
• [III] Fruits include also the proceeds which a thing or a right affords by virtue of a legal relation.

Section 100.

• Emoluments are the fruits of a thing or a right as well as the advantages which the use of the thing or the right affords.

Section 101.

• A person who is entitled to receive the fruits of a thing or of a right up to or from a given time, is, unless it is otherwise provided, entitled to:
• (1) The products specified in 99, par. 1, and the component parts, even if he is to receive them as fruits of a right, in so far as they have been separated from the thing during the existence of his right;
• (2) Other fruits (9), in so far as they become due during the existence of his right; if, however, the fruits consist in compensation for the relinquishment of the use or of the enjoyment of the fruits, in interest, dividends, or other periodical income, he is entitled to a part proportionate to the duration of his right.

Section 102.

• A person who is bound to hand over fruits may demand compensation for the expenses incurred in the production of the fruits, in so far as these were incurred by proper methods of production, and do not exceed the value of the fruits.

Section 103.

• A person who is bound to bear the charges upon a thing or a right up to or from a given time shall, unless it is otherwise provided, bear the periodical charges proportionately to the duration of his obligation; and other charges, in so far as they are payable during the existence of his obligation.