Book1 Chapter04

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 IV. Periods of Time, Dates.

Section 186.

• The rules of interpretation of 187 to 193 apply to the fixing of periods and dates contained in statutes, judicial orders and juristic acts.

Section 187.

• [I] If a period begins to run from an event or a point of time occurring during the course of a day, then in reckoning the period the day in which the event or the point of time occurs is not counted.
• [II] If the beginning of a day is the point of time from which a period begins to run, then this day is counted in reckoning the period. The same rule applies to the day of birth in the reckoning of age.

Section 188.

• [I] A period described by days ends with the expiration of the last day of the period.
• [II] A period described by weeks, by months, or by a period of time covering several months--i.e., year, half-year, quarter--ends, in the case provided for by 187, par. 1, on the expiration of that day of the last week or of the last month which corresponds in name or number to the day in which the event or the point of time occurs; in the case provided for by 187, par. 2, on the expiration of that day of the last week or of the last month which precedes the day which corresponds in name or number fo the initial day of the period.
• [III] If, in the case of a period described by months, the decisive day for its expiration is wanting in the last month, the period ends with the expiration of the last day of the month.

Section 189.

• [I] By a half-year a period of six months, by a quarter a period of three months, by a half-month a period of fifteen days is understood.
• [II] If a period is fixed at one or several entire months and a half-month, the fifteen days shall be counted last.

Section 190.

• In case of the extension of a period the new period is reckoned from the expiration of the former period.

Section 191.

• If a period of time is described by months or by years in such a manner that they need not run consecutively, a month is reckoned as thirty days, a year as three hundred and sixty-five days.

Section 192.

• By the beginning of a month the first, by the middle of a month the fifteenth, by the end of a month the last day of the month is understood.

Section 193.

• If, on a given day or within a given period, a declaration of intention is required to be made or any act of performance to be done, and if the given day or the last day of the given period falls upon a Sunday or a day officially recognised in the place of making or performance as a public holiday, then the next business day takes the place of the Sunday or holiday.