Book1 Chapter01 Title01

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 I. Persons.

Title I. Natural Persons.

Section 1.

• The legal capacity of a human being begins with the completion of birth.

Section 2.

• Majority begins with the completion of the twenty-first year of age.

Section 3.

• [I] A minor who has completed his eighteenth year of age may be declared of full age by order of the Guardianship Court.
• [II] By the declaration of majority the minor acquires the legal status of a person of full age.

Section 4.

• [I] The declaration of majority is permissible only if the minor gives his approval.
• [II] If the minor is under parental power, the approval of the parent is also necessary, unless he has neither the care of the person nor of the property of the child. For a minor widow the approval of the parent is not necessary.

Section 5.

• The declaration of majority should issue only if it will promote the welfare of the minor.

Section 6.

• [I] A person may be interdicted:
• (1) if in consequence of insanity or feeble-mindedness he is unable to manage his affairs;
• (2) if by prodigality he exposes himself or his family to the danger of want;
• (3) if in consequence of habitual drunkenness he is unable to manage his affairs, or exposes himself or his family to the danger of want, or endangers the safety of others.
• [II] The interdiction shall be revoked if the cause for the interdiction disappears.

Section 7.

• [I] A person who resides habitually in a place establishes his domicile in that place.
• [II] Domicile may exist simultaneously in several places.
• [III] Domicile is lost if, with the intention of abandoning it, residence is discontinued.

Section 8.

• A person who is incapable of disposing or is limited in disposing capacity, may neither establish nor abandon a domicile without the consent of his statutory agent.

Section 9.

• [I] A person in military service has his domicile in the place where he is stationed. In the case of a person whose command has no home station, the last home station of the command is deemed to be the place of his domicile.
• [II] These provisions do not apply to persons in military service who are serving only their compulsory term of military service, or who may not establish a separate domicile.

Section 10.

• [I] A wife takes the domicile of her husband. If the husband establishes a domicile in a place in a foreign country to which the wife does not follow and is not bound to follow him, the wife does not take his domicile.
• [II] So long as the husband has no domicile or the wife does not take his domicile, the wife may have a separate domicile.

Section 11.

• [I] A legitimate child takes the domicile of the father, an illegitimate child the domicile of the mother, an adopted child the domicile of the adoptor. The child retains his domicile until he legally abandons it.
• [II] A legitimation or adoption not taking place until after the child has attained his majority does not affect the domicile of the child.

Section 12.

• If the right to the use of a name by a person entitled to it is disputed by another, or if the interest of the person entitled is injured by the fact that another uses the same name without authority, then the person entitled may demand from the other abatement of the injury. If a continuance of the injury is to be apprehended, he may apply for an injunction.

Section 13.

• A person who has disappeared may, subject to the conditions provided for by 14 to 17, be declared dead by means of public summons.

Section 14.

• [I] The declaration of death may be made, if for ten years no news has been received that the missing person is alive. It cannot be made before the close of the year in which the missing person would have completed his thirty-first year of age.
• [II] A missing person who would have completed his seventieth year of age may be declared dead, if for five years no news has been received that he is alive.
• [III] The periods of ten and five years respectively begin to run from the close of the last year in which the missing person was reported to be still alive.

Section 15.

• [I] A person who, as a member of an armed force, has taken part in a war, has been missed during the war, and has not since been heard of, may be declared dead, if three years have elapsed since the conclusion of peace. If no conclusion of peace has taken place, the three years begin to run from the close of the year in which the war was brought to an end.
• [II] A person who accompanies an armed force in the capacity of official or servant, or as a volunteer, is also deemed to be a member of an armed force.

Section 16.

• [I] If a vessel shall have been lost during a sea voyage, any person who was on board at the time, and who has been missing since the loss of the vessel, may be declared dead, if one year has elapsed since the loss.
• [II] The loss of the vessel is presumed if she has not arrived at her place of destination, or, if she had no fixed destination, has not returned, and if --
• (a) In case of voyages within the Baltic Sea, one year;
• (b) In case of voyages within other European waters, including all parts of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Sea of Azov, two years;
• (c) In case of voyages extending beyond European waters, three years
• have elapsed since the beginning of the voyage. If news has been received of the vessel, the expiration of that period is necessary which would have had to elapse if the vessel had taken her departure from the place where she was last reported to be.

Section 17.

• If a person has been in peril of his life in circumstances other than those specified in 15, 16, and has never thereafter been reported alive, he may be declared dead if three years have elapsed since the occurrence whereby the peril of life arose.

Section 18.

• [I] The declaration of death establishes the presumption that the missing person died at the date fixed in the judicial decree for declaration of death.
• [II] Unless the ascertained facts indicate some other date, death is presumed to have occurred --
• (a) In the cases provided for by 14, at the date at which the declaration of death could first lawfully be made;
• (b) In the cases provided for by 15, at the date at which peace was concluded, or at the close of the year in which the war was brought to an end;
• (c) In the cases provided for by 16, at the date at which the vessel was lost or is presumed to have been lost;
• (d) In the cases provided for by 17, at the date at which the occurrence took place.
• [III] If the time of death is fixed only as a certain day, death is deemed to have taken place at the end of that day.

Section 19.

• So long as the declaration of death has not been made, the. missing person is presumed to have lived up to the date which, according to 18, par. 2, is presumed to be the date of death in the absence of any other indication from the ascertained facts; the provision of 18, par. 3, applies mutatis mutandis.

Section 20.

• If several persons have perished in a common peril, it is presumed that they died simultaneously.