Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on the translation
- Life of Otto von Gierke
- List of the major works of Otto von Gierke
- Editor's introduction
- Glossary
- THE GERMAN LAW OF FELLOWSHIP. VOLUME I: THE LEGAL AND MORAL HISTORY OF THE GERMAN FELLOWSHIP
- Preface to volume 1
- Introduction: the meaning of association; scope and plan of the work
- I The five periods of European history [1] Gierke's chapter numbers: see p. x below
- II Up to ad 800; the feudal system, 800–1200 [2, 19]
- III Free union: gilds and craft gilds [26, 27]
- IV The medieval cities, 1200–1525 [28, 33, 34, 35]
- V The golden age of the craft gilds [38]
- VI Political unions, city leagues, the Hansa [44, 45]
- VII The Empire as union [48]
- VIII Rural communes and federations: Switzerland and North Germany [49, 50]
- IX The estates, representation and the territorial state [51]
- X The peasantry and rural fellowships [52, 53]
- XI Corporations and the sovereign state 1525–1806; the modern association movement, 1806 onwards: introduction [54]
- XII Rural communities 1525-1806 [55]
- XIII Towns and cities from 1525 to the present [56, 57]
- XIV Parliamentary representation and the development of the modern state [60, 61]
- XV The Empire 1525–1806 [62]
- XVI Fellowships under benevolent despotism, 1525-1806; modern free associations 1806 onwards [64,65]
- XVII Free fellowships for economic purposes from 1525 to the present [66, 67, 68]
- XVIII Economic fellowships based on property: the joint-stock company [Aktienverein] and domination by capital [69, 70]
- XIX Economic fellowships based on personality: the producers' co-operative [Produktivgenossenschaft] [70 cont.]
- THE GERMAN LAW OF FELLOWSHIP. VOLUME 2: THE HISTORY OF THE GERMAN CONCEPT OF CORPORATION [KÖRPERSCHAFT]
- THE GERMAN LAW OF FELLOWSHIP. VOLUME 3: THE DOCTRINE OF STATE AND CORPORATION [KORPORATION] CORPORATION] IN THE ANCIENT WORLD AND THE MIDDLE AGES, AND ITS RECEPTION IN GERMAN
- Notes
- Index
Introduction: the meaning of association; scope and plan of the work
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 May 2010
Edited by
Translated by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on the translation
- Life of Otto von Gierke
- List of the major works of Otto von Gierke
- Editor's introduction
- Glossary
- THE GERMAN LAW OF FELLOWSHIP. VOLUME I: THE LEGAL AND MORAL HISTORY OF THE GERMAN FELLOWSHIP
- Preface to volume 1
- Introduction: the meaning of association; scope and plan of the work
- I The five periods of European history [1] Gierke's chapter numbers: see p. x below
- II Up to ad 800; the feudal system, 800–1200 [2, 19]
- III Free union: gilds and craft gilds [26, 27]
- IV The medieval cities, 1200–1525 [28, 33, 34, 35]
- V The golden age of the craft gilds [38]
- VI Political unions, city leagues, the Hansa [44, 45]
- VII The Empire as union [48]
- VIII Rural communes and federations: Switzerland and North Germany [49, 50]
- IX The estates, representation and the territorial state [51]
- X The peasantry and rural fellowships [52, 53]
- XI Corporations and the sovereign state 1525–1806; the modern association movement, 1806 onwards: introduction [54]
- XII Rural communities 1525-1806 [55]
- XIII Towns and cities from 1525 to the present [56, 57]
- XIV Parliamentary representation and the development of the modern state [60, 61]
- XV The Empire 1525–1806 [62]
- XVI Fellowships under benevolent despotism, 1525-1806; modern free associations 1806 onwards [64,65]
- XVII Free fellowships for economic purposes from 1525 to the present [66, 67, 68]
- XVIII Economic fellowships based on property: the joint-stock company [Aktienverein] and domination by capital [69, 70]
- XIX Economic fellowships based on personality: the producers' co-operative [Produktivgenossenschaft] [70 cont.]
- THE GERMAN LAW OF FELLOWSHIP. VOLUME 2: THE HISTORY OF THE GERMAN CONCEPT OF CORPORATION [KÖRPERSCHAFT]
- THE GERMAN LAW OF FELLOWSHIP. VOLUME 3: THE DOCTRINE OF STATE AND CORPORATION [KORPORATION] CORPORATION] IN THE ANCIENT WORLD AND THE MIDDLE AGES, AND ITS RECEPTION IN GERMAN
- Notes
- Index
Summary
[1] Man owes what he is to union with his fellow man. The possibility of forming associations [Associationen*], which not only increase the power of those alive at the time, but also – and most importantly, because the existence of the association outspans that of the individual personality – unite past generations with those to come, gave us the possibility of evolution, of history.
As the progress of world history unfolds inexorably, there rises the unending arch of the noble edifice of those organic associations which, in ever greater and increasingly broad spheres, lend external form and efficacy to the coherence of all human existence and to unity in all its varied complexity. From marriage, the highest of those associations which do not outlast the life of the individual, come families, extended families [Geschlechter], tribes and nations, local communities [Gemeinden*], states and confederations in rich gradations; and there is no conceivable limit to this development, other than that at some time in the remote future all men unite in a single organised common life and give visible expression to the fact that they are simply elements of one great whole.
But this development from apparently insurmountable complexity to unity presents only one facet of social progress. All the life of the intellect, all human excellence would atrophy and be lost if the idea of unity were to triumph alone to the exclusion of all others.
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- Community in Historical Perspective , pp. 2 - 8Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990
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