[page v] In 1868, when I published volume 1 of a work on The German Law of Fellowship, published under the title of The Legal History of the German Fellowship, I set out, in the preface and introduction, the plan of how the work was to be continued. With the publication of this present volume I am fulfilling, albeit late and only partially, the promise I made there. I have taken a long time to fulfil it not only because, as often seems to be the case, a work which had appeared to be complete in its conception only revealed the many difficulties which had been overlooked or underestimated during its actual execution, but also because many external interruptions intervened to prevent me from completing it, above all my participation in the Franco-Prussian War.

I am only partially completing the task, which I had set myself to achieve in full, because its extent and far-reaching implications became apparent only in the course of carrying out the research which follows here. This compelled me to devote the present weighty tome, originally intended as the final part of the whole work, to [these findings] alone. My original intention was that this volume should contain an examination of the legal and moral nature of German fellowship in two sections: the first was to examine ‘the history of the concept of corporation’ on its own, and the second was to analyse ‘the current law of fellowship’.