Bernhard Windscheid (26 June 1817 – 26 October 1892) was a German
jurist and a member of the
pandectistic school of law thought.
He became famous with his essay on the concept of a legal action, which sparkled a debate with that is said to have initiated the studies of the processal law as we know it today. Windscheid's thesis established the modern German law concept of ''Anspruch'' (roughly, a legally enforceable claim), distinguishing it from the
Roman law
Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Ju ...
concept of ''actio''.
His principal work was his ''Lehrbuch des Pandektenrechts'', and this was the main source of inspiration for the German Civil Code – the
BGB. Between 1873 and 1883, Windscheid was part of the commission in charge of the drafting of the German Civil Code.
Additionally, Windscheid worked as a teacher at several universities in Germany and Switzerland, including
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
,
Greifswald
Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rosto ...
,
München,
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
, and
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
.
Family
Bernhard Windscheid married the artist Auguste Eleanore Charlotte "Lotte" Pochhammer (1830–1918) on 4 November 1858.
Four recorded children resulted from this marriage. The eldest,
Käthe Windscheid
Katharina "Käthe" Windscheid (28 August 1859 – 11 March 1943) was a German women's rights activist and a pioneer of women's education. In 1895 she became the first woman in Germany to receive a doctorate for an academic dissertation.
Life ...
(1859–1943) achieved prominence as a women's rights activist and as a pioneer of women's education. (1862–1910) was also something of a pioneer in his chosen field: he was a
neurologist
Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...
. The younger two children, Charlotte and Margarete, were twins.
Published works
A full bibliography of Windscheid is provided by Felix Klein.
His major works include:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
** 3. ed., Düsseldorf 1870
Vol. IVol. II
and Vol. III (in German).
** 5. ed., Stuttgart 1879
Vol. IVol. II
an
Vol. III
(in German).
** 6. ed., Frankfurt 1887
Vol. IVol. II
an
Vol. III
(in German).
** 9. ed., Leipzig, 1906, ed. by Theodor Kipp, is the edition usually cited.
*
References
Further reading
* Ulrich Falk: ''Ein Gelehrter wie Windscheid : Erkundungen auf den Feldern der sogenannten Bergriffsjurisprudenz'' (1999)
* Gabor Hamza: "Entstehung und Entwicklung der modernen Privatrechtsordnungen und die römischrechtliche Tradition", Budapest 2009, 193-199. pp.
Leipzig University (German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Windscheid, Bernhard
1817 births
1892 deaths
Academic staff of the University of Greifswald
People from Düsseldorf
German legal scholars
Jurists from North Rhine-Westphalia