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Biography of Otto von GierkeName: Otto von GierkeBirth Date: January 11, 1841 Death Date: October 10, 1921 Place of Birth: Stettin, Germany Nationality: German Gender: Male Occupations: jurist, professor Otto von Gierke The German jurist Otto von Gierke (1841-1921) was a leader of the Germanistic school of legal historians and is best known for his theory of the nature and role of associations, called the Genossenschaft theory.Otto von Gierke, born on Jan. 11, 1841, in Stettin, was the son of a Prussian official. He spent his early years in a family atmosphere that was highly respectable, cultured, and intensely Prussian. The latter part of his university training was at Berlin, where he was strongly influenced by George Beseler, a Germanist in juristic theory. Gierke's early career was interrupted by wartime service in the army. After holding professorships at the universities of Breslau (1872-1884) and Heidelberg (1884-1887), he succeeded to Beseler's chair at the University of Berlin in 1887. He remained in that post until his death on Oct. 10, 1921.In Gierke's early years the dominant influence in German legal history and jurisprudence was that of the Romanists, led …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…state. The pluralistic elements of his theory were always balanced by the dominant role that he assigned to the state and its law. Nor was he an advocate of any sort of functional federalism for Germany. His devotion to Prussia and the monarchy and his concern for assured unity of the German people moved him steadily toward centralized authority and made him a vigorous critic of the Weimar Constitution of post-World War I Germany. Further Reading A section of Das deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht by Gierke was translated with an introduction by Frederic W. Maitland as Political Theories of the Middle Age (1900). Other sections were translated with an introduction by Sir Ernest Barker as Natural Law and the Theory of Society, 1500-1800 (2 vols., 1934). A study of Gierke, which includes translations of several portions of his books and articles, is John D. Lewis, The Genossenschaft-Theory of Otto von Gierke: A Study in Political Thought (1935). |