Community in Historical Perspective

Preface; Note on the translations; Life of Otto von Gierke; List of the major works of Otto von Gierke; Editor's introduction; Glossary; Part I. The German Law of Fellowship: Volume I. The Legal and Moral History of the German Fellowship: Preface to volume I; Introduction: the meaning of association, scope and plan of the work; 1. The five periods of European history; 2. Up to AD 800; the feudal system; 3. Free union: gilds and craft gilds; 4. The medieval cities; 5. The golden age of the craft gilds; 6. Political unions, city leagues, the Hansa; 7. The Empire as union; 8. Rural communes and federations: Switzerland and North Germany; 9. The estates, representation and the territorial state; 10. The peasantry and rural fellowships; 11. Corporations and the sovereign state, 1525–1806; 12. Rural communities, 1525–1806; 13. Towns and cities from 1525 to the present; 14. Parliamentary representation and the development of the modern state; 15. The Empire, 1525–1806; 16. Fellowships under benevolent despotism, 1525–1806; 17. Free fellowships for economic purposes from 1525 to the present; 18. Economic fellowships based on property: the joint-stock company; 19. Economic fellowships based on personality: the producers' co-operative; Part II. The German Law of Fellowship: Volume II. The History of the German Concept of Corporation: Outline of contents; Preface; Introduction; 20. The concept of fellowship; 21. Corporation and institution; Part III. The German Law of Fellowship: Volume III. The Doctrine of State and Corporation in the Ancient World and the Middle Ages, and its Reception in Germany: Introduction: the genesis of the academic theory of state and corporation; Notes; Index.