 the bÃ¼rgerliches gesetzbuch (or bgb) is the civil code of germany. in development since 1881, it became effective on january 1, 1900, and was considered a massive and groundbreaking project. the bgb served as a template for the regulations of several other civil law jurisdictions, including portugal, estonia, latvia, taiwan (the republic of china), japan, thailand, south korea, the people's republic of china, brazil, greece and ukraine. ==history== ===german empire=== thumb|300px|publication in the reich law gazette on august 24, 1896 the introduction in france of the napoleonic code in 1804 created in germany a similar desire for obtaining a civil code (despite the opposition of the historical school of law of friedrich carl von savigny), which would systematize and unify the various heterogeneous laws that were in effect in the country. however, the realization of such an attempt during the life of the german confederation was difficult, for the appropriate legislative body did not exist. however, in 1871, most of the various german states were united into the german empire. in the beginning, civil law legislative power was held by the individual states, not the empire (reich) that comprised those states. an amendment to the constitution passed in 1873 (called "lex miquel-lasker" - referring to the amendment's sponsors, representatives johannes von miquel and eduard lasker) transferred this legislative authority to the reich. various committees were then formed to draft a bill that was to become a civil law codification for the entire country, replacing the civil law systems of the states. a first draft code, in 1888, did not meet with favour. a second committee of 22 members, comprising not only jurists but also representatives of financial interests and of the various ideological currents of the time, compiled a second draft. after significant revisions, the bgb was passed by the reichstag in 1896. it was put into effect on january 1, 1900 and has been the central codification of germany's civil law ever since. ===nazi germany=== in nazi germany, there were plans to replace the bgb with a new codification that was planned to be entitled "volksgesetzbuch" ("people's code"), which was meant to reflect nazi ideology better than the liberal spirit of the bgb, but these plans did not become reality. however, some general principles of the bgb such as the doctrine of bona fides (Â§ 242 bgb, "grundsatz von treu und glauben") were used to interpret the bgb in a nazi-friendly way. therefore, the political 'need' to draft a completely new code to match the nazis expectations subsided, 
1900_in_law Civil_codes German_law