The ''Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch'' (DRW) or ''Dictionary of Historical German Legal Terms'' is a historic legal dictionary developed under the aegis of the

Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (German: ''Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften''), established in 1909 in Heidelberg, Germany, is an assembly of scholars and scientists in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. The acade ...

. The research unit took up work in 1897 and until today has completed 93,155 articles, ranging from ''Aachenfahrt'' (pilgrimage to

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

) to ''selbzwölft'' (being one of twelve persons). These have been published in 12 consecutive volumes and are also freely accessible online. In course of its research, the DRW also touches upon sources in

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

, of Hanseatic provenance and

Pennsylvania German The Pennsylvania Dutch (), also referred to as Pennsylvania Germans, are an ethnic group in Pennsylvania in the United States, Ontario in Canada, and other regions of both nations. They largely originate from the Palatinate region of Germany ...

. The research unit will presumably conclude its work in 2036.

Objectives

Deutsches Rechtswoerterbuch DRW 12Baende

The DRW aims at covering German legal terminology from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

up to the beginning of the 19th century. In this context, legal language is understood as a general historical vocabulary in reference to legal meanings. The research unit wants to outline how legal concepts, convictions and institutions manifested themselves in everyday language. Concomitantly, the DRW does not only contain legal terms, but common phrases bearing relation to legal contexts. Furthermore, the DRW as part of its research lists the legally relevant vocabulary, not only of Modern High German, but of all Western German language varieties. The dictionary cites usage of historical vocabulary from various regions of the

West Germanic language The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided ...

area from England to Transylvania, from Lorraine to the Baltic Seas. In order to capture the full lexical diversity of meanings for each word, the dictionary employs techniques of synchronic and diachronic comparative law in addition to purely linguistic and lexicographic approaches, against the backdrop of historical contextualisation. As Germany’s Federal President

Richard von Weizsäcker Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician ( CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobili ...

once wrote: “The ''Rechtswörterbuch'' incorporates language- and culture-historical references beyond purely legal understandings, thus making the work truly cross-disciplinary.”

History

The DRW was initiated in 1896/97 as a project of the Royal Prussian Academy of Science at about the same time as other fundamental dictionary projects like the

Schweizerisches Idiotikon ''Schweizerisches Idiotikon'' ("the Swiss idioticon", also known as ''Wörterbuch der schweizerdeutschen Sprache'' "Dictionary of the Swiss German language") is an ongoing, major project of lexicography of the Swiss German dialects. Publication beg ...

. Perhaps, the envisioned ''Dictionary on Anglo-Norman Legal Terms'' by the

Selden Society The Selden Society is a learned society and registered charity concerned with the study of English legal history. It functions primarily as a text publication society, but also undertakes other activities to promote scholarship within its sphere ...

served as an inspiration (the renamed ''Dictionary of Law French'' compiled by Elsie Shanks sadly has never been published). Leading German capacities in the field of legal history, history and language history like Heinrich Brunner,

Ernst Dümmler Ernst Ludwig Dümmler (2 January 183011 September 1902) was a German historian. Biography Ernst Ludwig was born in Berlin, the son of Ferdinand Dümmler, a Berlin bookseller. He studied law, classical philology and history, among other things, ...

and Karl Weinhold belonged to the founding commission.

Otto von Gierke Otto Friedrich von Gierke, born Otto Friedrich Gierke (11 January 1841 – 10 October 1921), was a German legal scholar and historian. He is considered today as one of the most influential and important legal scholars of the 19th and 20th centur ...

was also a founding member and being rooted in the tradition of the German Historical School pledged for the inclusion of the West Germanic languages. Since the first head of research unit, Prof. Dr. iur. Richard Schröder, held office in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, the DRW has been located from the start in the historic city on the river

Neckar The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar ...

. Schröder’s successor was Prof. Eberhard Freiherr von Künßberg. Since he was married to a Jewish woman, the family had to emigrate to the United States (see descendants

Ekkehard von Kuenssberg Ekkehard von Kuenssberg CBE (; 17 December 1913 – 27 December 2000) was a German-born physician who made his career in Scotland. He was chairman and later president of the Royal College of General Practitioners and was appointed as its Wolfso ...

and

Laura Kuenssberg Laura Juliet Kuenssberg (born 8 August 1976) is a British journalist who presents the BBC's Sunday morning politics show. She was succeeded as Political Editor of BBC News by Chris Mason. She succeeded Nick Robinson as Political Editor of ...

). These circumstances contributed to the inner and outer turmoil the research unit faced in the wake of

Nazi rule Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictator ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Arising from the

division of Germany Division may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting of 10,000 to ...

and the dissolution of the Prussian Academy (hence called

German Academy of Sciences at Berlin The German Academy of Sciences at Berlin, , in 1972 renamed the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (''Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR (AdW)''), was the most eminent Research institute, research institution of East Germany (German Democratic Repub ...

), the DRW was incorporated into the Heidelberg Academy in 1959. Forty years later, the late head of research unit Dr. Heino Speer, initialised the free of charge Internet publication.

Modus operandi and sources

Every article deals with a certain word, which has been lemmatised into a standard German form. It contains linguistic information, explanations regarding the word’s acceptation(s) and the specific legal context. All meanings and compounds are illustrated by means of historical evidence cited in original language and excerpted from the DRW’s selection of sources. As main sources the DRW used various titles, from which more than two million quotations have been extracted in the research units’ early years. The excerpts were written on paper slides and are retrieved from the paper slide archive to the present day, as the basis of the research work. Owing to clarity, the DRW provides the used titles with scribal abbreviations. The catalogue of these so called ''Siglen'' amount to over 8000 titles in total and consist of: * over 4300 Monographs * over 1900 multipart items and series * over 900 journals * over 1000 non-independent works The sources used date back from 500 AD to 1835 AD and cover the following languages: * vernacular words from early

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

texts (500–800) *

(600–1100) *

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

(600–1050) * Lombardic (650–1000) *

Old Dutch In linguistics, Old Dutch ( Modern Dutch: ') or Old Low Franconian (Modern Dutch: ') is the set of dialects that evolved from Frankish spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from around the 6th Page 55: "''Uit de zesde eeu ...

(700–1200) *

Old Saxon Old Saxon (), also known as Old Low German (), was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Eur ...

(800–1200) *

Old Frisian Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the late 13th century and the end of 16th century. It is the common ancestor of all the modern Frisian languages except for the North Frisian language#Insular North Frisian, Insular North ...

(800–1500) *

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; or ; , shortened as ''Mhdt.'' or ''Mhd.'') is the term for the form of High German, High German language, German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High ...

(1050–1350) *

Middle Dutch Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or , there was no overarching sta ...

(1200–1500/1600) *

Middle Low German Middle Low German is a developmental stage of Low German. It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented in writing since about 1225–34 (). During the Hanseatic period (from about 1300 to about 1600), Mid ...

(1200–1650) *

Early Modern High German Early may refer to: Places in the United States * Early, Iowa, a city * Early, Texas, a city * Early Branch, a stream in Missouri * Early County, Georgia * Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort Music * Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...

(1350–1650) * Modern High German (1650–1835) The dictionary's oldest evidence dates back to 479 AD and was excerpted from a Merovingian Charter at the time of

Clovis I Clovis (; reconstructed Old Frankish, Frankish: ; – 27 November 511) was the first List of Frankish kings, king of the Franks to unite all of the Franks under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a ...

. The word at issue is "mundburt" (meaning a lord's special protection rights) for which

Felix Liebermann Felix Liebermann (20 July 1851 – 7 October 1925) was a German historian, who is celebrated for his scholarly contributions to the study of medieval English history, particularly that of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman law. Life Felix Liebermann ...

's ''Die'' ''Gesetze der Angelsachsen'' ("mundbyrd", 685/86) provides evidence. Old English texts thus amount to a major part of the oldest sources cited in the DRW. The DRW has made arrangements, which have to be met, in order for compounds and simplexes to be featured in the articles. Compounds should not exceed the turn of the 18th century. In order for a simplex to be included in the dictionary, the word's first verifiable evidence must date from 1815, at the latest. Terms originating from the designated timeframe of 1815 to 1835 will not be printed, but published with short reference in the online version.

English sources

In particular, Liebermann’s aforementioned ''Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen'' (The Anglo-Saxons‘ Law) serve as an important source for the DRW with regard to Old English. ''Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen'' contains the laws proclaimed by Anglo-Saxon rulers over the course of 5 centuries and remains “authoritative” and “unsurpassed” in the field.Book description by Cambridge University press via http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9781316225141 When it comes to Old English, cross-references are at times given to the seminal '' Anglo-Saxon Dictionary'' by Bosworth and Toller. In addition, many legal documents concerning the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

and their ''Stahlhof'' (

Steelyard The Steelyard, from the Middle Low German (sample yard), was the kontor (foreign trading post) of the Hanseatic League in London, and their main trading base in England, between the 13th and 16th centuries. The main goods that the League export ...

) in London might bear special interest for the English user. Following migration to North America in the 17th and 18th centuries, German settlers from the

Rhine Franconian __NOTOC__ Rhenish Franconian or Rhine Franconian ( ) is a dialect chain of West Central German. It comprises the varieties of German spoken across the western regions of the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, northwest Baden-Württember ...

language region preserved their dialects nowadays known as Pennsylvania German (or "Pennsylvania Dutch"). Pennsylvania German words, thus also find their way into the DRW, e.g. freiheitsbâm > Freiheitsbaum (tree of freedom) according to Lambert’s ''Dictionary of the non-English words of the Pennsylvania-German dialect'' meaning black poplar.

References

German online version of the DRW

* (en) Academies of Science and Humanities – Stores of Knowledge for the Future, 2012 (downloa

. * (en) Andreas Deutsch, The „Dictionary of Historical German Legal Terms” and its European concept, in: Charlotte Brewer (ed.), The Fifth International Conference on Historical Lexicography and Lexicology (ICHLL5), Oxford University Research Archive (ORA), http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ef5d07d3-77fc-4f07-b13f-d4c24b4d1848, 2011. * (en) Philip Durkin, The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography, Oxford 2015, p. 172. * (en) Rufus Gouws (ed.), Dictionaries. An International Encyclopedia of Lexicography, in: Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, Bd. 5, Berlin / Boston 2014, p. 732f. * (en) Günther Grewendorf (ed.), Formal Linguistics and Law, in: Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs, Vol. 212, Berlin .a.2009, p. 14. * (en) Marlies Janson & Helmut Opitz (ed.), World Guide to Special Libraries Vol. 1, Berlin / Boston 2007, p. 379 and 613. * (de) Günther Dickel, Heino Speer: ''Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch: Konzeption und lexikographische Praxis während acht Jahrzehnten (1897–1977).'' In: Helmut Henne (Hrsg.): ''Praxis der Lexikographie. Berichte aus der Werkstatt.'' (= ''Reihe germanistische Linguistik.'' Bd. 22). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1979, , S. 20–37. * (de) Christina Kimmel: ''Auge, Mund, Nase und Ohr im Recht. Ausgewählte Beispiele aus dem Corpus des Deutschen Rechtswörterbuchs.'' In: ''Forschungen zur Rechtsarchäologie und Rechtlichen Volkskunde.'' Bd. 17, 1997, 800035-9, S. 101–114 * (de) Ulrich Kronauer: ''Das Deutsche Rechtswörterbuch – ein zu wenig bekanntes Hilfsmittel der 18.-Jahrhundert-Forschung.'' In: ''Das achtzehnte Jahrhundert. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für die Erforschung des Achtzehnten Jahrhunderts.'' Bd. 14, Heft 2, 1990, (), S. 281–283. * (de) Ulrich Kronauer: ''Gefühle im Rechtsleben. Aus der Werkstatt des Deutschen Rechtswörterbuchs.'' In: ''Merkur.'' Nr. 597 = Bd. 52, Heft 12, 1998, S. 1181–1186. * (de) Ulrich Kronauer: ''Bilder vom „Zigeuner“ in rechtssprachlichen Quellen und ihre Darstellung im Deutschen Rechtswörterbuch.'' In: Anita Awosusi (Hrsg.): ''Stichwort: Zigeuner. Zur Stigmatisierung von Sinti und Roma in Lexika und Enzyklopädien'' (= ''Schriftenreihe des Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrums Deutscher Sinti und Roma.'' Bd. 8). Verlag Das Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 1998, , S. 97–118. * (de) Ulrich Kronauer, Jörn Garber (Hrsg.): ''Recht und Sprache in der deutschen Aufklärung'' (= ''Hallesche Beiträge zur europäischen Aufklärung.'' Bd. 14). Niemeyer, Tübingen 2000, . * (de) Adolf Laufs: ''Das Deutsche Rechtswörterbuch.'' In: ''Akademie-Journal.'' Bd. 2, 1993, (), S. 7–11. * (de) Ingrid Lemberg: ''Die Belegexzerption zu historischen Wörterbüchern am Beispiel des Frühneuhochdeutschen Wörterbuches und des Deutschen Rechtswörterbuches.'' In: Herbert Ernst Wiegand (Hrsg.): ''Wörterbücher in der Diskussion II. Vorträge aus dem Heidelberger Lexikographischen Kolloquium'' (= ''Lexicographica. Series maior.'' Bd. 70). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1996, , S. 83–102. * (de) Ingrid Lemberg: ''Entstehung des Deutschen Rechtswörterbuchs.'' In: ''Lexicographica. Internationales Jahrbuch für Lexikographie.'' Bd. 12, 1996, (), S. 105–124. * (de) Ingrid Lemberg: ''Hypertextualisierungsformen im Deutschen Rechtswörterbuch.'' In: ''Sprache und Datenverarbeitung. International Journal for Language Data Processing.'' Bd. 22, Heft 1, 1998, (), S. 44–54 * (de) Ingrid Lemberg: ''Lexikographische Erläuterungen im Deutschen Rechtswörterbuch: Gestaltungsmuster in einem Wörterbuch der älteren deutschen Rechtssprache.'' In: Herbert Ernst Wiegand (Hrsg.): ''Wörterbücher in der Diskussion III. Vorträge aus dem Heidelberger Lexikographischen Kolloquium'' (= ''Lexicographica. Series maior.'' Bd. 84). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1998, , S. 135–154. * (de) Ingrid Lemberg, Sybille Petzold, Heino Speer: ''Der Weg des Deutschen Rechtswörterbuchs in das Internet.'' In: Herbert Ernst Wiegand (Hrsg.): ''Wörterbücher in der Diskussion III. Vorträge aus dem Heidelberger Lexikographischen Kolloquium'' (= ''Lexicographica. Series maior.'' Bd. 84). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1998, , S. 262–284. * (de) Ingrid Lemberg, Heino Speer: ''Bericht über das Deutsche Rechtswörterbuch.'' In: ''Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte. Germanistische Abteilung.'' Bd. 114, 1997, S. 679–697. * (de) Eva-Maria Lill: ''Die EDV – das Ende aller Verzettelung? Der Einsatz der elektronischen Datenverarbeitung am Deutschen Rechtswörterbuch.'' In: Rudolf Grosse (Hrsg.): ''Bedeutungserfassung und Bedeutungsbeschreibung in historischen und dialektologischen Wörterbüchern. Beiträge zu einer Arbeitstagung der Deutschsprachigen Wörterbücher, Projekte an Akademien und Universitäten vom 7. bis 9. März 1996 anläßlich des 150jährigen Jubiläums der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig'' (= ''Abhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig. Philologisch-Historische Klasse.'' Bd. 75, Heft 1). Hirzel, Stuttgart u. a. 1998, , S. 237–248. * (de) Ulrike Rühl: ''Das Glossar zum Stadtrecht von Cleve.'' In: Bernhard Diestelkamp, Klaus Flink (Hrsg.): ''Der Oberhof Kleve und seine Schöffensprüche. Untersuchungen zum Klever Stadtrecht'' (= ''Klever Archiv.'' Bd. 15). Stadtarchiv Kleve, Kleve 1994, , S. 263–313. * (de) Heino Speer: ''Das Deutsche Rechtswörterbuch: Historische Lexikographie einer Fachsprache.'' In: ''Lexicographica. Internationales Jahrbuch für Lexikographie.'' Bd. 5, 1989, S. 85–128 (PDF-Datei; 336 kB). * (de) Heino Speer: ''Das Deutsche Rechtswörterbuch: Vorstellung des Wörterbuchs und lexikographische Praxis am Beispiel „magdeburgisch“.'' In: Ulrich Goebel, Oskar Reichmann (Hrsg.): ''Historical Lexicography of the German Language'' (= ''Studies in German Language and Literature. SGLL.'' Bd. 6 = ''Studies in Russian and German.'' Bd. 3). Band 2. Mellen, Lewiston NY u. a. 1991, , S. 675–711. * (de) Heino Speer: ''DRW to FAUST. Ein Wörterbuch zwischen Tradition und Fortschritt.'' In: ''Lexicographica. Internationales Jahrbuch für Lexikographie.'' Bd. 10, 1994, S. 171–213. * (de) Heino Speer: ''Ein Wörterbuch, die elektronische Datenverarbeitung und die Folgen.'' In: ''Akademie-Journal.'' Heft 2, 1998, S. 11–16. * (de) Heino Speer: ''Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch.'' In: ''Handwörterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte. HRG.'' Band 1: ''Aachen – Geistliche Bank.'' 2., völlig überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Schmidt, Berlin 2008, , Sp. 1007–1011.

External links