Handelsfrauen: On the Legal Conditions of Women’s Commercial Activity in the Long Nineteenth Century in Central Europe

This chapter deals with the legal framework for merchant women (Handelsfrauen) in Germany in the nineteenth century. There were dozens of different civil laws in the different states of the German Confederation, which is why there were no general legal principles regarding merchant women. The General German Commercial Code enacted by the member states in 1861/1862 brought about a uniform German commercial law. Nevertheless, each individual state had to adopt an introductory law, which is why different regulations arose regarding the legal position of merchant women. The chapter also discusses the legal regulations regarding the consent of husbands in commercial matters in the nineteenth century. It should be noted that many legal restrictions on women applied only to those who were married. The German Civil Code (1900) granted women the same legal capacity as men, which is why numerous restrictions that had been the order of the day for centuries were lifted. However, the family law of the BGB still regulated a patriarchal family model that treated men and women unequally, and conflict could emerge between the husband’s rights and his wife’s independent commercial enterprise. The chapter draws the conclusion that the main legal instrument of discrimination against women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was marriage law, not commercial law.