ABSTRACT
The contribution of Otto Gierke (1841—1921) to modern guild theory was his application of the new idea of the real personality of the group — itself a radical extension of earlier organic thought - to producers' associations. Orphaned at 14, by the age of 40 he had completed three volumes of Das deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht (DGR) (The German Law of Fellowship), as well as his masterpiece on Althusius, fathered six children, and fought in the wars of 1866 and 1870, being awarded the Iron Cross in the latter (J.D. Lewis 1935, 22-3; Stutz 1922, 9ff.). Superficially he looks the archetype of 'Teutonic scholarship' - more footnotes than text. But the first volume of Das deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht, published when he was twenty-seven, was a work of passionate youthful conviction; poise and punch carry it along as a great national epic.
