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Why was the first draft of the German Civil Code rejected in 1888?

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Mosaic portrait of Emperor Justinian I with a jeweled crown and halo, from the 6th-century Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. — Civil law Justinian I, detail of a 6th-century mosaic at the Church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy.

The first draft of the German Civil Code, presented in 1888, was rejected primarily because it was perceived as being too heavily influenced by Roman law.1

Critics, most notably the legal philosopher Otto Friedrich von Gierke, argued that the draft unnecessarily incorporated Roman legal elements into what should have been an indigenous Germanic legal framework. Gierke and other members of the Germanist school of jurisprudence contended that the existing Germanic content was sufficient on its own and that the reliance on Roman concepts was gratuitous.2

Following this rejection, a second draft was developed that better addressed these concerns, eventually leading to the code's promulgation in 1896 and its implementation in 1900.1