The Company Law Amendment of 11 June 1870 eliminated the requirement for a state license in accordance with the ADHGB of 1861 for the formation and administration of stock corporations, replacing it with a normative system. This publication contains a comprehensive and previously unpublished range of sources on the Federal Council of the North German Confederation's deliberations on the amendment as well as early accounts of it in practice.

Werner Schubert, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.