Karl-Theodor von Inama-Sternegg on Rocholl’s System des deutschen Armenpflegerechtes (1874)

In this short review, Inama-Sternegg assesses the completed version of C. Rocholl’s handbook of German poor-relief law, published in 1873. Returning to his earlier notice of its first division, he finds his favorable judgment strengthened by the second. His central criterion is practical usefulness: systematic legal exposition must encompass both the diversity of state legislation and the continuing transformation of poor relief across the German Empire.

The review first establishes the breadth of Rocholl’s documentation. Alongside state provisions implementing the imperial law of 6 June 1870, Rocholl collects transitional rules and organizational measures. Inama-Sternegg particularly welcomes the separate treatment of legislative developments in Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden. An appendix containing seventy-two legal texts brings together conventions, imperial statutes, state laws, ordinances, and regulations. This documentary range grounds the review’s strongest endorsement:

In dieser Vollständigkeit ist das Buch ein erschöpfendes Orientirungswerk über das ganze Gebiet des öffentlichen Armenwesens, und in jedem Staate des deutschen Reiches gleich vollkommen als praktisches Handbuch zu gebrauchen.

English translation: In this completeness the book is an exhaustive work of orientation covering the whole field of public poor relief, and it can be used equally perfectly as a practical handbook in every state of the German Empire.

Completeness here means more than extensive collection: it makes a common reference work usable across distinct jurisdictions. Inama-Sternegg also singles out the inclusion of Bundesrat precedents concerning Heimatswesen as valuable for adjudicating poor-relief disputes, while the subject index makes the accumulated material accessible. His evaluation thus connects documentary coverage, judicial application, and ease of consultation.

The closing paragraph turns from the completed handbook to the problem of maintaining its authority amid legislative change. Rocholl proposes a Centralorgan für Armenrecht und Armenwesen to report subsequent alterations in the law. Inama-Sternegg presents this continuing publication as an appropriate extension of the systematic work:

Geleitet von der Ueberzeugung, dass Alle, welche im öffentlichen Armenwesen theoretisch oder praktisch thätig sind, mit ihm das Bedürfniss nach Weiterentwicklung der ganz neuen Armengesetzgebung empfinden, will er auch auf eine zweckmässige Ergänzung seines Werkes bedacht sein, damit es nicht vor der Zeit veralte.

English translation: Guided by the conviction that all those who are active theoretically or practically in public poor relief feel with him the need for the further development of the entirely new poor law legislation, he intends also to be mindful of a suitable supplement to his work, so that it may not become obsolete before its time.

The review’s organizing tension is therefore between systematic completion and an unfinished legal transformation. Its relevance lies in showing what Inama-Sternegg expects of scholarship serving public administration: comprehensive coordination of dispersed laws, attention to operative precedents, and provision for continual revision. His concluding support for Rocholl’s proposed journal follows directly from those practical standards.