Foundation of 1916 for studies in economic and comparative law

The foundation established by Berlin merchant Carl Leopold Netter in the tumultuous year of 1916 today is a trust capable of holding rights based in Heidelberg.

Foundational emphases are science and research in the field of jurisprudence, education and culture as well as the advancement of international understanding. The foundational goals as laid out in the statutes are the promotion of comparative law and the maintenance of the Institute for Comparative Law, Conflict of Laws and International Business Law at Heidelberg University Faculty of Law founded in 1916; it is the aim of the foundation’s board of directors, which is made up of the Institute’s respective directors (currently Professor Dr. Christoph A. Kern, LL.M. (Harvard), Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Thomas Pfeiffer and Professor Dr. Marc-Philippe Weller), to implement and actualize these goals.

Owing to the currency reforms of 1923 and 1948, the Institute has lost a substantial share of the initial endowment fund of 1.100.100 Reichsmarks. Through accumulation of endowment returns, the fund has reached a level to where 20.000 € can be invested annually, foremost to publish the “Heidelberg Studies in Comparative and Business Law” (‘Heidelberger rechtsvergleichende und wirtschaftsrechtliche Studien’; volume 1 published 1966).

The foundation of 1916 is a member of the Association of German Foundations (‘Bundesverband Deutscher Stiftungen’).