Rudolph Sohm

Gotthold Julius Rudolph Sohm, born 29 October 1841 in Rostock and who died 16 May 1917 in Leipzig, was a German jurist, church historian and theologian who studied law at Rostock, Berlin, Heidelberg and Munich between 1860 and 1864, earning his doctorate from the University of Rostock in 1864 with a focus on Roman law. He held academic positions at Gottingen from 1866 to 1870, Freiburg from 1870 to 1872, Strasbourg from 1872 to 1887, serving as rector there in 1882, and Leipzig from 1887 to 1917, and he served on the committee that drafted Germany's civil code, the BGB, accepted by the Reichstag in 1896. His two-volume Kirchenrecht, published in 1892 and 1923, argued that the early Christian church operated through charisma rather than legal structures, a concept the sociologist Max Weber adopted from Sohm's work; Sohm also co-founded the National-Social Association in 1896 and was awarded the Pour le Merite civil class in 1916.