Note 840 — Chapter VI · OLD ENGLISH WIFE-PURCHASE YIELDS TO FREE MARRIAGE

In early German law the "real contract" is the only contract recognized. There is no contract by mere convention, no "consensual" contract. Originally two-sided fulfilment was required. Thus, according to Sohm, Eheschliessung, 24 ff., in case of betrothal, payment of the price and tradition of the bride went hand in hand. Later one-sided performance, or even a formal act, was deemed sufficient, and through it the title was actually transferred; the purchaser thus acquiring the "negative" as opposed to the "positive" rights of property—the power to use and enjoy. Cf. Habicht, Altdeutsche Verlobung, 6, 7; Loening, Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenrechts, II, 577-79; Young, in Essays, 167; Lehmann, Verlobung und Hochzeit, 77; Friedberg, Verlobung und Trauung, 7, 8; Stobbe, Reuerecht und Vertragschluss nach älterem deutschem Recht (Leipzig, 1876).