The lecture deepens the knowledge required for the compulsory subject in family and succession law. In particular, the marriage, kinship and guardianship law as well as the legal and testamentary succession are dealt with in detail.

Thematically, the colloquium deals with highly topical issues of family law, such as legal parenthood after fertility treatment (sperm donation, co-motherhood, surrogacy) or the legal treatment of different care models after separation and divorce. At the same time, the course serves to teach key skills for writing seminar papers and giving presentations. The preparation and joint discussion of own (short) texts and the presentation of short lectures or statements offers the opportunity to prepare for the focus study in the protected space of the small group.

The course deals with the development of private law since the reception of learned law in Germany (including the consequences for the early modern administration of justice), the scientification of law as a pan-European phenomenon, the changes brought about by the Natural Law Codifications and the Historical School of Law, as well as the history of the origin and development of the Civil Code. An emphasis is placed on the history of family and inheritance law.

The colloquium will focus on continuities and caesuras on the basis of the system breaks in 1933, 1945 and 1990: How did the "Nazification" of German lawyers take place after 1933 and how was their denazification after 1945? What traces did the Nazi myth of the mother leave behind in the law of the FRG, despite the postulated equality of the sexes? How did family law develop in a German-German comparison? A focus is placed on family law topics.