The Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (or BGB) is the civil code of Germany. In development since 1881, it became effective on January 1, 1900, and was considered a massive and groundbreaking project.

The BGB served as a template for the regulations of several other civil law jurisdictions, including Estonia, Latvia, ****** (the *****************), Japan, Thailand, South Korea, the People's *****************, Brazil, Greece and Ukraine. It also had a major influence on the 1907 Swiss civil code, the 1942 Italian civil code, the 1966 Portuguese civil code, and the new civil law books in the Netherlands