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GenG (English)

Cooperative Societies Act
GenG-EN · official text on eucite.com in-house translation

🇩🇪 Auf Deutsch lesen (original text)

This English text is a careful, terminology-researched translation prepared by eucite.com — not an official government translation. The German original linked above is the legally authoritative text.

Sections

Division 1 Formation of the Cooperative

• Section 1 — Nature of the cooperative
• Section 2 — Liability for obligations
• Section 3 — Firm name of the cooperative
• Section 4 — Minimum number of members
• Section 5 — Form of the statutes
• Section 6 — Minimum content of the statutes
• Section 7 — Further mandatory content of the statutes
• Section 7a — Multiple shares; contributions in kind
• Section 8 — Reservation to the statutes for individual provisions
• Section 8a — Minimum capital
• Section 9 — Management board; supervisory board
• Section 10 — Register of cooperatives
• Section 11 — Application for registration of the cooperative
• Section 11a — Examination by the court
• Section 12 — Publication of the statutes
• Section 13 — Legal status before registration
• Section 14 — Establishment of a branch office
• Section 14a
• Section 15 — Acquisition of membership
• Section 15a — Content of the declaration of accession
• Section 15b — Participation with further shares
• Section 16 — Alteration of the statutes

Division 2 Legal Relationships of the Cooperative and Its Members

• Section 17 — Legal person; deemed trader
• Section 18 — Legal relationship between the cooperative and its members
• Section 19 — Distribution of profit and loss
• Section 20 — Exclusion of the distribution of profit
• Section 21 — Prohibition of interest on credit balances
• Section 21a — Exceptions to the prohibition of interest
• Section 21b — Member loans
• Section 22 — Reduction of the share; prohibition of payment of the credit balance
• Section 22a — Obligation to make additional contributions
• Section 22b — Division of the share
• Section 23 — Liability of the members

Division 3 Constitution of the Cooperative

• Section 24 — Management board
• Section 25 — Representation, signing by members of the management board
• Section 25a — Particulars on business letters
• Section 26 — Power of representation of the management board
• Section 27 — Restriction of the power of representation
• Section 28 — Alteration of the management board and of the power of representation
• Section 29 — Publicity of the register of cooperatives
• Section 30 — List of members
• Section 31 — Inspection of the list of members
• Section 32 — Presentation of the list of members to the court
• Section 33 — Bookkeeping; annual financial statements and management report
• Section 34 — Duty of care and responsibility of members of the management board
• Section 35 — Deputies of members of the management board
• Section 36 — Supervisory board
• Section 37 — Incompatibility of offices
• Section 38 — Duties of the supervisory board
• Section 39 — Power of representation of the supervisory board
• Section 40 — Provisional removal of members of the management board
• Section 41 — Duty of care and responsibility of members of the supervisory board
• Section 42 — Commercial power of attorney; power of attorney
• Section 43 — General meeting; voting right of members
• Section 43a — Representative meeting
• Section 43b — Forms of the general meeting
• Section 44 — Convening the general meeting
• Section 45 — Convening on demand of a minority
• Section 46 — Form and period of convening
• Section 47 — Minutes
• Section 48 — Competence of the general meeting
• Section 49 — Restrictions on credit
• Section 50 — Determination of the payments on the share
• Section 51 — Contestation of resolutions of the general meeting
• Section 52

Division 4 Audit and Auditing Associations

• Section 53 — Mandatory audit
• Section 53a — Simplified audit; power to issue statutory instruments
• Section 54 — Mandatory membership of an auditing association
• Section 54a — Change of auditing association
• Section 55 — Audit by the association
• Section 56 — Suspension of the association's right of audit
• Section 57 — Audit procedure
• Section 57a — Quality assurance accompanying the audit
• Section 58 — Audit report
• Section 59 — Consideration by the general meeting
• Section 60 — Right of the auditing association to convene
• Section 61 — Remuneration of the auditing association
• Section 62 — Responsibility of the auditing bodies
• Section 63 — Competence for the conferral of the right of audit
• Section 63a — Conferral of the right of audit
• Section 63b — Legal form, members and purpose of the auditing association
• Section 63c — Statutes of the auditing association
• Section 63d — Submissions to the court
• Section 63e — Quality control for auditing associations
• Section 63f — Auditors for quality control
• Section 63g — Conduct of the quality control
• Section 63h — Inspections
• Section 64 — State supervision
• Section 64a — Withdrawal of the right of audit
• Section 64b — Appointment of an auditing association
• Section 64c — Audit of dissolved cooperatives

Division 5 Termination of Membership

• Section 65 — Notice of withdrawal by the member
• Section 66 — Notice of withdrawal by a creditor
• Section 66a — Notice of withdrawal in insolvency proceedings
• Section 67 — Termination of membership on giving up domicile
• Section 67a — Extraordinary right of withdrawal
• Section 67b — Notice of withdrawal on individual shares
• Section 67c — Exclusion of notice of withdrawal at housing cooperatives
• Section 68 — Exclusion of a member
• Section 69 — Entry in the list of members
• Section 73 — Settlement with a withdrawn member
• Section 74
• Section 75 — Continuance of membership on dissolution of the cooperative
• Section 76 — Transfer of the credit balance
• Section 77 — Death of the member
• Section 77a — Dissolution or extinction of a legal person or partnership

Division 6 Dissolution and Nullity of the Cooperative

• Section 78 — Dissolution by resolution of the general meeting
• Section 79 — Dissolution by expiry of time
• Section 79a — Continuation of the dissolved cooperative
• Section 80 — Dissolution by the court
• Section 81 — Dissolution on application of the supreme Land authority
• Section 81a — Dissolution on insolvency
• Section 82 — Registration of the dissolution
• Section 83 — Appointment and removal of the liquidators
• Section 84 — Application by liquidators
• Section 85 — Signing by the liquidators
• Section 86 — Publicity of the register of cooperatives
• Section 87 — Legal relationships during the liquidation stage
• Section 87a — Payment obligations on over-indebtedness
• Section 87b — Prohibition of increasing the share or the liability sum
• Section 88 — Duties of the liquidators
• Section 88a — Assignability of claims to outstanding payments and proportionate shortfalls
• Section 89 — Rights and duties of the liquidators
• Section 90 — Condition for distribution of assets
• Section 91 — Distribution of the assets
• Section 92 — Non-distributable net assets
• Section 93 — Retention of documents
• Section 94 — Action for a declaration of nullity
• Section 95 — Grounds of nullity; curing of defects
• Section 96 — Procedure on an action for nullity
• Section 97 — Effect of registration of the nullity

Division 7 Insolvency Proceedings; Obligation of Members to Make Additional Contributions

• Section 98 — Opening of insolvency proceedings
• Section 99
• Section 100
• Section 101 — Effect of the opening of insolvency proceedings
• Section 102 — Registration of the opening of insolvency proceedings
• Section 105 — Obligation of members to make additional contributions
• Section 106 — Advance-contribution calculation
• Section 107 — Judicial declaration on the advance-contribution calculation
• Section 108 — Date for declaration
• Section 108a — Assignability of claims of the cooperative
• Section 109 — Collection of the advance contributions
• Section 110 — Deposit or investment of the advance contributions
• Section 111 — Action of contestation
• Section 112 — Procedure on the action of contestation
• Section 112a — Settlement on additional contributions
• Section 113 — Supplementary calculation
• Section 114 — Additional-contribution calculation
• Section 115 — Supplementary distribution
• Section 115a — Interim distribution of the additional contributions
• Section 115b — Obligation of withdrawn members to make additional contributions
• Section 115c — Obligation of withdrawn members to contribute
• Section 115d — Collection and refund of additional contributions
• Section 115e — Self-administration
• Section 116 — Insolvency plan
• Section 117 — Continuation of the cooperative
• Section 118 — Notice of withdrawal on continuation of the cooperative

Division 8 Liability Sum

• Section 119 — Determination of the liability sum
• Section 120 — Reduction of the liability sum
• Section 121 — Liability sum in the case of several shares

Division 9 Criminal and Regulatory-Fine Provisions

• Section 146
• Section 147 — False statements or incorrect representation
• Section 148 — Breach of duty on loss
• Section 149
• Section 150 — Breach of the duty to report
• Section 151 — Breach of the duty of secrecy
• Section 151a — Breach of duties in statutory audits
• Section 152 — Regulatory-fine provisions
• Section 153 — Notifications to the Auditor Oversight Body
• Section 154

Division 10 Final Provisions

• Section 155 — Former registers in the accession territory
• Section 156 — Applicability of provisions on the commercial register; publication of registrations, register publications
• Section 157 — Applications to the register of cooperatives
• Section 158 — Substitute publication
• Section 159
• Section 160 — Coercive-fine procedure
• Section 161
• Section 162 — Transitional provision for housing undertakings
• Section 163
• Section 164 — Transitional rule on the restriction of the audit of annual financial statements
• Section 165
• Section 166 — Transitional rule on the Professional Supervision Reform Act
• Section 167 — Transitional provision on the Accounting Law Modernisation Act
• Section 168 — Transitional provision on the Act for the Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private Sector and in the Public Service
• Section 169 — Transitional provision on the Audit Reform Act
• Section 170 — Transitional rule on the CSR Directive Implementation Act
• Section 171 — Transitional provision on the introduction of the simplified audit
• Section 172 — Transitional provision on the Act on the Further Implementation of the Transparency Directive Amending Directive with regard to a Uniform Electronic Format for Annual Financial Reports
• Section 173 — Transitional provision on the Act to Strengthen Financial Market Integrity
• Section 174 — Transitional provision on the Act Supplementing and Amending the Rules for the Equal Participation of Women in Leadership Positions in the Private Sector and in the Public Service
• Section 175 — Transitional provision on the Act Implementing the Digitalisation Directive
• Section 176 — Transitional provision on the Second Act Amending the DWD Act and Amending Commercial-Law Provisions
• Section 177 — Transitional provision on the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act