This paper reports the German historical jurisprudence (die historische Rechtswissenschaft) in the 19th century, and shows the meaning of so-called modern times for F. C. v. Savingy and J. Grimm. Savigny was the founder of the historical jurisprudence, and J. Grimm, the oldest of Grimm brothers, was a Savigny’s favorite disciple. The outline of this paper is as follows. 1) The Roman Law as modern and the German Law as pre/post modern While the nature of the roman civil law is individual and therefore modern, the nature of the German custom law is collective therefore pre-modern or post-modern. Savigny as Romanist studied the Roman law in order to found the German modern science of civil law. But Grimm as Germanist studied the German custom law in order to identify German peculiar history. 2) Modernity and Anti-modernity of the Historical Jurisprudence Savigny’s historical jurisprudence aimed actually not to research the historical sources of law, but to construct entirely the systematic jurisprudence as the science of law. Grimm’s historical jurisprudence was rather historical, because for Grimm the German law was the history itself of his nation. In this sense, Savigny’s jurisprudence is modern, Grimm’s is anti-modern. 3) The Completeness of the Code and of the Jurisprudence Savigny did not believe the completeness of the code, but the completeness of the jurisprudence. For Savigny the jurisprudence must be strict science as mathematics or geometry, but for Grimm the jurisprudence is non-strict as literature. 4) The Science of Law and the Poesy of Law Savigny’s historical jurisprudence was the science of law or legal science (Rechtswissenschaft), and we can name Grimm’s the poesy of law or legal poesy (Rechtspoesie). Savigny’s legal science is constructed by logical legal notions (Rechtsbegriffe), and Grimm’s legal poesy by poetic legal symbols (Rechtssymbole). In this sense, Savigny was modern, Grimm was pre- or post-modern.
