Section 172
Original German
172 Durch eine Ehe constituirt sich eine neue Familie, welche ein für sich selbstständiges gegen die Stämme oder Häuser ist, von denen sie ausgegangen ist; die Verbindung mit solchen hat die natürliche Blutsverwandtschaft zur Grundlage, die neue Familie aber die sittliche Liebe. Das Eigenthum eines Individuums steht daher auch in wesentlichem Zusammenhang mit seinem Eheverhältniß, und nur in entfernterem mit seinem Stamme oder Hause.
Die Ehepakten, wenn in ihnen für die Gütergemeinschaft der Eheleute eine Beschränkung liegt, die Anordnung eines bestehenden Rechtsbeystandes der Frau und dergl, haben insofern den Sinn, gegen den Fall der Trennung der Ehe durch natürlichen Tod, Scheidung und dergl. gerichtet und Sicherungsversuche zu seyn, wodurch den unterschiedenen Gliedern auf solchen Fall ihr Antheil an dem Gemeinsamen erhalten wird.
Musean translation
Machine-assisted Musean translation made directly from Hegel's German in the Berlin Nicolai first edition, dated 1821. Complete preface, introduction and sections 1–360, including the author's remarks and notes; no later Gans additions.
172 Through a marriage a new family is constituted, which is self-sufficient over against the stocks or houses from which it has issued; the connection with these has natural blood relationship as its basis, but the new family has ethical love. The property of an individual therefore stands also in essential connection with his marital relation, and only in a more remote one with his stock or house.
The marriage contracts, when they contain a limitation of the community of goods between the spouses, the establishment of a standing legal counsel for the wife, and the like, have insofar the sense of being directed against the case of the dissolution of the marriage by natural death, divorce and the like, and of being attempts at security, by which the distinct members, in such a case, retain their share in what is common.
Plain English translation
Independent machine-assisted Plain English translation made directly from the German first-edition source, not from the Musean edition or an existing English translation. Complete preface, introduction and sections 1–360 with the author's remarks and notes.
172 A marriage constitutes a new family. It is independent in relation to the clans or houses it came from. The tie with those rests on natural blood relationship, but the new family rests on ethical love. The property of an individual therefore also stands in an essential connection with his marriage, and only a more distant one with his clan or house.
Marriage contracts, where they place a limit on the community of goods between the spouses, or provide for a standing legal adviser for the wife, and so on, have to that extent the sense of being directed against the case where the marriage is ended by natural death, divorce and the like, and of being attempts at security. In such a case they preserve for the separate members their share in the common property.
About this section
Section 172 is part of Elements of the Philosophy of Right by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. This page sets the German original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is section 174 of 362 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
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