We Maximilian Joseph, King of Bavaria by the Grace of God. We have deemed it, since the accession of Our government, one of Our highest governing concerns to advance the legislation of the realm toward appropriate agreement with the progress of the nation and the altered conditions of these times, and to unite the different parts of Our Kingdom under a common legislation. In particular, the great variety of penal laws existing to date has drawn our concern toward this branch of legislation, prompting Us to have several proposals and drafts put before Us for ten years. In the process of this, We did not fail to hear the public voice in addition to Our state authorities.
After subjecting the draft selected as a basis for the general penal code to the most diligent examination, first by a separate legislative commission comprised of reliable men of the law from all parts of the kingdom, then by the privy councilors’ sections of the judiciary, finally having it presented in the assembled Privy Council with Ourselves and the Crown Prince present, We have, in accordance with the constitution of Our realm, Title I. Paragraph I. and Title V. Paragraph 7, and following the appraisal by Our Privy Councilor, resolved to sanction by Our royal hand the first and second part of the general penal code, ordering its immediate promulgation. [ . . . ]
First Book. General legal provisions concerning crimes and offences.
First Chapter. Of illegal acts and their punishment in general.
Art. 1. Anyone responsible for an illegal act or negligence, for which a law threatens certain retaliation will be subjected to that legal retaliation as his penalty. And just as punishment suffered does not cancel or reduce compensation, compensation rendered cancels or reduces the deserved penalty neither. [ . . . ]