Das Öffentliche im Privaten

‘Public faith’ in registers (such as the indefeasibility of entries in the land register) is based essentially on free, ‘public’ accessibility to them for anyone interested in their content, but not, as has been mostly claimed up to now, on the governmental, ‘public’ authority of the officials who maintain such registers. On the other hand, public faith in certain, in particular, notarial deeds can be explained by the sovereignly legitimised, special reliability of the issuers. This work examines the reason for the protection of legitimate expectations through public faith from the trust in certain deeds in the Middle Ages, public faith in mortgage and land registers since (about) the 18th century and the publicity of the commercial register, to public faith in certificates of inheritance since the 19th century and public faith in various other registers introduced into German Law in the 20th century. It thus combines legal history and dogmatics in a complementary manner.