[1] During the time of the German Confederation (1815–1866) and the North German Federation (1867–1871) the only court with local jurisdiction for more than one territory was the Oberappellationsgericht der vier Freien Städte (High Court of Appeal of the Four Free Cities) in Lübeck (1820–1879), which had territorial jurisdiction for Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Lübeck.

[2] But due to the lack of a federal supreme court, some concern existed in the confederation about the fragmentation of the law.

[3] Two years after the North German Confederation had been formed, the formal legislative process for the establishment of the Bundesoberhandelsgericht was started.

On 23 February 1869, Richard von Friesen, the delegate of the Kingdom of Saxony, introduced its bill titled Entwurf eines Gesetzes, betreffend die Errichtung eines obersten Gerichtshofes in Handelssachen (Draft of a law concerning the establishment of a supreme court in commercial matters) in the Bundesrat.

[4][5] The bill proposed the establishment of a Federal High Commercial Court (the Bundesoberhandelsgericht), which should be seated in Leipzig, a Saxon city.

[6] The bill further set out that the court should have subject-matter jurisdiction for the Allgemeines Deutsches Handelsgesetzbuch and the law on promissory notes.

During the plenary session, Hesse, Mecklenburg and Hamburg argued that the establishment of the Bundesoberhandelsgericht was beyond the competencies of the North German Confederation and would require an amendment of the federal constitution.

[8] Hamburg, together with Lübeck, especially feared that the proposed federal court would result in a loss of influence for its Oberappellationsgericht der vier Freien Städte.

[10] According to the legislative process of the North German Confederation, the bill was then sent back to the Bundesrat again, which finally approved it against the opposition of both Mecklenburgs, Bremen and Hamburg.

[11] William I gave his royal assent to the bill on 12 June 1869 and on 18 June 1869 the Gesetz, betreffend die Errichtung eines obersten Gerichtshofes für Handelssachen was published in the official gazette of the North German Confederation, the Bundesgesetzblatt des Norddeutschen Bundes [de].

[11] After the law establishing the Bundesoberhandelsgericht was promulgated, an ordinance dated 22 June 1870 decreed its entry into force on 5 August 1870.

This territorial gain started the process of expanding the court's subject-matter jurisdiction beyond the confines of commercial law.

[23] In 1873, the court was asked to adjudicate an interstate dispute between Saxe-Meiningen and Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, two states of the German Empire.

[26] Before the Reichsjustizgesetze [de] of 1878 entered into force on 1 October 1879, the Reichsoberhandelsgericht had to conclude its position as a German supreme court on 30 September 1879.

[1] Fellow legal scholar Regina Ogorek [de] observed that the court marked the institutional beginning of the end of an epoch of fragmentation in the law.

[31] On 9 July 1874, a third panel (Dritter Senat) was formed and chaired by Karl Hocheder [de], who became a further vice president.

[34] Any qualified lawyer or advocate – a unified bar was not created in the German Empire until 1879 – could plead before the Reichsoberhandelsgericht.

Section 13[42] of the court's establishment statue elaborated what specific commercial law questions were covered.