A. Introduction The Bundestag's 1998-2002 term witnessed an unprecedented agenda in private law legislation. Besides profound changes in various areas, including a radical overhaul of the German Law of Civil Procedure, the German Bundestag (parliament) enacted a sweeping reform of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (German Civil Code). Compared to these radical changes the proposed Act to Prevent Discrimination in Private Law seemed a rather modest endeavor.(1) The project nonetheless turned out to be more troublesome than expected. In May 2002, it was shelved, due also to heavy lobbying activities by, inter alia, the Catholic and Protestant Churches.(2) Yet it will no doubt soon re-enter the stage as Germany is under an obligation to translate two EU anti-discrimination directives into national law.(3) Even though the two EU directives call for legislative action, they do not preempt the debate on the general merits and on the drafting of the provisions to be included in the German Civil Code: In general private law (as opposed to labor law) the directives only require protection against discrimination based on race and ethnic origin.(4) By contrast, the government's bill includes quite a few other characteristics, namely sex, religion or ideology, disability, age, and sexual orientation.(5) Not least because of its breadth, the bill has sparked heated academic debate. While some saw the proposal as long overdue,(6) others were appalled by what they perceived as a wide-ranging assault on the freedom of contract.(7) Critics went so far as to link it to a totalitarian "republic of virtue" of a Jacobin breed.(8) In this article, I will try to contribute to this debate, but not by adding one more pronounced statement. Instead, I will suggest that...