German Accounting Legislation / Deutsches Bilanzrecht

Deutsch und Englisch / German and English

Many years ago, I had a copy of Deutsches Bilanzrecht, by Brooks/Mertin, which was a great secret weapon. That was a third edition of extracts from German accounting legislation, with a synoptic translation into English, and these extracts contained the central materials, so the book was also a textbook on the subject.

Now a new edition has appeared. I can reveal that I did very little indeed to deserve a mention in the preface. Congratulations to the Fry & Bonthrone Partnerschaft for the translation into English.

At the moment I can say that the book is a lot thicker and the margins possibly even thinner. The third edition had a twenty-page table comparing German accounting provisions and US GAAP, whereas the fourth has over 120 pages on similarities and differences of IFRSs, US GAAP and German General Accepted Accounting Principles.

Robin Bonthrone says the ‘founded by J. Brooks and D. Mertin’ on the cover did not come from Fry & Bonthrone. Still, it’s like t-shirts - you’re nobody today without a howler on the front or back cover.