Who Is A Founder?

It’s always interesting to read about persons which call themself founder of The Document Foundation (TDF). I also found a header ‘TDF founders’ on the official webpage of TDF, where a list of natural persons were summarized under this title.

But are one natural person or some individuals the founder of TDF? Sorry, but the answer is no.

The founder of a foundation in the German law system is the natural person or legal entity that submitted the legal act ‘Stiftungsgeschäft’, including the foundation statutes, the population of the foundation bodies and the capital stock. This legal act has to be submitted to the authorities. Once they accepted it, the foundation is legally in place and the founder has to transfer the capital stock.

Thus in the case of TDF only the German association ‘Freies Office Deutschland e.V.’ was the founder. This association did the legal act and transfered the money.

I wonder about the reason for the use of the title founder from some members of the project. Maybe has to do with the need to impress others or the fear to look like the emperor without clothes 😉

If I ever would need such a title myself I Cold Calls myself ‘founding member of the founder of TDF’ or ‘TDF’s founder founder’ or just ‘007’ (because of my assoziation members number) 😉