Article 1
§ 1 The German nation is a nation of freemen and German soil does not tolerate servitude. Alien serfs who reside on it are liberated by it.
§ 2 “German soil”, for this purpose, shall include all German ships or ships sailing under a German flag so that any slave who boards the same shall immediately be set free.
§ 3 No German may keep a slave or knowingly engage, whether directly or indirectly, in enterprises that are derived from the slave trade or that can be accomplished only by means of slaves.
§ 4 Anyone who contravenes this and who is accordingly convicted by a court of law shall forfeit his German citizenship.

Jacob Grimm: Artikel 1 (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Grimm-Nachlass, Nr. 415)

The new Article 1 proposed by Jacob Grimm was an emphatic gesture, but worded so generally that in the consultations that followed it had to be enlarged upon and made more specific. Not only was the term ‘German soil’ defined more exactly, but the wording ‘does not tolerate servitude’ was taken to mean that in future the slave trade would be outlawed in any and all circumstances. The penalties for any breach of this prohibition were also specified.