Abstract The need for uniformity and certain minimum standards of disclosure in the area of financial reporting is universally recognized in all countries where financial reporting plays an essential role in business life. The roads towards this goal, however, may be very different. In the United States, professional organizations of accountants strive continuously to maintain and improve standards of financial reporting. There has been relatively little legislative influence concerning the form and content of financial statements; standards of uniformity and disclosure are achieved largely through the cooperative efforts of accountants and other interested parties. In Germany, and also in other European countries, the same objectives are attained primarily by means of legislation. As in the United States, financial reporting in Germany was based largely on accepted principles and procedures of accounting. One rather significant difference was that in those days the German accounting profession had not achieved the same status and recognition that its American counterpart had already held for many years.
H. P. Holzer (Wed,) studied this question.