There are few cases in the law of corporate groups that have provoked as much interest, applause and critique as the Holzmüller decision of the Federal Supreme Court. On February 25, 1982, the 2nd Zivilsenat (Chamber of civil cases) of the Bundesgerichtshof (BGH – Federal Court of Justice), the highest court with assigned competences for company law, adopted what would later be known as the Holzmüller doctrine. Since then the Holzmüller case has influenced the course of countless shareholders’ meetings, been relied on in numerous shareholder actions and has initiated intensive academical as well as practical debate. What is it all about? At the core, Holzmüller deals with the balance of power between the Hauptversammlung (shareholders’ meeting) and the Vorstand (board of directors) of a German Aktiengesellschaft (AG – stock corporation) within the context of corporate groups. Practically, the protection of minority shareholders of a corporate group's parent company is a major underlying issue.