The article tries to discuss the need and necessity for the legal protection of reserves of ‘old’ cooperatives. This capital seems to constitute some kind of a ‘social’ dimension within cooperatives that exist longer than the members, who have created the cooperative, belong to their cooperative (‘old’ cooperative). With this perspective every merger or transformation of a cooperative contradicts its constitution. However, the legal reality moves cooperatives into the direction of corporations although their constitution can also be helpful to argue for states without deficit spending.