The ancillary copyright on inherited works according to § 71 UrhG was adapted in 1995 to the requirements of Art. 4 of the Directive 93/98 / EEC of 29 October 1993 for the duration of protection. The decisions on the "Nebra Sky Disc" and the opera "Motezuma" woke the property right out of its slumber. In the German literature, the scope and requirements of the new § 71 UrhG are heavily criticized. The international dimension of ancillary copyright law has so far hardly been taken into account. The author takes up the concerns of the literature and examines whether these can be invalidated by a directive-compliant and comparative law interpretation of § 71 UrhG. It comes to results that differ from the previous German literature. In the narrow interpretation of the author, § 71 UrhG proves to be a sensible ancillary copyright with a clearly defined scope.