  This is the first of a series of papers devoted to the group-theoretical
analysis of the conditions which must be satisfied for a configuration of
intersecting M5-branes to be supersymmetric. In this paper we treat the case of
static branes. We start by associating (a maximal torus of) a different
subgroup of Spin(10) with each of the equivalence classes of supersymmetric
configurations of two M5-branes at angles found by Ohta & Townsend. We then
consider configurations of more than two intersecting branes. Such a
configuration will be supersymmetric if and only if the branes are G-related,
where G is a subgroup of Spin(10) contained in the isotropy of a spinor. For
each such group we determine (a lower bound for) the fraction of the
supersymmetry which is preserved. We give examples of configurations consisting
of an arbitrary number of non-coincident intersecting fivebranes with
fractions: 1/32, 1/16, 3/32, 1/8, 5/32, 3/16 and 1/4, and we determine the
resulting (calibrated) geometry.
