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From Rede über Zuwanderung: Steinmeier fordert Absage an völkische Ideologie, tagesschau.de, 25 August 2026. Quoted for study. The words are the publisher's; the analysis is ours.
Meaning
'Germany belongs to all who live here lawfully,' he said in Berlin. The Federal President warned against a relapse into völkisch (ethno-nationalist) thinking.
Word for word: 'Germany belongs all-those, who lawfully here live,' said he in Berlin. The Federal President warned before a relapse into völkisch thinking.
A news-style report quoting a speaker's claim about who Germany belongs to, followed by the reporter's characterization of the Federal President's warning against ethno-nationalist ideology.
The first sentence reports speech: the reported clause uses the present subjunctive I (gehöre) to mark indirect speech, and the reporting clause 'sagte er' follows. Inside the quotation, 'allen' is a substantivized determiner in the dative as object of 'gehören', modified by a relative clause 'die rechtmäßig hier leben' with verb-final position. The second sentence is a simple main clause with 'warnen vor' governing the dative ('einem Rückfall') and 'in' taking the accusative for direction of movement into an abstract state.
Rules at work(8)
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gehöre
Indirect speech after 'sagte' uses subjunctive I to mark the statement as reported rather than asserted by the speaker.
Reported speech in journalism and formal writing. It is built from the infinitive stem, and where its form would be identical to the ordinary present, Konjunktiv II is used instead to keep the reporting visible.
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Deutschland gehöre allen
'gehören' takes a dative object, so 'allen' appears in the dative plural.
Helfen, danken, folgen, gefallen, gehören, passen, antworten and a few dozen others take a dative object where English would use a direct one. Ich helfe dir, never ich helfe dich.
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die rechtmäßig hier leben
In the relative clause modifying 'allen', the finite verb stands at the end.
In a subordinate clause the finite verb stands last. Where the clause also holds a participle or an infinitive, the finite verb goes after them, so the order at the end is participle then auxiliary.
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die rechtmäßig hier leben
'die' is a relative pronoun agreeing with the dative-plural antecedent 'allen' but nominative as subject of its clause.
A relative pronoun takes its gender and number from the noun it refers back to, and its case from the job it does inside the relative clause. The clause is verb-final and always separated by a comma.
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warnte vor einem Rückfall
'warnen' is fixed to the preposition 'vor', which governs the dative here.
Many verbs are tied to one preposition and one case, and the pairing rarely matches the English one. Warten auf takes the accusative, denken an takes the accusative, teilnehmen an takes the dative.
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in Berlin ... in völkisches Denken
'in' takes dative for location ('in Berlin') and accusative for movement into a state ('in ... Denken').
An, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor and zwischen take the accusative when the phrase answers where to, and the dative when it answers where. The distinction is movement across a boundary against position, not motion against stillness.
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sagte ... warnte
Written narrative German prefers the simple preterite for past events.
The simple past is the written narrative past. In speech it survives mainly in sein, haben and the modals, where hatte and war are far commoner than the perfect forms.
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völkisches Denken
After a determiner with no visible ending ('einem' type context collapses to 'ein'), the adjective carries the mixed ending -es.
After ein, kein and a possessive, the adjective takes strong endings exactly where the article shows nothing, which is the masculine nominative and the neuter nominative and accusative, and weak endings everywhere else.
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Words(19)
- das Deutschland
Germany
nounA1pl. —gen. Deutschlandsinvariable declension
- gehören
belong to
verbA2gehören, gehörte, hat gehörtmit habenweakgoverns dative
Takes the dative: 'Das gehört mir.' Do not confuse with 'hören'.
- alle
all, everyone
pronounA1indefinite
Used substantively here, meaning 'all of them'.
- die
who, which, that
pronounA2relative
Demonstrative 'die' pointing back to a previously mentioned noun; stronger than plain 'sie'.
- rechtmäßig
lawful, legitimate
adjectiveB2rechtmäßiger, am rechtmäßigsten
- hier
here
adverbA1local
- leben
live, be alive
verbA1leben, lebte, hat gelebtmit habenweak
- sagen
to say, to tell
verbA1sagen, sagte, hat gesagtmit habenweak
- er
he
pronounA1personal
- in
in, into
prepositionA1governs accusative or dative
Dative for location, accusative for direction.
- das Berlin
Berlin
nounA1pl. —gen. Berlinsinvariable declension
- der
the
determinerA1definite
Appears twice: dative feminine 'der Wirtschaft' and nominative plural 'die Beschlüsse'.
- der Bundespräsident
Federal President (of Germany)
nounB2pl. Bundespräsidentengen. Bundespräsidentenweak declension
- warnen
warn
verbB1warnen, warnte, hat gewarntmit habenweak
Fixed pattern 'warnen vor + dative': 'Er warnte vor Gefahren.'
- vor
before, in front of, ago
prepositionA1governs dative
With clock time ('vor 7 Uhr') it means 'before' and takes no visible case change.
- ein
a, an, one
determinerA1indefinite
The form einer here is dative feminine singular, not the pronoun meaning 'one'.
- der Rückfall
relapse, setback
nounB2pl. Rückfällegen. Rückfallsstrong declension
- völkisch
ethno-nationalist, ethnic-national, völkisch
adjectiveC2-, -
Historically loaded term tied to racist ideology; not a neutral word for 'ethnic'.
- das Denken
thinking, thought
nounB1pl. Denkweisengen. Denkensstrong declension