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From Zahlen zum ersten Halbjahr: Mehr freiwillige Ausreisen abgelehnter Asylbewerber, tagesschau.de, 17 August 2026. Quoted for study. The words are the publisher's; the analysis is ours.
Meaning
By comparison, in the first half of 2025 there were just under 7,300 people who had left the country voluntarily under the humanitarian return-assistance programme.
Word for word: In the first half-year 2025 were it for-the-comparison just-under 7,300 people, who voluntarily over the humanitarian return-support-programme out-travelled had.
Typical news style: the writer compares a currently discussed figure with the first six months of 2025, when just under 7,300 people left the country voluntarily through a state-run programme supporting voluntary returns. The subjunctive marks the claim as reported rather than asserted by the paper itself.
The main clause reports a figure in journalistic Konjunktiv I: seien ... gewesen is the perfect of sein in the present subjunctive, the standard marker of indirect speech in news writing. Es is a placeholder subject; the real subject Menschen (nominative plural, weak n-declension) triggers the plural seien. The fronted time phrase puts the finite verb in second position. Die opens a verb-final relative clause whose pluperfect (ausgereist waren) places the departures before the half-year in question. After definite articles the adjectives ersten and humanitäre take weak endings; über takes the accusative for a route, zu its regular dative (zum Vergleich).
Rules at work(12)
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seien ... gewesen
Present-tense Konjunktiv I of sein signals indirect, reported speech, the standard device in German news texts when the writer does not vouch for the figure.
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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ausgereist waren
The departures happened before the reference time (the first half of 2025), so the relative clause uses preterite waren plus the past participle.
The pluperfect describes what had already happened before some other past event. It is built like the perfect but with hatte or war instead of hat or ist, and it very often appears in a clause introduced by nachdem.
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die freiwillig über das humanitäre Rückkehrförderprogramm ausgereist waren
Die introduces a relative clause specifying Menschen; the pronoun is nominative plural because it serves as the clause subject.
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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ausgereist waren
In the relative clause the finite auxiliary stands at the very end, with the participle immediately before it.
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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Im ersten Halbjahr 2025 seien
The fronted time phrase fills the first position, so the finite verb seien must come second in the main clause.
In a German main clause the finite verb is always the second element. The first element can be the subject, but it can just as easily be a time expression, an object or a whole subordinate clause; whatever it is, it counts as one element and the verb follows it. This is why putting something other than the subject first pushes the subject after the verb.
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Im ... über das
In and über are Wechselpräpositionen: in takes the dative for a period of time (im), über takes the accusative for movement along a route (über das Programm).
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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zum Vergleich
Zu always governs the dative and is contracted with dem to zum in this fixed phrase.
Aus, außer, bei, mit, nach, seit, von and zu always take the dative. Several of them contract with the article: von dem becomes vom, zu der becomes zur.
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Menschen
Mensch is a weak masculine noun: its genitive singular and its plural are both Menschen.
A group of masculine nouns takes an n or en in every case but the nominative singular: der Student but den Studenten, dem Studenten, des Studenten. Most denote people and many end in e, ent, ist or ant.
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Halbjahr ... Rückkehrförderprogramm
Both nouns are compounds (Halb+Jahr; Rückkehr+Förder+Programm) and take the gender of the final element, here neuter.
German builds long nouns by joining shorter ones. The last part carries the gender and the plural, and everything before it modifies what follows, so a compound is read from the right.
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ersten ... humanitäre
After definite articles (im = in dem; das) both adjectives take weak endings: -en in the dative, -e in the accusative neuter.
After a definite article the adjective ending is e in the five nominative and accusative singular slots and en everywhere else, because the article has already shown the case and gender.
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ersten
Erste- is the ordinal 'first', declined like an adjective to name a part of the year.
Ordinals are formed with t up to nineteen and st from twenty, and they take adjective endings. Written as digits they are followed by a full stop, so der 3. Mai.
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seien es ... Menschen
Es anticipates Menschen, which carries the nominative and controls the verb agreement.
German lets es fill the subject slot while the true subject appears later; the finite verb then agrees with that later subject, hence plural seien with singular es.
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Words(18)
- in
in, into
prepositionA1governs accusative or dative
Dative for location, accusative for direction.
- erst
first, only, not until (adverb)
adjectiveA1
As an ordinal adjective it is declined like any adjective; as an adverb 'erst' means 'not until/only'.
- das Halbjahr
half-year, six-month period
nounB1pl. Halbjahregen. Halbjahresstrong declension
- 2025
2025
numeralA1
- sein
to be
verbA1sein, war, ist gewesenmit seinirregular
Copula here linking subject to predicate noun.
- es
it
pronounA1personal
Often a dummy subject, as in es geht darum.
- zu
to, at, too
prepositionA1governs dative
With verbs of movement it takes dative even though motion is involved.
- der Vergleich
comparison
nounB1pl. Vergleichegen. Vergleichsmixed declension
Fixed phrase zum Vergleich means 'for comparison, by way of comparison'.
- knapp
just under, barely (with numbers), tight, scarce
adverbA2degree
knapp 7.300 means 'just under 7,300', not 'tightly 7,300'.
- 7.300
7,300 (seven thousand three hundred)
numeralA2
- der Mensch
human being, person
nounA1pl. Menschengen. Menschenweak declension
Weak n-declension: the genitive singular is Menschen and every plural form is Menschen.
- die
who, which, that
pronounA2relative
Demonstrative 'die' pointing back to a previously mentioned noun; stronger than plain 'sie'.
- freiwillig
voluntary, voluntarily, of one's own accord
adjectiveB1freiwilliger, am freiwilligsten
Adjective and adverb have the same form: freiwillig ausreisen means 'to leave voluntarily'.
- über
over, above, about, via, by way of
prepositionA1governs accusative or dative
Accusative with movement or route, as here ('via the programme'); dative for static location.
- der
the
determinerA1definite
Appears twice: dative feminine 'der Wirtschaft' and nominative plural 'die Beschlüsse'.
- humanitär
humanitarian
adjectiveC1
- das Rückkehrförderprogramm
return-assistance programme, voluntary-return support programme
nounC1pl. Rückkehrförderprogrammegen. Rückkehrförderprogrammsstrong declension
- ausreisen
to leave the country, to depart
verbB2reist aus, reiste aus, ist ausgereistmit seinseparableweak
Administrative register, the opposite of einreisen; in the participle ausgereist the separable prefix stays before ge-.