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From SPD-Vorstoß zu Klimaanpassung: Rückt eine Grundgesetzänderung näher?, tagesschau.de, 17 August 2026. Quoted for study. The words are the publisher's; the analysis is ours.
Meaning
And Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz, too, is reportedly "deeply immersed in this topic".
Word for word: And also Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz is 'deeply in this topic inside'.
News-style reported speech: according to a source quoted earlier in the article, Chancellor Merz is also closely involved with this issue. The subjunctive shows the writer is passing the claim on rather than asserting it as fact.
One main clause in verb-second order: the long phrase "Und auch Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz" fills the position before the finite verb. "sei" is the 3rd-person singular present subjunctive I of "sein", the hallmark of indirect (reported) speech. The predicate is the colloquial separable verb "drin sein", whose prefix "drin" is sent to the end of the clause. "tief" is an adjective used adverbially, so it carries no ending. "in diesem Thema" is a prepositional phrase with the two-way preposition "in" in the dative, because a state rather than a movement is meant; "diesem" agrees with the neuter "Thema".
Rules at work(11)
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sei
The journalist reports what someone else claimed; Konjunktiv I of "sein" marks the content as indirect speech without naming the speaker in this sentence.
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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Und auch Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz sei
The fronted phrase fills the prefield, so the finite verb "sei" must stand in second position however long the first element is.
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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Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz
The subject of "sei" stands in the nominative, including the apposed name.
The nominative marks the subject of the clause: whoever or whatever is doing the verb. It is also the case used after the verbs sein, werden and bleiben, so both sides of Das ist mein Bruder stand in the nominative.
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in diesem Thema
"in" governs the dative here because being immersed in a topic is a state, not a movement into something.
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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diesem
The demonstrative determiner points to a topic already known from the surrounding text and agrees with "Thema" in case, number and gender.
Dieser and jener decline like the definite article. The article forms themselves are also used demonstratively in speech, with stress doing the work: Den kenne ich.
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diesem Thema
"Thema" is neuter, which is why the dative determiner is "diesem" and not "dieser" or "diesen".
Every German noun is masculine, feminine or neuter. The gender is a property of the word rather than of the thing it names, and it decides the form of every article, adjective and pronoun that refers to it, so it has to be learned with the noun.
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sei ... drin
The colloquial verb "drin sein" separates, sending its stressed prefix "drin" to the end of the clause.
Some verbs carry a prefix that detaches in a main clause and moves to the very end: aufstehen becomes Ich stehe um sieben auf. The prefix is stressed, which is what tells a separable prefix from an inseparable one. In a subordinate clause and in the infinitive the verb stays whole.
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Und
Sentence-initial "und" joins this sentence to the previous one while leaving ordinary main-clause word order intact.
Und, aber, oder, denn and sondern join two main clauses and do not count as an element, so the word order after them is unchanged and the verb stays in second position.
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Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz
Title and name refer to the same person, so both stand in the bare nominative with no article.
An official title placed before a person's name drops the article and copies the name's case.
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auch
Placed before the subject, it means that Merz, like others mentioned before, is engaged with the topic.
"auch" marks the phrase right after it as an additional member of a set already mentioned.
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tief
"tief" tells us how deeply he is involved, so it appears without any adjective ending.
When an adjective modifies a verb rather than a noun, it keeps its base form with no ending.
Does this rule belong on this sentence?
Words(11)
- und
and
conjunctionA1coordinating
- auch
also, too
adverbA1modal
Focus particle; here it means the ministers are included among others already named.
- der Bundeskanzler
federal chancellor, head of government of Germany
nounB1pl. Bundeskanzlergen. Bundeskanzlersweak declension
Like all German nouns it is capitalised; the female form is "Bundeskanzlerin".
- der Friedrich
Friedrich (male given name)
nounA2pl. Friedrichsgen. Friedrichsinvariable declension
- der Merz
Merz (surname)
nounC1pl. Merzesgen. Merzstrong declension
- sein
to be
verbA1sein, war, ist gewesenmit seinirregular
Copula here linking subject to predicate noun.
- tief
deep, deeply (adverbial), low (of sounds)
adjectiveA2tiefer, am tiefsten
- in
in, into
prepositionA1governs accusative or dative
Dative for location, accusative for direction.
- dieser
this, that
determinerA2demonstrative
Takes the same endings as the definite article; the dative neuter form is "diesem".
- das Thema
topic, theme, subject
nounB1pl. Themengen. Themasmixed declension
n-noun: adds -en/-n in all cases except nominative singular.
- drinsein
to be into something (be well informed about it), to be inside, to be in on something
verbB2drinsein, war drin, ist dringewesenmit seinseparableirregularin + dative
Colloquial spoken German; "tief in einem Thema drin sein" means to be deeply immersed in a topic. Avoid in formal writing unless quoting.