affidavit

noun · eidesstattliche Versicherung

Eidesstattliche Versicherung for the nearest German instrument, § 294 ZPO, but it is a false friend, the common-law affidavit is sworn evidence usable as proof, while the eidesstattliche Versicherung reaches only Glaubhaftmachung, a lower standard for interim and summary matters, and a false one is a crime, § 156 StGB. Affidavit rendered as full sworn testimony overstates what the German instrument can do.

Which translation, when

eidesstattliche Versicherungthe nearest German instrument, a formal assurance that a statement is true used to make a fact credible, § 294 ZPO, its false use punishable, § 156 StGB.

Glaubhaftmachungthe standard it serves, mere credibility rather than full proof, § 294 ZPO, so the assurance carries weight only where the law lets credibility suffice.

Why

An affidavit is a written statement sworn before an authorised officer and usable as evidence, and German law has a near-relative that does a much smaller job. Die eidesstattliche Versicherung is a formal assurance that a statement is true, and its home is Glaubhaftmachung, § 294 ZPO, the reduced standard of mere credibility the law accepts in interim injunctions, summary matters and enforcement, not the full proof, der Vollbeweis, that decides a contested trial. So an affidavit translated as an eidesstattliche Versicherung can promise more than it delivers, the German instrument does not turn a written statement into trial evidence the way an affidavit does, it makes a fact credible where credibility is enough. The seriousness is real in both systems, a false eidesstattliche Versicherung is a criminal offence, § 156 StGB, as perjury on affidavit would be, but the evidential reach differs, and the sworn-before-a-notary picture of an affidavit does not match a German instrument a party signs itself. So affidavit is reconstructed by asking what the document must prove, and the reflex Affidavit, kept as a loanword, tells a German reader nothing about the standard it meets.

Typical mistakes

The eidesstattliche Versicherung reaches only Glaubhaftmachung, § 294 ZPO, the credibility standard for interim and summary matters, not the full proof of a contested trial, so an affidavit rendered as trial evidence overstates its reach.
A false eidesstattliche Versicherung is a criminal offence, § 156 StGB, so the instrument is serious, but its seriousness does not extend its evidential value beyond credibility.
Affidavit kept as a loanword names no German standard, the nearest instrument serves Glaubhaftmachung, so the document must be matched to what it has to prove.

What matters

Interim-relief and enforcement filings turn on the standard: a fact to be made credible travels on an eidesstattliche Versicherung for Glaubhaftmachung, § 294 ZPO, while a contested fact at trial needs the full proof the assurance cannot supply. The affidavit offered as trial evidence has assumed an evidential reach the German instrument does not carry.

Authority

§ 294 ZPO
§ 156 StGB

What the machine misses

Affidavit arrives as Affidavit or a flat eidesstattliche Versicherung in machine output without the standard behind it, and the standard is the whole point, the German instrument serves Glaubhaftmachung, mere credibility, § 294 ZPO, not the full proof an affidavit can carry into a trial. So a translated affidavit can look like sworn trial evidence when the German document it names only makes a fact credible for interim and summary use, and the reader over-reads what the statement actually proves.

See what the machine does with this clause →

Examples

to swear an affidavit	eine eidesstattliche Versicherung abgeben
affidavit evidence	die Glaubhaftmachung
false affidavit	die falsche eidesstattliche Versicherung
on affidavit	an Eides statt