defamation
noun · üble Nachrede
Üble Nachrede for the core of defamation, § 186 StGB, but the German frame is different in two ways, reputation carries a criminal dimension English defamation lacks, §§ 185 to 187 StGB, and the civil claim runs through the allgemeines Persönlichkeitsrecht, not a tort of defamation, § 823 Abs. 1 BGB with Art. 2 Abs. 1, Art. 1 Abs. 1 GG. And German law draws no libel-slander line, the form of the statement does not change the offence.
Which translation, when
Why
Defamation in England is a civil tort split into libel and slander, and German law protects reputation on two tracks that look nothing like it. The first is criminal, the Beleidigungsdelikte of §§ 185 to 187 StGB, Beleidigung for an insult, üble Nachrede for asserting a discreditable fact that cannot be proven true, § 186, and Verleumdung for one known to be false, § 187, so what an English lawyer files as a purely civil claim is in Germany a crime as well. The second track is civil but constitutional in root, there is no tort called defamation, the remedy flows from the allgemeines Persönlichkeitsrecht, a sonstiges Recht within § 823 Abs. 1 BGB developed from Art. 2 Abs. 1 and Art. 1 Abs. 1 GG, giving damages, a Unterlassungsanspruch under § 1004 BGB analog, and a Widerruf, always weighed against freedom of expression, Art. 5 GG. One point then genuinely separates the German offence from the English tort, German law makes no libel-slander distinction, the permanence of the statement does not change the offence. The truth burden is by contrast familiar, § 186 leaves the speaker carrying the risk that a discreditable fact is not erweislich wahr, provably true, much as an English defendant must prove the imputation substantially true. So defamation is reconstructed, üble Nachrede on the criminal side and a Persönlichkeitsrechtsverletzung on the civil, and a flat rendering hides that the same words may be prosecuted, not only sued.
Typical mistakes
- Reputation is protected by criminal law in Germany, §§ 185 to 187 StGB, so treating defamation as a purely civil matter misses that the same statement can be an offence, not only a claim.
- There is no tort of defamation, the civil remedy runs through the allgemeines Persönlichkeitsrecht, § 823 Abs. 1 BGB, so a claim pleaded as a freestanding defamation tort must be recast around the right of personality.
- German law draws no libel-slander distinction, the form of the words does not change the wrong, so importing that division misreads the German offence.
What matters
Reputation and media disputes meet a criminal edge and a constitutional test: an untrue discreditable assertion is üble Nachrede, § 186 StGB, and the civil claim runs through the allgemeines Persönlichkeitsrecht weighed against Art. 5 GG, not a tort of defamation. The letter threatening a defamation claim has named a cause of action German law frames instead as a crime and a personality-right balance.
What the machine misses
Defamation comes back as Diffamierung or Verleumdung in machine output, and both mislead, Diffamierung is not a legal term and Verleumdung is the narrow offence of a knowing falsehood, § 187 StGB, not defamation at large. The German frame the machine cannot supply is that reputation is protected by criminal law, §§ 185 to 187 StGB, and civilly through the allgemeines Persönlichkeitsrecht rather than a tort of defamation, so a translated defamation claim reads as an ordinary civil suit when the same words may also be a prosecutable üble Nachrede.
Examples
| an action for defamation | eine Klage wegen Persönlichkeitsrechtsverletzung |
| a defamatory statement | eine ehrverletzende Tatsachenbehauptung |
| to defame someone | jemandes Ehre verletzen |
| libel or slander | üble Nachrede unabhängig von der Form |
More notes on these sections
negligence Fahrlässigkeit
injunction einstweilige Verfügung
tort unerlaubte Handlung