discharge
noun · Erlöschen
Erlöschen when an obligation is discharged, § 362 BGB by performance, Entlastung when a board is discharged, § 120 AktG, Restschuldbefreiung when a bankrupt is discharged, § 301 InsO, and Einstellung when proceedings are. Entladung is the machine’s offer and belongs to cargo and batteries, so a discharged director rendered as entladen has been unplugged.
Which translation, when
Why
Discharge is a bundle of unrelated German words. The obligation sense is Erlöschen, most often by Erfüllung, § 362 Abs. 1 BGB, the debt dying when performance is rendered, with the other extinction routes alongside, Leistung an Erfüllungs statt, § 364 BGB, and Erlass, § 397 BGB. The corporate sense is Entlastung, the Hauptversammlung or Gesellschafterversammlung discharging the management for the past year, § 120 AktG, § 46 Nr. 5 GmbHG, and a false-friend trap hides here, in the AG the Entlastung is expressly no waiver of damages claims, § 120 Abs. 2 Satz 2 AktG, while the GmbH Entlastung can carry a Verzichtswirkung, so discharge of a board is not the blanket release the English word suggests. The insolvency sense is Restschuldbefreiung, § 301 InsO, the natural-person debtor freed from remaining debts after the Wohlverhaltensphase, the functional cousin of the bankruptcy discharge and reserved for individuals. The procedural sense is Einstellung of proceedings or Entlassung of a witness. And Entladung, the machine’s reflex, is cargo and electricity, so a discharged director translated as entladen has been unplugged rather than approved, which is why discharge routes by scene and no single German word carries it.
Typical mistakes
- Entladung is cargo and batteries, the discharge of an obligation is das Erlöschen, § 362 BGB, and the discharge of a board is die Entlastung, § 120 AktG, so the electrical word mistranslates every legal sense.
- Discharge of a board is not a blanket release, the AG Entlastung is expressly no waiver of damages claims, § 120 Abs. 2 Satz 2 AktG, so translating it as a Generalverzicht overstates what the shareholders gave up.
- Bankruptcy discharge is die Restschuldbefreiung, § 301 InsO, only for natural persons after the conduct period, so applying it to a company mistranslates a remedy German insolvency reserves for individuals.
What matters
Board minutes and loan documents pull the word apart: the discharge of the directors is die Entlastung, § 120 AktG, approval and in the AG no waiver of claims, § 120 Abs. 2 Satz 2 AktG, while the discharge of the borrower’s obligations is das Erlöschen by Erfüllung, § 362 BGB. Die Entladung des Vorstands would send the board to the loading dock.
What the machine misses
Discharge scatters across Erfüllung, Entlastung, Entlassung and, at the low point, Entladung, the board unplugged like a battery. German has a different word for each sense and none for all of them, so the engine that picks Entladung for a discharged obligation or Entlassung for a discharged board files the event under cargo or dismissal, and the reader cannot tell whether a duty ended, a board was approved, or a debtor was freed.
Examples
| discharge of the debt | das Erlöschen der Schuld |
| discharge of the board | die Entlastung des Vorstands |
| discharge in bankruptcy | die Restschuldbefreiung |
| to discharge an obligation | eine Verbindlichkeit erfüllen |
More notes on these sections
settlement Vergleich
performance Erfüllung
forbearance Stundung