estate

Which translation, when

Why

German succession skips the stage English procedure is built on. § 1922 Abs. 1 BGB moves the estate, das Vermögen als Ganzes, to the heirs at the moment of death, universal succession, and § 1942 BGB makes the acquisition automatic, subject to disclaimer, die Ausschlagung, within six weeks of knowledge, § 1944 BGB, six months in the foreign cases the statute names, a clock heirs abroad routinely miss. There is no probate interval and no personal representative by default, the heirs administer directly, der Testamentsvollstrecker exists only where the Erblasser ordered one, §§ 2197 ff. BGB, and the heirs’ proof of title is der Erbschein, § 2353 BGB, the functional neighbour of the grant of probate, not its twin. The estate arrives with its debts, die Nachlassverbindlichkeiten, § 1967 BGB, statutory tools existing to cap the exposure. The other senses sort by scenery, real estate is die Immobilie or das Grundstück, the insolvency estate die Masse, § 35 InsO, and das Anwesen is a country house, the word machine output reaches for when the probate file mentions property.

Typical mistakes

• Anwesen des Verstorbenen is a country house, the estate in probate is der Nachlass, and the residue relocates the case from the succession file to the property pages.
• No probate travels, § 1922 BGB vests the estate in the heirs at death, the executor is not a default figure, Testamentsvollstreckung exists only where ordered, §§ 2197 ff. BGB, so process language built on personal representatives imports a default cast German law staffs only by exception.
• Inheritance is default-in, not default-out, § 1942 BGB makes acquisition automatic and § 1944 BGB gives six weeks to disclaim, six months in the statute’s foreign cases, and with the estate come its debts, § 1967 BGB.

What matters

Cross-border estate letters mistranslate the actors first: there is no personal representative to write to, § 1922 BGB made the heirs owners at death, their proof is der Erbschein, § 2353 BGB, and the disclaimer clock of § 1944 BGB, six weeks, six months from abroad, may matter more than anything else in the letter. Das Anwesen des Verstorbenen meanwhile answers a question nobody asked.

Examples