evidence
noun · Beweis
Beweis for the proof, Beweismittel for the instruments, and German procedure runs the instruments as a closed canon in the Strengbeweis. Evidenz, the machine’s modern reflex, means self-evidence and study grades, and the hearsay objection the English reader reaches for does not exist, § 286 ZPO lets the judge weigh freely.
Which translation, when
Why
English evidence law is a law of filters, admissibility rules decide what the tribunal may hear, hearsay first among them. German civil procedure filters at the door and weighs inside: the Strengbeweis knows a closed canon of five Beweismittel, §§ 355 ff. ZPO, and once evidence is in, § 286 ZPO hands the judge freie Beweiswürdigung, decision nach freier Überzeugung, so the witness who reports what another said is heard and weighed, not excluded, the hearsay objection has no docking point. The English bundle of signed witness statements has no German default either, witnesses are examined in person and the written answer is the exception a court must order, § 377 Abs. 3 ZPO. And the vocabulary itself carries a trap, Evidenz in German belongs to philosophy and to medicine, evidenzbasiert, so die Evidenz zeigt in a pleading announces a machine, courtroom German says die Beweisaufnahme hat ergeben, der Beweis ist erbracht.
Typical mistakes
- Die Evidenz zeigt is study-German and philosophy, courtroom German says die Beweisaufnahme hat ergeben or der Beweis ist erbracht, and Evidenz in a pleading dates the translation to the machine.
- The hearsay objection has nowhere to land, the Zeuge vom Hörensagen is heard and weighed, § 286 ZPO, so objecting to admissibility imports a foreign filter into a system that filters by canon and weighs freely.
- Witness statements do not travel as a bundle, German witnesses are examined in person, the written answer is the court-ordered exception, § 377 Abs. 3 ZPO, and a disclosure plan built on filed statements plans the wrong trial.
What matters
Witness planning for a Frankfurt trial resets English habits: the bundle of signed statements stays home, witnesses are examined live, § 377 Abs. 3 ZPO is the exception, and the hearsay objection has nowhere to land, the judge weighs the second-hand account freely, § 286 ZPO. The memo that says die Evidenz zeigt has meanwhile told the German reader it was written by a machine.
What the machine misses
Evidence slides towards Evidenz in modern machine output, a word German owns for self-evidence and study grades, not for what happens in court. The procedural vocabulary, Beweis, Beweismittel, Beweisaufnahme, carries the actual system, a closed canon of instruments weighed freely by the judge, and the output’s Evidenz signals in one noun that no litigator read the text.
Examples
| to give evidence | aussagen |
| the burden of proof | die Beweislast |
| documentary evidence | der Urkundenbeweis |
| the evidence shows | die Beweisaufnahme hat ergeben |