loan

noun · Darlehen

Darlehen, § 488 BGB, and the word leihen is a trap with a definition inside, the German Leihe of § 598 BGB is gratuitous by statute, so an interest-bearing facility rendered as Leihvertrag names a contract that cannot legally charge the interest it contains.

Which translation, when

Darlehenthe loan proper, money under § 488 BGB, fungible things under § 607 BGB, interest the normal case, repayment in kind and quality, not the same coins. The word of every facility and every Gesellschafterdarlehen.

Leihethe gratuitous loan of a thing, § 598 BGB, free by definition, and the very thing itself comes back. At home where the painting goes to the museum, never where money earns interest.

Why

German splits loans by two clean tests the English word ignores, payment and identity. The Darlehen is the commercial animal, money under § 488 BGB, fungibles under § 607 BGB, interest expected, and what returns is value of the same kind. The Leihe of § 598 BGB is defined into gratuitousness, the lender permits use unentgeltlich, and the identical thing comes back, which is why artworks and machines travel als Leihgabe and money never does. Everyday German muddies this happily, sich Geld leihen is idiomatic at dinner, but the drafting register is unforgiving, the contract says Darlehen, and a Leihvertrag with an interest clause is a document at war with its own statutory definition. One more German layer waits where the borrower is a consumer, §§ 491 ff. BGB, written form, § 492 BGB, and a right of withdrawal, § 495 BGB, so the translated facility letter to a private individual is not boilerplate, it is a regulated instrument with mandatory content.

Typical mistakes

Leihvertrag for an interest-bearing facility is a contradiction in terms, § 598 BGB makes the Leihe gratuitous, the paid transaction is the Darlehen, § 488 BGB.
Everyday leihen misleads by being idiomatic, sich Geld leihen is fine in conversation, the contract says Darlehen, and the drafting register decides.
Consumer loans carry machinery, §§ 491 ff. BGB, written form, § 492 BGB, a right of withdrawal, § 495 BGB, so a facility for a private borrower is a regulated document, not a shortened LMA template.

What matters

Facility documentation states the divider in one word: the shareholder loan is ein Gesellschafterdarlehen, § 488 BGB, interest and all. Ein Leihvertrag in that slot promises a gratuitous arrangement, § 598 BGB, and the artwork the group lends to a museum shows where Leihe genuinely lives, the thing itself comes back, unpaid for, exactly as the statute wants.

Authority

§ 488 Abs. 1 BGB
§ 598 BGB
§ 607 BGB
§ 492 BGB
§ 495 BGB

What the machine misses

Loan slips towards leihen in machine output because everyday German borrows that way, and the statute does not, the Leihe of German law is gratuitous by definition, the paid transaction is the Darlehen. A facility that arrives as Leihvertrag has been renamed into a contract type that cannot carry its own interest clause, and the reader meets a definition fighting the document it labels.

Examples

loan agreement	der Darlehensvertrag
to grant a loan	ein Darlehen gewähren
shareholder loan	das Gesellschafterdarlehen
on loan to the museum	als Leihgabe im Museum