manslaughter
noun · Totschlag
Totschlag for manslaughter looks right but often is not, because Totschlag is intentional killing, § 212 StGB, the killing of a person with Vorsatz but without the qualifying features of Mord, § 211 StGB. English manslaughter is precisely the killing that lacks that intent, or has it only with a partial defence, so involuntary manslaughter, killing without intent, is not Totschlag at all but fahrlässige Tötung, § 222 StGB, or, where the fatal act was an assault, Körperverletzung mit Todesfolge, § 227 StGB, both far below Totschlag.
Which translation, when
Why
The word Totschlag sits under manslaughter in every dictionary, and the fit is often false, because the two are divided by intent. Totschlag, § 212 StGB, is the intentional killing of a person, Vorsatz to kill, that simply lacks the qualifying features which would make it Mord under § 211 StGB, treachery, base motives, concealment and the rest. English manslaughter is defined the other way, as the unlawful killing that is not murder, and it splits in two. Voluntary manslaughter keeps the intent but carries a partial defence, and it still maps onto Totschlag, § 212 StGB, provocation often bringing the minder schwerer Fall of § 213 StGB and diminished responsibility reducing culpability under § 21 StGB rather than changing the offence. Involuntary manslaughter has no intent to kill at all, and German law splits it, killing by gross negligence is fahrlässige Tötung, § 222 StGB, but the common case where a deliberate assault causes death is Körperverletzung mit Todesfolge, § 227 StGB, an Erfolgsqualifikation heavier than § 222 though still not Totschlag. So rendering every manslaughter as Totschlag can convert a negligent death into an intentional homicide on the page, overstating both the offence and the sentence, and the safe reading turns on whether the English case carried an intent to kill.
Typical mistakes
- Totschlag is intentional killing, § 212 StGB, so involuntary manslaughter, which has no intent to kill, is fahrlässige Tötung, § 222 StGB, or Körperverletzung mit Todesfolge, § 227 StGB, where a deliberate assault caused the death, never Totschlag, a difference of years in the sentence.
- Voluntary manslaughter keeps the intent and maps onto Totschlag, provocation often bringing the minder schwerer Fall of § 213 StGB while diminished responsibility reduces culpability under § 21 StGB, so the two forms of manslaughter land in different sections.
- Neither maps to Mord, § 211 StGB, which needs a qualifying feature such as Heimtücke or niedrige Beweggründe, so upgrading a manslaughter to Mord overstates it as badly as the reverse understates it.
What matters
Homicide charges turn on intent before anything else: Totschlag under § 212 StGB is an intentional killing, so a death caused by gross negligence is fahrlässige Tötung, § 222 StGB, not Totschlag. The translation rendering an involuntary manslaughter as Totschlag has written an intent to kill into a negligent death, moving the case up by years of sentence.
What the machine misses
Manslaughter comes back as Totschlag in machine output almost every time, and the match holds only when the killing was intended, § 212 StGB is intentional homicide, Vorsatz to kill without the marks of Mord. Involuntary manslaughter carries no such intent, it is death by gross negligence or an unlawful act, and German law files that under fahrlässige Tötung, § 222 StGB, or Körperverletzung mit Todesfolge, § 227 StGB, where the fatal act was an assault, so a translated manslaughter charge can silently upgrade a negligent or merely reckless death into an intentional one, moving both the offence and the sentence far beyond what the English case held.
Examples
| to be convicted of manslaughter | wegen Totschlags verurteilt werden |
| involuntary manslaughter | die fahrlässige Tötung |
| voluntary manslaughter | der Totschlag |
| a manslaughter charge | eine Anklage wegen Totschlags |