pain and suffering
phrase · Schmerzensgeld
Schmerzensgeld is the institution, § 253 Abs. 2 BGB, and behind it stands a gate English tort thinking does not expect, § 253 Abs. 1 BGB pays money for non-pecuniary loss only where a statute says so. Schmerz und Leiden is the machine’s word-for-word offer, a symptom list where German law has a term of art.
Which translation, when
Why
German law starts with a gate, § 253 Abs. 1 BGB, money for non-pecuniary loss exists only in the cases a statute names, there is no general head of damages for distress. The named case that matters here is § 253 Abs. 2 BGB, injury to body, health, freedom or sexual self-determination earns billige Entschädigung in Geld, the Schmerzensgeld, and since the 2002 reform it runs across all liability grounds, contract and strict liability included, where it once lived in tort alone. The measure is judicial, case tables serve as orientation, and the amounts sit, typically, far below common-law verdicts, so demand letters calibrated on American numbers misread the market. The general personality right runs its own money remedy by case law, outside the § 253 Abs. 2 list, a judge-made exception worth knowing and not overclaiming. The translation itself is a one-word job, damages for pain and suffering is das Schmerzensgeld, verlangt, zugesprochen, and the literal Schmerz und Leiden itemises symptoms where German law names an institution.
Typical mistakes
- Schmerz und Leiden ist Symptomprosa, the institution is das Schmerzensgeld, § 253 Abs. 2 BGB, and the literal pair reads like a diagnosis, not a claim.
- The gate comes first, § 253 Abs. 1 BGB bars money for immaterial loss outside the statutory list, so distress, upset and inconvenience do not convert into euros by translation alone.
- US-Größenordnungen reisen nicht mit, German Schmerzensgeld is measured as billige Entschädigung against case tables, typically far below common-law verdicts, and a demand letter calibrated on American numbers reads as posturing.
What matters
Demand letters after an accident translate the head of claim, not the words: damages for pain and suffering is Schmerzensgeld, § 253 Abs. 2 BGB, one noun, one institution, and the gate of Abs. 1 decides what else can ride along, the upset and inconvenience of the English schedule mostly cannot. The Schmerz-und-Leiden version itemises symptoms and claims nothing.
What the machine misses
Pain and suffering comes out of the engines word for word, Schmerz und Leiden, a symptom list where German law keeps a one-word institution, das Schmerzensgeld. The deeper miss is the gate, German pays for immaterial loss only where statute opens the door, so the translated schedule of distress and inconvenience arrives asking for money the system does not hand out on those words.
Examples
| damages for pain and suffering | das Schmerzensgeld |
| to claim damages for pain and suffering | Schmerzensgeld verlangen |
| the court awarded pain and suffering damages | das Gericht sprach Schmerzensgeld zu |
| non-pecuniary loss | der immaterielle Schaden |