possession
noun · Besitz
Besitz is the fact, Eigentum the right, and German keeps them strictly apart while wiring them together, § 854 BGB makes possession physical control, §§ 858 ff. BGB protect it without asking about title, and § 1006 BGB presumes the possessor of a movable is its owner. Vacant possession, meanwhile, is a promise about emptiness, not a kind of Besitz.
Which translation, when
Why
German splits what English blurs and then wires the halves together. Der Besitz is a fact, physical control, § 854 Abs. 1 BGB, das Eigentum a right, and the system protects the fact as such, the possessory claims of §§ 858 ff. BGB run without any title question, the court restores possession first and argues ownership later. The wiring is § 1006 Abs. 1 BGB, in favour of the possessor of a movable, ownership is presumed, a rebuttable presumption, not a fiction, and the German answer to the nine-tenths proverb. The construction English law does not build is § 868 BGB, mittelbarer Besitz, the tenant possesses directly, the landlord indirectly through the Besitzmittlungsverhältnis, two storeys of possession on one flat. Adverse possession translates only with filters, die Ersitzung of § 937 BGB is a movables rule, ten years of Eigenbesitz in good faith, bad faith blocking it, while land yields only to the Buchersitzung of § 900 BGB, thirty years of possession while wrongly registered as owner, so English squatter timelines port to neither. And vacant possession is not a species of Besitz at all, it is a completion promise, übergeben geräumt und frei von Besitzrechten Dritter, which the residue nouns leerer Besitz and freier Besitz flatten into nonsense.
Typical mistakes
- Besitzer is not Eigentümer, the tenant besitzt and the landlord owns, and a translation that crowns the possessor owner collapses the distinction the whole Sachenrecht runs on.
- Adverse possession translates with two filters, die Ersitzung of § 937 BGB covers movables only, ten years of good-faith Eigenbesitz, and land yields only to the Buchersitzung of § 900 BGB, thirty years possessing while wrongly registered, so the squatter timelines of English memos port to neither.
- Vacant possession is a completion promise, geräumt und frei von Besitzrechten Dritter, and leerer Besitz or freier Besitz are residue nouns for what is really an obligation.
What matters
Completion mechanics translate the formula, not the noun: with vacant possession becomes geräumt und frei von Besitzrechten Dritter übergeben, while the tenant in place is unmittelbarer Besitzer under § 854 BGB with the seller possessing mittelbar above, § 868 BGB. The buyer’s lawyer reads leerer Besitz and learns only that the translation was empty.
What the machine misses
Possession travels comfortably as Besitz until the formulas arrive, vacant possession collapsing into leerer Besitz, an empty noun for what German drafting states as an obligation, geräumt und frei von Besitzrechten Dritter. The system around the word stays home too, the ownership presumption riding on possession and the two-storey Besitz of landlord and tenant, so the translated completion clause promises less than either side thinks.
Examples
| possession of the premises | der Besitz an den Räumen |
| vacant possession | geräumt und frei von Besitzrechten Dritter |
| the possessor is presumed to be the owner | zugunsten des Besitzers wird das Eigentum vermutet |
| indirect possession | der mittelbare Besitz |