1. Fast d__ gesamt_ Kriegszeit verbringt Rosa Luxemburg in Gefängnissen.
English Translation: Rosa Luxemburg spent almost the entire duration of the war in prisons.
[gesamt, die Kriegszeit]
“Verbringen,” meaning to spend time somewhere, like “Wir verbrachten den ganzen Abend zusammen” puts the noun that it refers to in the accusative case, which leaves the article as die. The definite article gives the adjective a strong ending:
Fast die gesamte Kriegszeit
2. Weitere Dissidenten formieren sich zu_ innerparteilich_ Anti-Kriegs-Fraktion.
English Translation: Other dissidents form the Anti War faction within the party.
[innerparteilich, die Fraktion]
“Zu” is a preposition that is always dative. It forms the contractions “zum” and “zur” from “zu dem” and “zu der.” The definite article means a weak ending, and “Weitere Dissidenten” is an example of no article nominative plural, which results in a strong ending.
3. D__ ultralink_ Spartakusgruppe, 1916 von Liebknecht und Luxemburg gegründet, schließt sich ihr an.
English Translation: She joined the ultra-left Spartacus group, founded in 1916 by Liebknecht and Luxemburg.
[ultralink, die Gruppe]
Nominative feminine, weak ending because of the definite article.
Die ultralinke Spartakusgruppe
4. Dabei möglicherweise __ “ungut__ Eindruck” zu machen, steht hinter diesem Ziel zurück.
English Translation: Making a “bad impression” is secondary to this goal.
[ungut, der Eindruck]
Accusative masculine, and an indefinite article requires a weak ending.
Einen unguten Eindruck
5. Jed__ Tag mein__ Lebens wäre anders verlaufen.
English Translation: Every day of my life would have been different.
[Jeder/Jede/Jedes, der Tag, mein, das Leben]
Jeder Tag the subject of the sentence, is nominative and this can show you how “Jeder” declines. Hopefully you were also able to realize that “of my life” requires genitive to show possession. See, genitive is alive and well! There were no adjectives here, but they would have the weak ending for jeder and the strong ending for meines.
Jeder Tag meines Lebens
6. Ich bin in _ rheinhessisch__ Dorf Wiesoppenheim aufgewachsen.
English Translation: I grew up in the village of Wiesoppenheim in Rhine Hesse.
[rheinhessisch, das Dorf]
“In” is a dual preposition that is dative most of the time, but is accusative when the verb involves movement. “Aufwachsen” is a fairly stative activity if you give it some thought. I’m quite impressed with how easy it is to turn proper nouns into adjectives in German; why should there be a single adjective meaning “the area of Hessia near the Rhine”? Weak ending for the contracted “in dem…” definite article.
in dem .... or... im ... rheinhessischen Dorf
7. Di__ ander__ Kinder hätten mich sofort auf die Tatsache hingewiesen, dass mein_ Eltern nicht mein_ “richtig__ Eltern” seien.
English Translation: The other children would have immediately alerted me to the fact that my parents weren’t my “real parents.”
[ander, die Kinde (plural), die Eltern (plural)]
Because the verb here “seien” is a form of the verb “to be” (sein), that means that both nouns which it refers to are in the nominative case. However, because they are both plural, there is no difference here between the weak ending and strong ending.
Die anderen Kinder
Meine richtigen Eltern
For your continued German career, look at as many primary source German pieces as you can. These are interesting, and valuable!
(If the only German sentences you’re exposed to are spoon-fed from dull textbooks written in the 1970’s -- like when I learned German in high school -- then it will be harder to find German interesting enough to stick with it.)
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