Help required - why is it 'Nürnberger Prozesse' and not 'Nürnberge Prozesse'
I am writing an essay on the nuremberg trials as part of my German course. I don't understand why it is 'Nürnberger Prozesse' and not 'Nürnberge Prozesse.'
Prozesse is plural so why the 'er' ending? Is nürnberg not working as an adjective?
11 Comments
538
That is an interesting question: The adjective is "Nürnberger" and it is not declinated. So for nom, gen, dat, akk as well as sg and pl it is always "Nürnberger".
It is the same with adjectives from names of other cities. Wiener Kongress (1814/15 there was an important congress in Vienna=Wien), Berliner Bär (the heraldic animal of Berlin is a bear), Kölner Dom (the cathedral of Cologne), Düsseldorfer Senf (they say my city's mustard is famous), Aachener Printen (famous christmas cookies form Aachen), Nürnberger Lebkuchen (Nürnberg is famous for its gingerbread), Hamburger Hafen (the port/harbour of Hamburg, New Yorker Bürgermeister (the mayor of New York). It is uncommon for German, that the adjective does not change in the different cases, but that is what it is like.
So it would be:
Die Nürnberger Prozesse
Um die Nürnberger Prozesse
Nach den Nürnberger Prozesse
Während der Nürnberger Prozesse
etc.etc.
That is weird, and simple for German
- 585
You're almost correct, it would be "nach den Nürnberger ProzesseN" as it's dative and while "Nürnberger" never changes, the noun does.
Another weird thing noting is that they always get capitalized. Also you can 'generate' these adjectives for every geographical location by adding -er (sometimes you can drop the e from the last syllable, like in Dresdener - Dresdner, meaning 'from Dresden').
"Ich esse eine (vegane) Thüringer Rostbratwurst mit Bautzner Senf, während ich mit der Wuppertaler Schwebebahn fahre." (I eat a (vegan) sausage from Thuringia with mustard from Bautzen, while I go by the suspension rail from Wuppertal."
"Die Antananarivoer Innenstadt sollte man mal gesehen haben." (Die inner city of Antananarivo is worth visiting.)
- 585
That's not quite so weird because even though the city name becomes an adjective by adding -er, it is still considered a name and names are capitalized, same as you capitalize adjectives that refer to a city in English ;-)
I meant, as opposed to the derived adjectives that end with -isch. Those are not capitalized if I'm not mistaken.
Hamburger Elbphilharmonie - hamburgerische Elbphilharmonie
