Wait- Ludwig v A n Beethoven? The "a" should clue you in that Beethoven's family was at some point Dutch. William of Orange Willem van Oranje in Dutch is an example of a van who was actually of nobility. Ludwig van Beethoven was not a noble, since van is the Dutch version, but he did try to pull a fast one in Vienna, filing for the custody hearing for his nephew in the court reserved for nobles, counting on them not to question his social status.
And got chewed out when he got caught. Noble vs. Non-Noble "von". In the German-speaking countries, von is usually assumed to mark nobility, but there are some non-noble families who have always used it, primarily in northwest Germany near the Netherlands and in Switzerland where the aristocracy played less of a role than in Germany.
For example von Doemming, von Eynern, v. Felbert, v. Bavaria on the other hand gradually reserved von for nobles, although non-nobles sometimes held on to their von by combining it into the family name: von Sicht became Vonsicht, von Hof became Vonhof, etc. When commoners were ennobled, they would typically add von to their name von Goethe, von Schiller , but sometimes would pick an additional name to put the von on- something grand, or the site of the battle they won their spurs at.
But perhaps it is precisely for this reason that the rediscovery of Dietrich von Hildebrand could not come at a better time. One would be hard-pressed to find an earlier opponent of the Nazis than Dietrich von Hildebrand. Did the producers just reuse the Von Trapp children from last year and hope that no one would notice? David Lowery of Camper von Beethoven and Cracker made this case in a viral post from The other was the spirited portrait of Baron von Friedericks, a happy combination of cavalier and soldier in its manly strength.
That is the usage of prepositions, especially in combination with verbs is largely dependent on what ended up being the most idiomatic choice. So instead of saying. But trust me… start thinking of prepositions in terms of concepts rather than translations. That said, von and from do line up pretty well for locations.
Except for one context: geographical names. So that was von as a preposition. Pretty much every language that has prepositions will have these combinations and a great example in English would be to depend, where the full phrasing is actually to depend on.
It needs to be on. And that actually ties in quite well with the idea of a point of origin , that we found in the beginning. Does that tie in with the basic idea for von? I think yes. And in fact, this notion of a figurative point of origin can whole group of vor combos. Well, the only group of von -combos to be exact :. Here they are:.
What they all share is that they involve some sort of thought about a subject. The thought can be expressed and voiced, thought silently, or it can even be subconscious. Not super obvious, but also not the craziest mind yoga German has to offer :. Anyway, example time:. Now, you might be wondering about the colors. Well, the blue ones are fixed. That means you need to use von or it will not work. The green ones on the other hand are NOT fixed. That means von is just one possible preposition to make it work.
Yeah… I know… German teacher, level The first one is haben von. And last but not least, we have the phrasing sich erholen von which is just what you need after a long, straining session of learning German… exactly: to recover.
And yup, you need both, the preposition AND a self reference :. I think, sich erholen von sounds a bit less serious than to recover, so you can use it for just an hour of relaxation after a long hike.
But it also works for serious life threatening diseases. Hang in there, Thomas. You will pull through!
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