Prepositions That Take the Genitive | German Grammar

Beyond marking possession, the genitive is required by a specific set of prepositions. Most of them belong to formal and written German — the language of newspapers, contracts, lectures, and careful prose — and several of them are at the center of a live argument between what the grammar books prescribe and what people actually say. This page sorts them by frequency and register, shows the correct genitive forms, and tells you honestly where the colloquial dative has taken over.

The high-frequency four

These four turn up constantly and are the ones a B2 learner must produce confidently in writing:

Preposition	Meaning	Example (genitive)
wegen	because of	wegen des Wetters
während	during	während des Krieges
trotz	despite, in spite of	trotz des Regens
(an)statt	instead of	statt eines Briefes

Wegen der Verspätung haben wir den Anschlusszug verpasst.

Because of the delay, we missed the connecting train. — wegen + genitive (der Verspätung)

Während des Krieges floh die Familie ins Ausland.

During the war, the family fled abroad. — während + genitive; note Krieg adds -es

Trotz des Regens fand das Konzert im Freien statt.

Despite the rain, the concert took place outdoors. — trotz + genitive (des Regens)

Statt eines langen Briefes schrieb sie nur eine kurze Nachricht.

Instead of a long letter, she wrote only a short message. — statt + genitive (eines Briefes)

Note the orthography: because Krieg, Regen and Brief are masculine, the genitive forces the noun ending — des Krieges, des Regens, eines Briefes. Forgetting that ending is the giveaway of a non-native writer (see the genitive case page).

The formal set

This larger group is firmly written/administrative register. You will read these in news articles, official letters, and academic prose far more often than you will say them out loud.

Preposition	Meaning	Register / example
aufgrund	on the basis of, due to	(formal) aufgrund des Gesetzes
innerhalb	within (space/time)	(neutral-formal) innerhalb einer Woche
außerhalb	outside of	(neutral-formal) außerhalb der Stadt
oberhalb	above	(formal) oberhalb des Dorfes
unterhalb	below	(formal) unterhalb der Brücke
mittels	by means of	(formal/technical) mittels eines Schlüssels
zwecks	for the purpose of	(bureaucratic) zwecks besserer Übersicht
laut	according to	(formal) laut des Berichts / laut dem Bericht
angesichts	in view of, given	(formal/literary) angesichts der Lage
hinsichtlich	with regard to	(formal/academic) hinsichtlich der Kosten

Aufgrund des schlechten Wetters wurde der Flug gestrichen.

Due to the bad weather, the flight was cancelled. — aufgrund + genitive (formal)

Innerhalb einer Woche müssen Sie die Rechnung bezahlen.

You must pay the invoice within a week. — innerhalb + genitive

Angesichts der schwierigen Lage entschied sich die Regierung zum Handeln.

In view of the difficult situation, the government decided to act. — angesichts + genitive (literary/formal)

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laut is a special case: it is heard with both the genitive (laut des Berichts, formal) and the dative (laut dem Bericht, equally accepted). With a bare noun it often takes no visible ending at all — laut Gesetz, laut Wetterbericht — which is the most common spoken form.

The live battleground: genitive vs. colloquial dative

Here is the honest, important part. The four high-frequency prepositions — wegen, trotz, während (and to a lesser extent statt) — are caught in an ongoing shift. In formal written German the genitive is required. But in everyday spoken German, especially in the south and in casual registers everywhere, the dative is extremely common and sounds completely natural to native ears:

Wegen dem Wetter bleiben wir heute zu Hause.

Because of the weather, we're staying home today. — (informal) wegen + dative; very common in speech

Trotz dem Regen sind wir spazieren gegangen.

Despite the rain, we went for a walk. — (informal) trotz + dative

Während dem Essen hat keiner geredet.

During the meal, nobody talked. — (informal) während + dative

Prescriptive grammar (Duden) still treats these dative forms as substandard for trotz and während and as merely "colloquial" for wegen. So the situation is asymmetric:

In writing, exams, formal speech: use the genitive — wegen des Wetters, trotz des Regens, während des Essens. This is always safe.
In casual conversation: the dative is what you will actually hear, and using a crisp genitive in a relaxed chat can even sound stiff.

There is also a practical escape hatch: when the genitive would be unmarked (a bare noun with no article or adjective), German prefers the dative or a von-construction to avoid an ambiguous form — wegen Geschäften (dative plural, because wegen Geschäfte would not show the case), or wegen von Problemen in very loose speech. Likewise trotz allem ("despite everything") is fixed in the dative.

Trotz allem hat sie nie die Hoffnung verloren.

Despite everything, she never lost hope. — fixed dative phrase trotz allem

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Default rule: write the genitive, speak the dative if it feels natural — but never the genitive form wrong. A clean wegen dem Stau (dative) is better received in conversation than a mangled wegen des Stau (missing the -s). Accuracy first.

How this differs from English

English prepositions never govern a case at all — "because of," "during," "instead of" leave the following noun untouched. So an English speaker has no native instinct that wegen should reshape the article and add -s to the noun. The two traps that follow directly from this: (1) defaulting to an uninflected or dative form everywhere because English never inflects, and (2) over-correcting into a genitive in casual speech where natives would relax into the dative. The genitive set is also large and register-stratified in a way English has no parallel for — mittels, zwecks, hinsichtlich have no everyday English counterparts; their nearest matches ("by means of," "for the purpose of," "with regard to") are themselves formal.

Common Mistakes

❌ Wegen das Wetter bleiben wir zu Hause.

Incorrect — uses the accusative; wegen needs genitive (or dative), and Wetter is neuter → des Wetters.

✅ Wegen des Wetters bleiben wir zu Hause.

Because of the weather, we're staying home. — wegen + genitive (formal).

❌ Während des Krieg war alles knapp.

Incorrect — masculine genitive noun must add -(e)s: des Krieges.

✅ Während des Krieges war alles knapp.

During the war, everything was scarce. — des Krieges.

❌ Trotz der Regen kamen viele Gäste.

Incorrect — Regen is masculine, so the genitive article is des, not der, plus the -s.

✅ Trotz des Regens kamen viele Gäste.

Despite the rain, many guests came. — trotz des Regens.

❌ Statt einen Brief schrieb sie eine E-Mail.

Incorrect — uses the accusative; statt governs the genitive → eines Briefes.

✅ Statt eines Briefes schrieb sie eine E-Mail.

Instead of a letter, she wrote an email. — statt + genitive.

❌ Aufgrund dem Streik fuhren keine Busse.

Incorrect — aufgrund is firmly genitive in all registers, not dative.

✅ Aufgrund des Streiks fuhren keine Busse.

Because of the strike, no buses ran. — aufgrund + genitive.

Key Takeaways

The everyday genitive prepositions are wegen, während, trotz, (an)statt; the formal set includes aufgrund, innerhalb, außerhalb, oberhalb, unterhalb, mittels, zwecks, laut, angesichts, hinsichtlich.
Masculine/neuter nouns still take -(e)s in the genitive: während des Krieges, trotz des Regens.
In writing and formal speech, use the genitive. In casual speech, wegen/trotz/während
- dative is widespread and natural, though proscribed in formal grammar.
aufgrund and the heavy formal prepositions stay genitive everywhere; laut tolerates both genitive and dative.

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