Breakdown of Laut dem Angestellten habe der Täter als Kunde das Geld gefordert.
haben
to have
das Geld
the money
der Täter
the perpetrator, the culprit
der Kunde
the customer
der Angestellte
the employee
laut
according to
als
as (in the role of)
fordern
to demand (formally, to claim)
Questions & Answers about Laut dem Angestellten habe der Täter als Kunde das Geld gefordert.
Why is habe used here instead of hat, and why not use the Konjunktiv II form hätte?
habe ... gefordert is the Konjunktiv I (Subjunctive I) in the past tense. It's used for reported speech to indicate that this is just what the employee claims, not necessarily a proven fact. We use the Konjunktiv I (habe) rather than the Konjunktiv II (hätte) because its form is already visibly different from the normal indicative tense (hat). You generally only need to use the Konjunktiv II as a backup when the Konjunktiv I looks exactly like the normal indicative.
There is no reporting verb like "er sagte" (he said) in this sentence. What triggers the reported speech?
The preposition laut (according to) acts as the reporting frame. Even without a verb phrase like "he said that...", starting a sentence with Laut dem Angestellten clearly establishes that you are relaying someone else's statement. This makes the use of Konjunktiv I perfectly natural here.
I thought the preposition laut takes the genitive case. Why is it dem Angestellten (dative) here?
It can actually take either! While you might have first learned laut as a genitive preposition, in modern German it is very frequently used with the dative, especially when a definite article is present. Both laut des Angestellten (genitive) and laut dem Angestellten (dative) are correct and widely used.
Why does Angestellten end in -n in this sentence?
Der Angestellte (the employee) is a nominalized adjective, meaning it's an adjective acting as a noun. Therefore, it changes its endings based on standard adjective declension rules. Because it comes after the dative definite article dem, it takes the weak adjective ending -en.
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