Breakdown of Der König traf den Historiker und dessen Bruder.
und
and
treffen
to meet
der Bruder
the brother
der König
the king
dessen
his (referring back to something just mentioned)
der Historiker
the historian
Questions & Answers about Der König traf den Historiker und dessen Bruder.
Why use dessen here instead of seinen?
Using dessen clears up a classic third-person ambiguity. If the sentence said und seinen Bruder, it would mean the king met his own brother. By using the demonstrative possessive dessen (which translates to 'whose' or 'of that one'), it forces the reference to the most recently mentioned person, which is den Historiker.
Does the ending of dessen change to match Bruder?
No, it doesn't. Regular possessive adjectives like sein change their endings to match the noun they attach to. However, dessen is a fixed genitive pronoun. It gets its form entirely from the possessor (der Historiker, masculine singular) and stays as dessen regardless of the gender, number, or case of the noun being owned.
What case is Bruder in this sentence?
It is in the accusative case. The verb treffen (past tense traf) takes an accusative direct object. The king met two people: the historian and the brother. Both are direct objects. Even though dessen doesn't take an accusative ending like seinen would, Bruder is still grammatically accusative here.
Is dessen only used in formal writing?
Not at all! While it is highly useful in writing for precision, native speakers use dessen and deren naturally in everyday spoken German whenever using sein or ihr would cause confusion about who is related to whom.
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