attachment
noun · Pfändung / Arrest
Attachment covers two German institutes that sit at opposite ends of the process. The Pfändung is the seizure carried out under an existing title, receivables being taken by a Pfändungs- und Überweisungsbeschluss addressed to the third-party debtor, § 829 ZPO. The Arrest, §§ 916 ff. ZPO, secures future execution before any title exists. Neither is the Anlage a machine writes for an attached document.
Which translation, when
Why
Attachment is the classic which-word entry of enforcement law, because the English noun reaches across two German institutes and one everyday meaning. Where a creditor already holds an enforceable title, the taking of assets is the Pfändung. For receivables and bank accounts it happens through a Pfändungs- und Überweisungsbeschluss, § 829 ZPO, a court order served on the third-party debtor which forbids him to pay the debtor, § 829 carrying the seizure while the transfer of the claim to the creditor for collection is a second step ordered in the same document, so the bank or the employer becomes the addressee of the measure; movables are taken by the Gerichtsvollzieher, whose office the bailiff entry describes, and the order in which title, clause and service must line up before any of this starts belongs to the enforcement entry. Where no title exists yet, the institute is the Arrest: under § 916 Abs. 1 ZPO it secures future execution into movable or immovable property for a money claim, or for a claim capable of turning into one, and it splits in two, the dinglicher Arrest seizing assets on the ground that execution would otherwise be frustrated or substantially impeded, § 917, and the persönlicher Sicherheitsarrest, § 918, directed at the debtor himself and admissible only where it is necessary to secure execution that is at risk, which makes it rare in practice. English readers coming from a freezing order are describing this second situation, not the first. And then there is the trap that catches machines rather than lawyers: outside procedure attachment means an enclosure, so an automatic rendering produces Anlage or Dateianhang in the middle of an enforcement letter. German keeps the three senses apart with three words, Pfändung, Arrest and, for criminal seizure, Beschlagnahme, and a translation should decide between them before writing a single one.
Typical mistakes
- Pfändung presupposes an enforceable title while the Arrest secures execution before one exists, so using either word for the other moves the measure to the wrong stage.
- A Pfändungs- und Überweisungsbeschluss is served on the third-party debtor and combines two rulings, the seizure of § 829 ZPO and the transfer for collection, so describing it as a mere freeze understates it.
- Attachment in the everyday sense is an Anlage and criminal seizure is Beschlagnahme, so neither belongs in a civil enforcement text.
What matters
Translating enforcement correspondence about a bank account: the German should say Pfändung where a title exists, Arrest where the measure only secures a future claim, and name the third-party debtor as the addressee of the order.
What the machine misses
Automatic translation of attachment lands on Anlage, the enclosure sense, or blurs Pfändung and Arrest into one word, and German procedure keeps them apart: the Pfändung takes assets under an existing title, § 829 ZPO for receivables, while the Arrest of § 916 ZPO secures execution before any title exists, and the machine choice regularly puts a measure at the wrong end of the process.
Examples
| attachment of earnings | Lohnpfändung |
| an attachment and transfer order | ein Pfändungs- und Überweisungsbeschluss |
| the third-party debtor | der Drittschuldner |
| a freezing order | ein Arrest |
More notes on these sections
enforcement Zwangsvollstreckung