objection
noun · Widerspruch
Widerspruch against a Verwaltungsakt, filed with the issuing authority within one month, § 70 Abs. 1 VwGO. Einspruch is the objection word of the tax procedure, Einwendung the word for objecting to a project in a participation procedure, § 73 Abs. 4 VwVfG, and only the first two stop a Verwaltungsakt becoming binding.
Which translation, when
Why
English objection covers everything from a neighbour’s letter about a planning application to the formal step that keeps a decision alive, and German spreads that range over three words. The Widerspruch is the formal one: filed with the authority that made the decision, within one month of notification, § 70 Abs. 1 VwGO, and unusual by English standards because the authority reconsiders whether the act was expedient as well as whether it was lawful, § 68 Abs. 1 VwGO, which is wider than the legality review of a claim for judicial review, though an English statutory appeal can reach the merits too. It also suspends the decision as a rule, § 80 Abs. 1 VwGO, where a claim for judicial review does not, though the exceptions are broad enough to matter: public charges and costs, and any case where immediate enforcement has been specially ordered and reasoned, § 80 Abs. 2 and Abs. 3 VwGO. Two traps sit behind that comfort. Several Länder have restricted or abolished the Vorverfahren under § 68 Abs. 1 Satz 2 VwGO, so there the objection is the wrong step and the month belongs to the Anfechtungsklage instead. And where the objection is aimed at a building consent granted to somebody else, § 212a Abs. 1 BauGB removes the suspensive effect altogether, so the neighbour who objects and waits watches the building go up.
Typical mistakes
- One month runs from notification, § 70 Abs. 1 Satz 1 VwGO, and the address is the forgiving part, since filing with the authority that would decide the Widerspruch also keeps the date, § 70 Abs. 1 Satz 2 VwGO; the month itself stretches to a year only where the Rechtsbehelfsbelehrung was missing or wrong, § 58 Abs. 2 VwGO; a well argued letter that misses the date does nothing at all.
- Several Länder have cut back or abolished the Widerspruchsverfahren under § 68 Abs. 1 Satz 2 VwGO, so the Land’s own statute decides whether a Widerspruch is the next step or a wasted one, with the Klage running on the same month.
- Suspensive effect is the rule and not the reality in every case, § 80 Abs. 2 VwGO taking it away for public charges and costs and where immediate enforcement is ordered, and § 212a Abs. 1 BauGB taking it away from a third party objecting to a building consent.
What matters
Objecting to a German decision takes the right word and the right date: Widerspruch to the issuing authority within a month, § 70 Abs. 1 VwGO, Einwendung if the fight is about a project still in its participation procedure, § 73 Abs. 4 VwVfG. The letter that objects in the English sense, well argued but filed after the month, leaves the act binding and the neighbour’s building lawful.
What the machine misses
Objection comes back as Einspruch or as Einwand where the procedure calls for Widerspruch, and the three are not interchangeable: Einspruch belongs to the tax procedure, Einwand is no procedural term at all, and only the Widerspruch of § 68 VwGO preserves a challenge to a Verwaltungsakt. A machine-translated objection therefore reads as though something has been done when nothing has, and the month of § 70 Abs. 1 VwGO runs on underneath it.
Examples
| to lodge an objection | Widerspruch einlegen |
| the objection has suspensive effect | der Widerspruch hat aufschiebende Wirkung |
| to object to the plan | Einwendungen gegen den Plan erheben |
| the objection was dismissed | der Widerspruch wurde zurückgewiesen |
More notes on these sections
planning permission Baugenehmigung