“Sondervermögen” named German un-word of the year

Linguists and journalists in Marburg have selected Germany’s “un-word” of the year (Unwort des Jahres). Ever heard of “Sondervermögen”?

Sondervermögen is German un-word of the year 2025

Since 1991, a jury of linguists and journalists in Marburg, Hesse, has been selecting the annual German un-word of the year from thousands of public submissions. 

To be considered for the title, un-word submissions must meet at least one of four criteria: the word goes against the principle of human dignity; against the principles of democracy; stigmatises, discriminates or defames specific societal groups; or is deliberately misleading or euphemistic.

After sifting through around 2.000 submissions, they have named “Sondervermögen” the un-word for 2025. “Sondervermögen” (literally, “special assets” or “special fund”) can be understood as assets or wealth which is "separated from total assets and has its own significance,” the jurors explained in a press release.

So why was “Sondervermögen", a piece of economic and legal jargon written in Article 110 of the German Basic Law, being thrown around in 2025? This year, the German parliament approved Chancellor Friedrich Merz's (CDU) trillion-euro military and infrastructure spending plans, the Sondervermögen Bundeswehr and Sondervermögen Infrastruktur und Klimaneutralität.

Alongside the enormous amount of money earmarked, the approval vote was significant because the plans required the government to relax its debt brake (Schuldenbremse). The Schuldenbremse was introduced shortly after the 2008 financial crisis and rules that Germany’s annual debt cannot be more than 0,35 percent of its annual GDP.

According to the un-wort jury, the term has slipped into everyday use, but since many are not au fait with the original administrative meaning, the word is “misleading and euphemistic”. Using “technical jargon in public communication obscures what is meant by it: the assumption of debt,” the jurors explained.

“Zustrombegrenzungsgesetz” and “Umsiedlung” also ranked

“Zustrombegrenzungsgesetz” and “Umsiedlung” rounded out the top three “un-words”. The first refers to a draft law which the CDU/CSU brought to a vote on the Bundestag floor on January 31, 2025.

Literally “influx limitation law”, the law planned to increase border controls to neighbouring countries, end family reunification for migrants who are beneficiaries of subsidiary protection and give the federal police more power. 

“Water metaphors have been applied to migration since the 1950s,” the jurors explained, “People who are fleeing their homes disappear behind the label of a massive physical process (“flooding in”) and are thus presented as a large crowd and a danger, and at the same time dehumanized.”

“Umsiedlung” (“resettlement”), specifically in reference to policies adopted by the US and Israeli governments, was selected as the third un-word. “What sounds like a blessing conceals a crime,” jurors explained, “In international law, “resettlement” at gunpoint is commonly referred to as expulsion.”

“Some German media outlets also adopted this euphemistic language,” they continued. According to a November 2025 report from the Media Bias Meter, articles related to Palestine published in the German newspaper SPIEGEL between October 2023 and August 2025 used the term “settlements” in 95,36 percent of articles but only mentioned “illegal settlements” in 4,64 percent of articles.