When something feels unfair, illegal, or just plain wrong, German calls it Unrecht. Whether it’s a small personal betrayal or a massive historical crime, this is the word that says: “This shouldn’t have happened.”

The noun Unrecht means wrong, injustice, or unlawfulness—used for both legal violations and moral transgressions. It’s one of the 1000 most frequently used nouns in German, and it's a key term in ethics, history, and everyday conversation.

It’s a neuter noun, so we say das Unrecht.

Pronunciation

Unrecht is pronounced [OON-rekht].

• The “Un” sounds like the “oon” in “moon.”
• The “recht” sounds like “rekht,” with that soft German "ch" sound made in the back of the throat.

Example sentences:

• Was man mir angetan hat war pures Unrecht.
  What was done to me was pure injustice.
• Er erkannte seinen Fehler und bat um Verzeihung für das Unrecht.
  He recognized his mistake and asked for forgiveness for the wrong.

Nuance and usage tips

Unrecht is literally the opposite of Recht (law, right, justice). It doesn’t just mean “a mistake”—it implies moral or legal harm. Depending on context, it might refer to:

• A legal injustice:
  staatliches Unrecht – state injustice
• A historical wrong:
  das Unrecht des NS-Regimes – the injustice of the Nazi regime
• A personal or ethical violation:
  jemandem Unrecht tun – to wrong someone

So while Fehler (mistake) suggests a misstep, Unrecht carries a deeper, more serious accusation.

Its natural antonym is Recht (neuter, das Recht)—meaning law, justice, or rightness.

Grammatical case examples:

• Nominative: Das Unrecht blieb lange ungesühnt.
  The injustice remained unpunished for a long time.
• Accusative: Er hat das Unrecht nie eingesehen.
  He never acknowledged the wrong.
• Dative: Mit dem Unrecht kamen auch die Zweifel an der Regierung.
  With the injustice came doubts about the government.
• Genitive: Wegen des Unrechts erhob das Volk seine Stimme.
  Because of the injustice, the people raised their voices.

Neuter case pattern: das, das, dem, des

Word variations and language tidbits

Variation Station:

• Unrecht tun – to do wrong
• Unrechtsstaat – unjust state (often used to describe oppressive regimes, including the Nazi dictatorship and East Germany)
• Unrechtsbewusstsein – awareness of wrongdoing
• Unrechtmäßigkeit – illegality

Important note: The term Unrecht plays a huge role in Germany’s reckoning with its past. Phrases like historisches Unrecht or Unrecht wiedergutmachen (to make amends for wrongdoing) appear frequently in discussions of the Holocaust and GDR surveillance, among others.

👉 Duden – Unrecht

🎥 Learn Unrecht and the rest of the top 1000 German nouns in our free online video course:
https://deutschable.com/nouns/

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