Ständern

Ständern is the inflected form associated with the German noun Ständer, which denotes a stand, support, or pillar used to hold or display objects. The term occurs in a range of technical and everyday contexts where something must be held upright or supported.

In practical use, Ständer covers stands such as Kameraständer (camera stands), Mikrofonständer (microphone stands), and furniture or display stands like lamp stands. It also describes structural supports in architecture or machinery that hold components in position. The sense is broadly mechanical or decorative, depending on the domain.

Grammatical note: Ständern is primarily seen as the dative plural form of Ständer, as in mit den Ständern. In other cases the form of the plural changes according to standard German declension, but the appearance Ständern is characteristic for the dative plural.

Historical and linguistic context: In historical German-speaking contexts, a related word is Stände, which refers to estates or social orders within the medieval and early modern political framework. The modern term for such estates is Stände (with ä). Ständer (without this plural form) is not used to denote estates in standard modern German; the two terms belong to different grammatical and semantic domains.

See also: Ständer, Stände, and related furniture and hardware terminology.