Wiedergekehrten

Wiedergekehrten is a declined form of the German past participle wiedergekehrt, which derives from wiederkehren, meaning to return or come back. The base sense is “having returned” or “returning,” and the form is used primarily as an attributive adjective before a plural noun when the noun is definite or the case is indicated by the determiner.

In practice, the form appears as wiedergekehrten before plural nouns in contexts such as die wiedergekehrten Soldaten (the soldiers who have returned) or den wiedergekehrten Flüchtlingen (to/for the returned refugees). This illustrates the typical weak or mixed declension pattern in German when an attributive participle accompanies a plural noun with a definite article or another determiner. Without a definite determiner, the attributive form for plural would usually be wiedergekehrte (e.g., wiedergekehrte Soldaten).

The non-attributive or predicate use is distinta: sie sind wiedergekehrt means “they have returned,” with wiedergekehrt functioning as a finite participle in compound tenses rather than as an attributive adjective.

The term is common in historical, political, or journalistic writing to describe people or groups who have returned after absence, captivity, exile, or displacement. It can describe both individuals and communities and may appear in phrases related to postwar repatriation, refugee return, or reintegration.

Etymologically, wiedergekehrt combines wieder- (again, back) with kehren (to turn, to return). It should not be confused with wiederkehr (return, recurrence) or with sentences where the participle is not attributive. The form wiedergekehrten is specifically the plural, attributive inflection used before a noun.