dokumentarischen

Dokumentarischen is the inflected form of the German adjective dokumentarisch, which denotes a documentary or documentary-like character. The base sense refers to content that relates to documents, factual evidence, or representations of real events, people or objects. In German, the adjective is widely used to describe non-fiction media such as films, journalism, photography, and literature, as well as broader practices that aim to present reality in a non-fictional way. While closely associated with non-fiction, the term does not imply absolute objectivity and may reflect particular editorial or artistic choices.

Origin and usage: The adjective dokumentarisch derives from Dokument (document) with the common German adjectival suffix -arisch. In everyday and academic language it appears in compound phrases such as der dokumentarische Film (the documentary film), dokumentarische Berichterstattung (documentary reporting), or dokumentarische Fotografie (documentary photography). The form dokumentarischen is the declined variant used across different grammatical cases and genders. For example: die dokumentarischen Filme (nominative plural), mit den dokumentarischen Filmen (dative plural), der dokumentarischen Arbeit (genitive singular feminine), einer dokumentarischen Arbeit (dative singular feminine). These endings illustrate how the same base adjective adapts to grammatical context.

See also: In German, the related noun forms include Dokumentation and Dokumenarfilm (colloquial Doku) for more concise references to documentary works. The term is also used in media studies to discuss documentary aesthetics, realism, and methods such as observational or cinéma vérité-inspired approaches. Overall, dokumentarischen functions as a flexible descriptor across media and disciplines, signaling a connection to factual representation within non-fiction genres.