Case of "die Heimat" in "Expedition in die Heimat"

Question

I'm trying to identify and understand the case used in the phrase

Expedition in die Heimat

My reasoning was that "in" being a wechselpräposition and there being no movement, the dative would be used, giving

Expedition in der Heimat

but clearly I am wrong!

So which case is actually being used here (and why!)?

The "movement/no movement" criterion is a really bad one. It's better to think about location (prep. + dat.) vs direction toward s.th. (prep. + acc.). Cf. the locative/allative cases in Indoeuropean languages. — dirkt, Commented Aug 14, 2016 at 10:39
This is motion towards, isn't it, boy? - Dative? ... Ah! Not dative! Not the dative, sir! Ah! Ah! Oh! Accusative, accusative! Sorry, could not resist ... :-D — Thorsten Dittmar, Commented Aug 15, 2016 at 7:08

Beta · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-15 06:52:56Z

6

The sentence means "Expedition to the homestead" not "Expedition in the homestead". I'm not sure about the translation of "Heimat", though.

It's accusative, because there's motion into the homestead. With dative it would imply you're already in the place and roaming around.

answered Aug 14, 2016 at 9:45

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Perfect, thanks! I've always found translation of prepositions a bit tricky!
– Stephen Hartley
Commented Aug 14, 2016 at 9:48

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