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I came across this sentence,

"daß Er ewig der Erhalter der individuellen Lebewesen ist, sowohl in ihrem bedingten als auch in ihrem befreiten Zustand"

However I was amazed to know ihrem is a Dative form (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ihrem) , whereas the sentence is referring to "their confined and also their liberated situation" i.e. hinting at the possession of a state of consciousness (either confined or liberated)

so assuming there should be a genitive ihrer. Kindly advise

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  • "Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod" as the (old) saying goes (or was it the other way round??). Jun 23, 2019 at 11:14

2 Answers 2

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The answer is simple. It's the preposition in. This preposition either takes dative or accusative. Never genitive.

Sie stieg in ihr Auto. (direction)

Sie saß in ihrem Auto. (place)

Your example isn't different. Der Zustand is a place die Lebewesen are in. I could even make it accusative:

…, daß er ewig der Erhalter der individuellen Lebewesen ist, die er sowohl in ihren bedingten als auch in ihren befreiten Zustand versetzt hat.

That's because the verb versetzen calls for a direction.

If you wanted to see a genitive, you had to skip this preposition in:

…, daß er ewig der Erhalter der individuellen Lebewesen ist, ihres bedingten als auch ihres befreiten Zustands.

However, der Zustand is now a property of die Lebewesen rather than a location.

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You are right that sie (referring to die individuellen Lebewesen) possess the Zustand. This is why the possessive pronoun ihr is used instead for what would otherwise be referred to by the pronoun sie:

ihr bedingter als auch ihr befreiter Zustand

Now that whole phrase has to be in dative, though, as dictated by the preposition in:

ihrem bedingten als auch ihrem befreiten Zustand

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