Dative case as a subject in a sentence in German

Question

Why is the dative case instead of nominative case used for the noun "Antrag" in the following sentence: Ihrem Antrag wird stattgegeben. Is it wrong to write: Ihr Antrag wird stattgegeben. Thank you.

Answer 1

It is not the subject.

Ihrem Antrag wird stattgegeben.

As you found out correctly, ihrem Antrag is marked with dative case. But the subject has to be marked with nominative case. So ihrem Antrag cannot be the subject.

What you can still ask is: what part of speech is the subject then?

And the answer is that this sentence has no subject. German sentences do not need a subject. Especially in passive voice —and wird stattgegeben is a passive voice— leaving out the subject is common. (This actually depends on the semantics of the verb. Don't leave out the subject randomly. But be prepared for a missing subject.)

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Do not let word order fool you.

Unlike in English, the first thing in a German main clause isn't the subject. But the topic. That's a grammatical item of your choice that tells what this sentence is discussing further. Semantically. You can put anything at the front of a main clause in German.

In your example, the speaker has put the dative object in front.

To understand what this means in this particular case, you need to know the semantics of the verb stattgeben. Let's use an equivalent active sentence:

Ihrem Antrag gibt die Behörde statt.

Or, with the subject as the topic:

Die Behörde gibt ihrem Antrag statt.

Both mean the same: Die Behörde accedes to ihrem Antrag. But the first variant makes that ihrem Antrag the thing discussed rather than die Behörde. Consider the original passive sentence: die Behörde doesn't even appear in that one. It's not the thing discussed.

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So, last question … can you make it ihr Antrag then and mark it as a subject?

No, because the verb stattgeben is a dative verb. It takes a dative object and dative objects do not become the subject in the passive sentence. At least not with the werden or sein passive. German has another passive voice with bekommen that does indeed turn the dative object of the active sentence into the subject of the passive sentence. Like this:

„Ihr Antrag bekommt stattgegeben.“

But it's not applicable everywhere. The above line is understandable but it sounds very clumsy. Do not speak like that. It's only common in a few occassions e.g. like this:

Die Polizei nimmt ihm den Führerschein weg. (active)

Von der Polizei wird ihm der Führerschein weggenommen. (werden-passive)

Von der Polizei bekommt er den Führerschein weggenommen. (bekommen-passive)