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I have heard/read the following sentence in the 4th episode of the TV series "Lauchhammer - Tod in der Lausitz":

Der Florian ist abgereist, hat die Container dichtgemacht unten am See und weg ist er.

Context: Florian is a real estate salesman that sold houses by the main lake of the city. His office was in a container near the lake. After having an argument with his girlfriend and being accused by her ex-husband of killing a girl, he decided to leave the city. The sentence is said by the girlfriend's mother to her daughter after he goes away.

My understanding is "abreisen" means "to leave" and "weg sein" means "to be gone". If so, the German sentence would be translated to English as:

Florian left, sealed off the containers by the lake and is gone.

Having "leave" and "be gone" in the same sentence is redundant - saying "Florian sealed off the containers and left" or "Florian sealed off the containers and is gone" would mean the same. Am I missing something?

The TV series translates "abreisen" as "pack oneself's things" (i.e. Florian packed his things), but there's no such meaning in https://www.dwds.de/wb/abreisen.

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Der Florian ist abgereist, hat die Container dichtgemacht unten am See und weg ist er.

The description of him leaving is somewhat redundant, but here, the entire part after the comma acts like a clarification of the part before the comma:

Before the comma, the overall action is described. Florian has departed.

After the comma, the speaker specifies what exactly Florian has done as a part of his departure - he has closed off the containers down by the river, and then he has left (possibly quickly, even hastily).

Consider some alternative things that could have happened:

  • "Der Florian ist abgereist, hat die Container dichtgemacht unten am See und dann eine große Abschiedsfeier organisiert, bevor er am Tag danach aufgebrochen ist."
  • "Der Florian ist abgereist, hat die Container dichtgemacht unten am See, sich nochmal einen Tag Entspannung gegönnt, und hat sich dann noch von mir zum Bahnhof bringen lassen."

The original sentence, in contrast, emphasizes that other than closing off the containers, Florian left without doing anything else of note.

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It's redundant by purpose. The third main clause repeats the first with other words, and that way they both frame the second.

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    In the show there is quite a pause between "und" and "weg ist er." I think the idea was that the woman speaking is trying to emphasize the "he is gone," so saying it twice would make sense.
    – RDBury
    Commented Nov 5 at 5:45
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The literal translation of

weg ist er

is not "he is gone"! Notice the word order, it is not the "neutral" er ist weg. This sentence is marked by putting the "weg" up front.

Its meaning is more like "he is gone for good".

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  • Wouldn't that be "er ist für immer weg" ? I thought word order only caused emphasis, not a change in meaning.
    – Alan Evangelista
    Commented Nov 5 at 12:06
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    I would paraphrase it as "look, he's gone!" I see no aspect of "for good" in the expression, but a surprising abruptness.
    – ccprog
    Commented Nov 6 at 0:03
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In this case, I'd take "und weg ist er" to emphasize that the act of leaving was somewhat sudden. No last visits to his friends, no farewell party, no long evenings discussing his hopeful plans abroad.

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