2

The preposition zugunsten is used both with dative and genitive. If I remember well, that's the same case for wegen. With wegen, in written language, is better meinetwegen as wegen mir, that is Genitiv is prefered over Dativ.

Which would be the genitive version of

mir zugunsten oder zugunsten mir ?

In case there is a fixed expression, which would be the generalization to other (not so often used) dual genitive-dative-prepositions?

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  • 1
    what about zugunsten meiner?
    – bummi
    Sep 28, 2013 at 12:06
  • @bummi So, z.B. Zugunsten meiner fällt der Termin aus? Klingt es nicht seltsam?
    – c.p.
    Sep 28, 2013 at 12:19
  • 1
    doch absolut, zugunsten meiner Person ... ist aber bisweilen zu lesen/hören.
    – bummi
    Sep 28, 2013 at 12:31
  • 4
    zu meinen Gunsten
    – Carsten S
    Sep 28, 2013 at 15:44
  • Ich sage auch wegen meiner, wenn mir danach ist.
    – Carsten S
    Sep 28, 2013 at 18:48

2 Answers 2

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If zugunsten treated the first person pronouns the same way wegen did, it would be zumeinergunsten. But it doesn't. zugunsten is a concentrated form of the older zu Gunsten. That's why, in connection with the first person pronouns it becomes

zu meinen Gunsten

3

Actually, wegen and zugunsten are quite dissimilar. The case of the phrase governed by wegen varies between genitive and dative (wegen des Wetters, wegen dem Wetter) depending on whether it is elaborated or colloquial speech, on the preferences and education of the speaker, etc.; additionally, the postposition can only govern genitive (des Wetters wegen). For zugunsten, however, it only depends on its usage as a preposition or a postposition. The preposition governs genitive, the postposition dative:

Sie haben zugunsten ihres Vaters darauf verzichtet.
Sie haben ihrem Vater zugunsten darauf verzichtet.

I would say that the postpositional use is less common.

For your specific question, this means that either mir zugunsten or zugunsten meiner are conceivable; zugunsten mir is ungrammatical. The genitive of personal pronouns sounds awkward, though, and is almost always avoided in present-day German. As already mentioned by Carsten Schulz and Toscho, one common choice is to undo the grammaticalization of zugunsten, which is a contraction of zu and Gunst, and say zu meinen Gunsten. In a similar way, zu unseren Gunsten, zu Stephanies Gunsten, zu wessen Gunsten? are possible. Outside of these fixed phrases, the plural of Gunst is no longer used.

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