Leopold von Ranke: wie er eigentlich gewesen |
What puzzles me, with my very imperfect German, is this. Shouldn't there be an auxiliary verb at the end? Shouldn't it be 'wie es eigentlich gewesen ist' ('how it essentially was') or 'wie es eigentlich gewesen war' ('how it essentially had been')? I don't have access to the German text, so I am wondering if any Germanophones can lay this to rest for me as it has bugged me for some time. I did once ask Walter Pohl who seemed to think that the phrase didn't make sense without an auxiliary. Am I missing something very obvious?
It's a minor point but it has niggled me for some years. Thank you.