What is the difference between “Bewohner” and “Einwohner”?
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Also interested in a native speaker’s input. My understanding is that there is a distinction of specificity / scale. “Einwohner” is abstract inhabitants while “bewohner” is pointing to specific residents. So “the city has a population of…”(einwohner) vs “I know of residents in this city…” (bewohner)
This sentence seems to ride the line of that distinction so I may be missing something.
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“Einwohner” is more “inhabitant” and “Bewohner” is more “resident”, brn1411 is right.
In context with cities, you normaly use “Einwohner”. Think of the “population sign” of US towns.That wouild be “Einwohner”.
“Bewohner” is more used for flats, houses, maybe small islands, e.g.
“Das Haus brannte ab; alle Bewohner wurden gerettet.”
(The house burned down; all residents were rescued)
To combine “Bewohner” and a city, you have to construct a very special case, e.g.
“Daisytown today is a ghost town, but there is a sole resident, 80-year-old Mr Smith.”
“Gänseblümchendorf ist heue eine Geisterstadt, aber es gibt einen einzigen Bewohner, den achtzgjährigen Herrn Schmidt.”
You imply that there is no official population, but somebody is living there.
However, the “Einwohner/Bewohner” difference is so small, that as a non-native speaker, you shouldn’t care too much.
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