How do I say something is the superlative of a group in German?

Question

What is the correct German way for the English construction involving identifying the superlative in a group? For instance > Lake Michigan is the largest of the Great Lakes? or > It was the darkest of nights. Is there a difference in how to write it if the group is definite (e.g., "the Great Lakes") versus indefinite (nights, books, games)? Would a genitive-style approach work, or is there another formulation?

Answer 1

A superlative always refers to one person or one thing, but it can also refer to one group; it cannot refer to many things or people though. In your sentence "Lake Michigan is the largest of the Great Lakes." the superlative "the largest" refers to "Lake Michigan", which is a singular. That would be "Lake Michigan ist der größte See der Great Lakes." in German. The same applies to the sentence "It was the darkest of nights". The superlative "the darkest" refers to "it" and not to "nights". Hence the translation would be "Es war die dunkelste aller Nächte". However, what I believe you meant to ask is: what if the best, the highest, the biggest, etc. refers to one group as in "These were the most famous songs of the 1980s". This would translate as "Das waren die berühmtesten Lieder der 80er Jahre." as opposed to "This was the most famous song of the 1980s" ("Das war das berühmteste Lied der 80er Jahre.").