Fossilised expression 'schweren Herzens' (with a heavy heart)

schweren Herzens means with a heavy heart and is a fossilised genitive used adverbially. It describes doing something reluctantly or sorrowfully. The genitive ending is frozen - it never changes regardless of the surrounding sentence.

• Schweren Herzens nahm sie Abschied. - With a heavy heart she said goodbye.
• Er stimmte schweren Herzens zu. - He agreed reluctantly.
• Schweren Herzens verkauften sie das Haus. - With a heavy heart they sold the house.

Common mistakes: Treat it as a fixed unit; you cannot inflect or vary it (no mit schwerem Herzen in this idiomatic adverbial use, and certainly not schweres Herzens). It needs no preposition - the genitive itself carries the adverbial meaning. It belongs to a formal or literary register.

'schweren Herzens' (with a heavy heart) is a fixed genitive adverbial.

Fixed genitive adverbial 'with a heavy heart'; the form is frozen.

'schweren Herzens' ist ein erstarrter Genitiv (adverbial).