The Short Life Cycle of External Arguments in German Passive Derivations Gereon Müller, Universität Leipzig Abstract In this article, I pursue two main goals. First, I argue for a new empirical general- ization: An external argument in German passive constructions (DP ext ) is accessible from positions below it but inaccessible from positions above it. And second, I present a new theory of passivization from which this generalization can be derived: I suggest that an elementary operation Remove should be postulated in phase-based minimalist syntax that is the complete mirror image of Merge in that it triggers struc- ture removal rather than structure building, and that obeys exactly the same restric- tions (with respect to triggers, strict cyclicity, etc.). Remove provides a principled approach to conflicting structure assignment and reanalysis in general, with short life cycle effects (derivable from strict cyclicity) at its core. Keywords: Merge, Strict Cycle Condition, passive, minimality, Agree (binding, control), reanalysis