Strube and Hahn (1999) argue that in German, the rank of discourse entities is determined by the position they hold in Prince's (1981Prince's ( , 1992 givenness hierarchy.
strube and Hahn argue that hearer-old entities rank higher than mediated entities, which and in turn rank higher than hearer-new entities: HEARER-OLD ≺ MEDIATED ≺ HEARER-NEW.