von meaning and definition in german

from English “from” is generally expressed by means of von, but aus is often used with geographical names. One uses von when both the places “from which” and “to which” are given: Dieser Zug fährt von Köln nach Hamburg. – “This train goes from Cologne to Hamburg.” If the further direction is not given, aus is the normal choice: Dieser Zug kommt aus Köln. – “This train is coming from Cologne.” The phrase: Dieser Zug kommt von Köln is not wrong but has a colloquial ring to it.
of The preposition von is used to replace possessive and partitive genitives, sometimes also genitives with prepositions. Such replacement can be obligatory, optional, or restricted to the colloquial register:
It is obligatory if the genitive cannot be expressed grammatically, which is the case with common nouns not preceded by any declinable articles, determiners, or adjectives: die Rechte von Kindern (“children’s rights”); der Geschmack von Käse (“the taste of cheese”). It is also true of most singular pronouns and all personal pronouns: der Geschmack von diesem (“the taste of this”); ein Freund von mir (“a friend of mine”).
The replacement is optional in cases such as the following: 1.) with those pronouns that do have an applicable genitive form, chiefly plurals: die Arbeit vieler = die Arbeit von vielen (“the work of many”); 2.) with the numeral genitives zweier and dreier (see lemmas); 3.) with proper nouns, particularly geographical names: die Kirchen Roms = die Kirchen von Rom (“the churches of Rome”); 4.) with common nouns preceded only by an adjective: die Rechte kleiner Kinder = die Rechte von kleinen Kindern (“small children’s rights”).
The replacement is colloquial in most other cases. Any possessive or partitive genitive can, per se, be replaced with a von-phrase, which is normal in speech, and virtually obligatory in colloquial speech. In formal writing, however, it is generally considered incorrect and unusual. This is one of the gravest grammatical differences between colloquial and literary German.
In older usage, Latin nouns often occurred in the ablative case after von. This is now archaic, Latin case inflections never being used in contemporary German.