<p>The analysis of the so-called <i>bekommen</i>-passive in German has long been debated for at least two reasons: There is significant disagreement about the set of verbs that can be embedded by <i>bekommen</i>, and the resulting structure has mixed properties with respect to passive diagnostics. This paper takes on the task of disentangling this debate by examining the different components of this structure separately and exploring the empirical and theoretical complications associated with the embedded participles, the verb <i>bekommen</i> itself, the subject in the structure, and the presence of a passive VoiceP in the <i>bekommen</i>-complement one by one. The results suggest that while passive Voice is present in the structure, restrictions on the participles and the subject are too systematic to be thought of as idiosyncratic. It is argued that this state of affairs continues to present significant complications to the consensus view of <i>bekommen</i>+participle as straightforwardly passive, and favors a more nuanced approach to the syntactic relationships between complex events and their participants.</p>