date language

I get the correct language output (in my case: German) when using: the_modified_time(‘d. F Y’);

But when I do something like this:

$moddate = ‘27.07.2023’;
$moddate = DateTime::createFromFormat(‘d.m.Y’, $moddate);
echo $moddate->format(‘d. F Y’);

… the output language is English = 27. July 2023 instead of the German 27. Juli 2023.

I can’t find any reason why the language setting that works for the_modified_time() does not apply to $moddate->format(‘d. F Y’);

It’s probably more a PHP than a WP question, but still hope for some help …