Translating German corporate titles / Andere Länder, andere Titel

Im Handelsblatt schreibt Dr. Henning von Boehmer über die Schwierigkeit, deutsche Titel zu übersetzen. Er präsentiert auch ein “Übersetzungs-Tool” zur Übersetzung ins Amerikanische und Englische (sic), Französische, Italienische und Spanische.

Beispiel: Prokurist: American: Authorized Officer / Officer with Procurement
English: ditto
French: Fondé de Pouvoir
Italian: Institore
Spanish: Apoderado General

What is procurement?

The tool is a bit irritating because you have to click on your language for each term. A table would have been much nicer.

Here’s a similar but not identical list set out much more nicely.

(Via Richard Schneider’s news at Übersetzer-Portal)

3 thoughts on “Translating German corporate titles / Andere Länder, andere Titel

  1. Procurement – Beschaffungswesen? Was hat das mit einem Titel zu tun, ausser bei einem Procurement Officer, der fuer Procurement zustaendig ist.

    Authorized Officer sollte fuer die USA reichen. Ansonsten bleibt lediglich die Option, den Begriff Prokurist zu umschreiben.

    Die “with”-Fassung wuerde sinnlos wirken.

  2. Re: your third link… “Wörterbuch für Wirtschaftsbegriffe aus den wichtigsten Ökonomien der Welt”?

    I was going to argue that having Spanish over Mandarin in the list of “most important economies” was a disservice to China, but going by the World Bank’s figures, (Spain + Mexico) alone beat out the PRC.

    Japan, however, remains unfairly excluded.

  3. Clemens: yes, it’s complete rubbish. Apparently it isn’t too widely used (Google). I usually use the German term and explain it. I have had to translate it most often in extracts from the Handelsregister. I found someone translating it as procurator – in Scotland the procurator fiscal is the Staatsanwalt, however.

    Tim: I assumed it was the most widely known languages in the West – I suppose Italy is not such an important economy? But maybe those unfairly excluded are better served?

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