Gesellschaftender Geschäftsführer

Kann jemand das definieren oder einen Hinweis geben?

What is a gesellschaftender Geschäftsführer? Is it the GmbH equivalent of a geschäftsführender Gesellschafter in an OHG? Whence the verb gesellschaften?

My money is on owner-director, or maybe shareholder and director (shareholder in a GmbH is a bit translatorese but very common) but of course one likes to understand things before translating them (this isn’t my translation, fortunately, but a query from another translator).

I read that a director can but need not be a member of a GmbH, but that is a weird adjective. Has it been communicated to the German language watchdogs?

LATER NOTE: The colleague’s client replied to the question, ‘Zum Thema gesellschaft. Geschäftsführer oder geschäftsführender Gesellschafter muss ich mich leider geschlagen geben. Meiner Meinung nach gibt es nur letzteren Begriff. Doch …. besteht auf Nutzung des ersten.’

7 thoughts on “Gesellschaftender Geschäftsführer

  1. The terms “managing shareholder” and “managing partner” both exist in legal English, though the latter’s not normally used for limited companies.

  2. Margaret, yes it seems to be not uncommon in the United States, but overall, it’s not really a concept that appears much in Anglo-American company law.

  3. I agree with Robin’s managing partner comment, and think you’ve, Margaret, have hit the nail on the head with membership. The executive vs. non-executive route doesn’t take us anywhere, so let’s stick to member vs. non-member.

    ‘(Full-) Member Director’ vs. Non-Member Director Googles quite well for a co. Maybe this odd species of director is down on the Aktienbuch that – almost – overlaps with a Register of Members. Almost as I don’t think that, in the UK, shareholder is synonymous with member, as Pitmans Dictionary of Accounting & Finance claims. So a US Managing Shareholder may be misleading.

    For instance, the subscribers to a UK Co’s Memorandum of Association are automatically members on incorporation without being alloted any shares (s. 22 UK Companies Act 1985). Also, as far as I know, a co. director need no longer subscribe for a qualification share.

    On the basis OHG is a gen. partnership, then ‘Senior Equity Partner’. Only problem: the antithesis of nichtgesellschaftender – sounds even less German that St. Ivo suggests – i.e. a non-member partner doesn’t Google at all.

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