Circumstances oblige one to spend more time in England.

What’s different?

There are many more spam phone calls. That might depend on the phone user, though. Also post informing you that you are making a PPI claim through the company that writes.

When you phone up big offices, you get put through from pillar to post. Then if you have to speak to someone and give your personal details, the person is incredibly chirpy and friendly. For instance, I am asked to give my phone number and do so – ‘Thank you very much, that’s brilliant’. ‘That’s brilliant’ is commonly used for absolutely nothing.

I hate the way people ask on the phone if you are Mrs or Miss. Just occasionally they add Ms. I knew that Ms was a problem in the UK because ‘it can’t be spoken’, I just hadn’t experienced it on the phone before.

There are masses of plain English forms and advertisements for services and brochures from utility companies explaining what they offer. This is just beginning in Germany. The local utility company in Fürth sends a magazine or newsletter which always frustrates me because I worry that it might contain essential information so I can’t throw it away without looking through it.

The range of TV programmes is huge so it’s usually possible to find something worth watching. In Franconia, we don’t even get RTL and Vox on digital terrestrial.

Opening hours are more civilized than in Bavaria (I gather that even in Baden-Württemberg, you can shop at supermarkets till 10 pm rather than 8 pm).

Most things are sold in twos. For years I have had a horrible pillow here – I only use one. It seems to have a life of its own. I went to Tesco and nearly all pillows were called ‘rebound’. I know just what they mean. I got an anti-allergenic one, could have got a feather one. But no, I could only get two (‘pillow pair’ is the term).

Swimming is better organized than in Fürth. And I have seen no OAPs doing the crablike Altdeutsch-Rücken stroke and taking up three lanes to do so.

It’s about time I posted this entry, which has an incomplete feeling about it.

The Daily Telegraph reports:

Gustl Mollath has been held against his will in a secure unit since March 2006, after he voiced suspicions that employees of Hypo Vereinsbank — including his ex-wife — had been smuggling money to Switzerland.

He was tried on charges of assaulting his wife and detained in a psychiatric hospital in Bavaria. But last year a German newspaper uncovered an internal audit report carried out by the bank that showed his claims were valid.

In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Heribert Prantl comments on the deficiencies of the section of the Criminal Code which psychologists regard as law and lawyers as psychology.

Prantl writes: in the trials in Nuremberg in 2006, many errors were made: evidence not taken into account, the judgment based on a false document and false accusations used to show Mollath was under paranoid delusions.

Mollath seemingly cannot get out of the mental hospital because he is regarded as dangerous (and there is no agreed definition of dangerous).

German Criminal Code:

§ 63 Unterbringung in einem psychiatrischen Krankenhaus
Hat jemand eine rechtswidrige Tat im Zustand der Schuldunfähigkeit (§ 20) oder der verminderten Schuldfähigkeit (§ 21) begangen, so ordnet das Gericht die Unterbringung in einem psychiatrischen Krankenhaus an, wenn die Gesamtwürdigung des Täters und seiner Tat ergibt, daß von ihm infolge seines Zustandes erhebliche rechtswidrige Taten zu erwarten sind und er deshalb für die Allgemeinheit gefährlich ist.

In the Bohlander translation:

Section 63
Mental hospital order

If a person has committed an unlawful act in a state of insanity (section 20) or diminished responsibility (section 21) the court shall make a mental hospital order if a comprehensive evaluation of the offender and the act leads to the conclusion that as a result of his condition, future serious unlawful acts can be expected of him and that he therefore presents a danger to the general public.

Separated from my books, I’m not sure what German law means by insanity. One element was Mollath’s refusal to be tested by a psychiatrist, as he could not believe anyone would find him insane. Of course, it all started when he was found guilty of beating his wife on her evidence alone. And made ridiculous accusations that a bank was engaged in wrongdoing.

Update on June 17: The Süddeutsche reports that an earlier draft of the application to reopen the case has turned up and it appears that surprising alterations were made before the final engrossment.

And a doctor and CSU member who tweeted that the Bavarian Minister of Justice, Beate Merk, should be asked when Mollath will be released, was shortly afterwards visited by two plainclothes policemen:

Der Fall über den Richard Gutjahr heute in seinem Blog berichtet, ist so unglaublich, dass man ihn unbedingt weiterverbreiten muss. Die Ärztin Ursula Gresser (Mitglied der CSU!) twitterte “Wann Mollath freikommt? Diese Frage könnte man Frau Merk am Mo. 10.06.13 um 19 Uhr im Landgasthof Hofolding stellen“.

via Detlef Burhoff in JURION Strafrecht Blog

I’m a bit late on this – read about it a couple of weeks ago, but looking closely at the exam question it seems very similar to the kind of questions usually done in law exams – see Sebastian Salek’s blog:

Sandra is President of The Vizards, a College drinking society. She is organising the initiation of new members. After a great deal of alcohol has been drunk, the members of the society form a circle around Billy, Gilbert and Richard who are to be initiated.

(i) Sandra blindfolds Billy and tells him that Tracey will suck his penis. Jonny does so.

(ii) Sandra penetrates Gilbert’s anus with a bottle. Although Gilbert appears to resist, and has to be held down by Tracey, he actually enjoys the experience.

(iii) Sandra waxes Richard’s pubic hair and pulls it off with such force that she removes a significant part of his skin. The wound becomes infected, but Richard is so embarrassed that he does not get medical help and dies.

Consider what offences, if any, have been committed.

Apparently the media storm (called in German ein Shitstorm) started with a tweet by a student of English literature! But law exam questions are usually modelled on cases the students have already encountered. In German law studies there are often invented cases in the books to show how the law is supposed to work, and in English law studies the cases studied usually actually happened (I can remember using R v Brown as an example teaching law to translation students).

See also Der Spiegel: Elite-Uni Cambridge: Vergewaltigung als Prüfungsthema

Just a reminded of Acolada‘s website (German or English – click on flag at right). They have a large number of electronic Unilex dictionaries which run together under one interface.

One dictionary I have as a book but not electronically is Wörterbuch Immobilienrecht (DE>EN and EN>DE).

Das Wörterbuch der Immobilienwirtschaft umfasst die gesamte Bandbreite der (im weiteren Sinne) immobilienwirtschaftlichen Disziplinen. Mit insgesamt ca. 43.000 Einträgen enthält das für die immobilienwirtschaftliche Berufspraxis wesentliche Vokabular aus allen relevanten Gebieten. In das Wörterbuch integriert sind auch die Bezeichnungen der wichtigsten Institutionen der Immobilienwirtschaft und der branchenrelevanten Gesetze.

Die folgenden Gebieten sind im Wörterbuch der Immobilienwirtschaft enthalten: Projektentwicklung, Wertermittlung, Raum- und Stadtplanung, Recht, Steuern, Finanzen und Rechnungswesen sowie weiterhin aus den angrenzenden Fachgebieten Architektur, Bau, Investitionsrechnung, Unternehmensorganisation, Marketing, Volkswirtschaft, Einzelhandel bis hin zu den technischen und handwerklichen Bereichen.

Download the Real Estate Dictionary. The Real Estate Dictionary includes the whole range (in the widest sense) of real estate disciplines. The total of around 43,000 entries covers essential vocabulary for real estate practitioners from all relevant fields.

This is a really useful dictionary, frequently updated too. One place you might get the print version (and the electronic version) is Kater Verlag. That is another useful site which often has a few pages to look at (marked Entscheidungshilfe or Vorschau).

Acolada has general dicionaries too. They just sent a newsletter announcing the “famous” Oxford Dictionary of English. It’s described elsewhere on the site as the ‘leading’ dictionary of Englsh.

Seit Anfang des Jahres steht das renommierte Oxford Dictionary of English in der neuen 3. Auflage 2010 in UniLex zur Verfügung.
Das einsprachige Wörterbuch bietet mit mehr als 350.000 Stichwörtern und zahlreichen Anwendungsbeispielen einen umfangreichen Überblick über die englische Sprache

People, the word ‘Oxford’ may recall the OED, but it is absolutely not the best one-volume English dictionary, any more than the Bavarians’ beloved ‘Hornby’ is the best learners’ dictionary of English.

Anyone heard of Longman or Collins?

In Sprachlog, Anatol Stefanowitsch recenlty had to remark that a 63-letter German word is not ‘abolished’ simply because the legislation it names has ceased to apply.

Da die „Abschaffung“ des längsten deutschen Wortes sehr viel mehr Aufsehen erregt hat, als ich es mir hätte vorstellen können – Glückwunsch an die dpa, übrigens, die als einzige das Potenzial dieser Meldung erkannt hat – hatte ich gestern viele Anfragen, was denn nun das neue längste Wort des Deutschen sei. Ich ignoriere einmal, dass Grund­stücks­ver­kehrs­ge­neh­mi­gungs­zu­stän­dig­keits­über­tra­gungs­ver­ord­nung und Rind­fleisch­eti­ket­tie­rungs­über­wa­chungs­auf­ga­ben­über­tra­gungs­ge­setz ja nach wie vor Wörter des Deutschen sind, auch wenn die Gesetze, auf die sie sich beziehen, nicht mehr existieren (eine für mich recht einleuchtende Tatsache, die aber kaum eine/r der Anfragenden teilen mochte (David Charter von der Times erwähnt es in seinem Artikel immerhin).

This is something that has concerned me as a legal translator, too. The wonderful Centre for German Legal Information website does not contain translations of statutes that have been repealed. But we translators constantly have to translate law that is no longer up to date.

The newest excitement on the German language landscape is the uproar about a decision at Leipzig University to use Professorinnen as the generic plural referring to men and women.

BILDBlog has a good post on this: Mein lieber Frau Gesangsverein. (Unfortunately the first sentence gives prominence to the German word Shitstorm which is widely believed to be a common English term for an internet uproar. It points out that Leipzig University was referring only to the generic plural:

Statt “Vertreter/innen” könnte die Uni auch “Vertreter_innen” schreiben. Oder “VertreterInnen”. Oder “Vertreter/Vertreterinnen”. Oder “Vertreterinnen und Vertreter”. Sie könnte auch — wie es bisher jahrzehntelang üblich war — einfach nur “Vertreter” schreiben und in einer Fußnote klären, dass damit auch Frauen gemeint sind.

Sie könnte aber auch — und damit kommen wir zur neuen Variante an der Uni Leipzig — einfach nur “Vertreterinnen” schreiben und in einer Fußnote klären, dass Männer damit auch gemeint sind.

But at all events, readers will be relieved to hear that at least the Law Faculty at Dresden is having none of it (its Dekan obviously another person who has difficulties with reading):

Wir missbilligen den Beschluss des Senats. Wir werden ihm nicht folgen. Kein männlicher Student der Juristenfakultät Leipzig muss damit rechnen, als „Studentin“ angesprochen zu werden.

Law change kills 63-letter longest German word

The 63-letter word easily beats the 48-letter Donau- Dampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänswitwe (Danube steamship company captain’s widow) which many German students learn at school.

But now Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, which revelled in the abbreviation RkReÜAÜG, is no more. It was introduced by the Mecklenburg Western-Pomeranian state government in 1999 to organize testing of beef for mad cow disease, or BSE.

Yet because the European Union recommendation for BSE tests on healthy cows is now being dropped, the need for the six-paragraph law has also gone. It will be replaced by a new law with the equally tongue-twisting – and fascinating – Landesverordnung über die Zuständigkeiten für die Überwachung der Rind-und Kalbfleischetikettierung (state edict on the responsibilities for the monitoring of beef and veal labelling).

For me, this state edict would have been a Land Order, and Zuständigkeiten might have been competence.

German Wikipedia has an entry on this too.

I obviously didn’t read Sprachlog closely enough on threatened words:

PS: Die BILD-Zeitung listet “die zehn längsten deutschen Wörter” (Link können Sie derzeit vermutlich noch googeln):

Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungszuständigkeitsübertragungsverordnung
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
Verkehrsinfrastrukturfinanzierungsgesellschaft
Gleichgewichtsdichtegradientenzentrifugation
Elektrizitätswirtschaftsorganisationsgesetz
Verkehrswegeplanungsbeschleunigungsgesetz
Hochleistungsflüssigkeitschromatographie
Restriktionsfragmentlängenpolymorphismus
Telekommunikationsüberwachungsverordnung
Unternehmenssteuerfortentwicklungsgesetz

Diese sollen “in mindestens vier Texten belegt” sein. Ja, die meisten vermutlich hier, hier, hier und hier.

Thanks to Trevor for the wake-up.

LATER NOTE: new post in Sprachlog, with links to many non-German publications that have reported on the story.