Renaming things / Bundesgrenzschutz heißt jetzt Bundespolizei

A statute to change a term in earlier statutes is apparently unable to summarize this in two paragraphs, but instead takes 23 pages to describe each individual change in every grammatical case.

Ein Artikel von Friedrich Kiechle, Vorsitzender Richter am Verwaltungsgericht Berlin, Umbenennung als Herkuleswerk, erschien in der FAZ am 27. Juli (für EUR 0,85 aus dem Archiv zu bekommen). Das Gesetz zur Umbenennung des Bundesgrenzschutzes in Bundespolizei hat eine Länge von 23 Seiten im Bundesgesetzblatt (hier als nicht-ausdruckbare-PDF-Datei zu finden):

bq. In … werden jeweils die Wörter ‘Der Bundesgrenzschutz’, ‘der Bundesgrenzschutz’, ‘Dem Bundesgrenzschutz’, ‘dem Bundesgrenzschutz’, ‘den Bundesgrenzschutz’, ‘vom Bundesgrenzschutz’, ‘des Bundesgrenzschutzes’, durch die Wörter ‘Die Bundespolizei’, ‘die Bundespolizei’, ‘Der Bundespolizei’, ‘die Bundespolizei’, ‘von der Bundespolizei’, ‘der Bundespolizei’, sowie jeweils das Wort ‘Er’, ‘er’, ‘seine’ durch das Wort ‘Sie’, ‘sie’, ‘ihre’ ersetzt.

Das wurde nicht immer so gehandhabt:

bq. Immerhin steht etwa bis zum heutigen Tag in Paragarph 23 des Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuches, daß “einem Vereine, der seinen Sitz nicht in einem Bundesstaate hat, … in Ermangelung besonderer reichsgesetzlicher Vorschriften Rechtsfähigkeit durch Beschluß des Bundesrats verliehen werden (kann)” – und nimmt damit auf Verfassungsinstitutionen des Kaiserreiches Bezug …

6 thoughts on “Renaming things / Bundesgrenzschutz heißt jetzt Bundespolizei

  1. This is slightly off-topic, but I’m confused about “Bundespolizei”. I often see this used as the translation for the (US) FBI, and have often thought this is not quite right (the FBI are agents of the Attorney General and not a police force, if I have understood correctly: http://www.fbi.gov/aboutus/faqs/faqsone.htm)

    If Bundesgrenzschutz is now being redubbed Bundespolizei, is this like saying the dorky guys in green on the train from Switzerland, checking to see if I’m smuggling an undeclared raclette grill back into Germany, are the German FBI? The people busting illegal workers at construction sites are like the US FBI? Or is Bundespolizei simply the wrong (although popular) translation for FBI?

  2. This is a good question, but I have a few gaps in my knowledge here.

    What I have seen for the FBI is Bundes*kriminal*polizei. That means they’re federal and they are detectives rather than just police.
    The term Bundespolizei is new to me.

    I don’t think it’s right to translate an institution like that by a term referring to an existing German institution unless they are very similar. So I don’t think they should be translated as Bundespolizei, no. But are you sure you saw Bundespolizei and not Bundeskriminalpolizei?

    The argument would be that Kriminalpolizei is close enough in meaning to the work the FBI does. What else might they be called?

    Huebers Taschenwörterbuch Recht has this: Abteilung des US-Justizministeriums, die Vergehen gegen Bundesgesetze und den Staat untersucht (ähnlich aber nicht identisch:) Bundeskriminalamt.
    (that dictionary also has diagrams of British, German and U.S. police at the back).

  3. Well, I’m pretty sure I consistently see Bundespolizei. Google search of {Bundespolizei + fbi} vs. {bundeskriminalpolizei + fbi} yields 18,400 to 933, which is pretty damning (although of course google searches are to be taken with a grain of salt). Bundeskriminalpolizei is slightly more palatable to me actually, but what police doesn’t have to do with criminals? (OK, clearly those dealing with speeding, littering, and other minor misdemeanors). But if they’re not really a police force by their own definition….?

    Stern for instance is not consistent:
    http://www.stern.de/computer-technik/internet/536893.html?nv=ct_mt
    “Amerikanische Behörden haben vor E-Mails gewarnt, die vermeintlich von der Bundespolizei FBI kommen…”

    but:
    http://stern.de/id/politik/ausland/512311.html
    “Die US-Bundeskriminalpolizei FBI schaltet sich in die Untersuchung des Anschlags vor der Moschee in der irakischen Pilgerstadt Nadschaf ein.”

    And even Die Zeit is confused:
    http://zeus.zeit.de/text/2002/37/200237_terroristenjaege_xml
    “Die Assistenzdirektorin der Bundespolizei FBI aus Washington will jetzt ihr Lob für die deutschen Polizisten loswerden”

    but:
    http://www.zeit.de/2005/22/koran
    “Zuvor hatte die US-Bürgerrechtsbewegung ACLU mitgeteilt, dass Akten der US-Bundeskriminalpolizei FBI die Schändung des Korans belegen”

    Had I but known it was the FBI coming through those trains!

  4. Yes, I see your point. Thanks for the quotes. You didn’t like Bundeskriminalamt? Anyway, that’s the general problem of legal translation: will your translation evoke the right idea in the reader’s mind? But then again, the terms in both languages are like the tip of an iceberg in that people aren’t really conscious of seven-eighths of the connotations and meanings they carry.

  5. Bundespolizei is just another name for an old institution.( because of the -era “police”
    is a matter of bavaria and all the other countys(???)/ “Ländersache”)
    THE BGS IST THE police which secures borders, controlling railway stations, preventing smugglers
    illegal immigrants – sometimes seen in their green “combat suits” ( for example at soccer games!)
    The BGS was even founded before the german army:
    1951(???) to secure the border(s) of the 1949 founded Federal Republic of germany.
    the most famous group of the BGS is the GSG9.
    ( special forces ).
    internet:
    bgs.de
    gsg9.de
    see ya´
    Hilarius

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