Late news from Barcelona reveals another German fiction going round the world: the story that the world’s first sex doll was invented by the Nazis for their troops.
The story started as a website with a German and ‘English’ page (links to current version).

Jens Baumeister has followed its path to international fame (in German).

The Wehrmacht are claimed to have wanted to keep this top secret, and they certainly succeeded until that website appeared. Thereafter began its voyage to fame on the Web.

This started when Ariel Magnus of taz used the story as a hook (? Aufhänger) for a long article on sex dolls, which started with Borghild, continued with Real Dolls in the USA (I didn’t look at their site, as you have to be over 18) and reached its climax in Andy the android, of Nuremberg of all places, despite the name a woman (like Borghild, Andy resurfaced in BILD a few days later on 20 April).

There then appeared a number of articles, first in German then in English. All seemed to be based on the one website, since the website misspelt the name of Joachim Mrugowsky and so did they. So there’s no other evidence available. BILD did the usual thing of milking the story for all it was worth, only to quote an expert saying there is no evidence.

Just two English versions: Boing Boing and Secular Blasphemy.

Baumeister shows the site was altered and photos described as originals later described as reconstructions.

Baumeister finds the domain borghild.de registered in the name of Mike Cospro in Neumarkt. The name sounds invented and is not in the Neumarkt phone book (there is a cosmetics firm of that name, but presumably that is an amalgamation of COSmetics and PROfessional).

There is an email address on the Borghild site, but I haven’t tried it.

Borghild indeed – the very name sounds like a hoax (said to have been coined by a Danish Nazi, in place of the German Burghild, but sounds like a play on ‘borgen’ – to lend or borrow). I wonder if someone spelt Burghild wrong when they bought the domain?

This is the Free Trade Wharf development (more photos), once the centre of an unsalubrious part of London where Pepys used to cross the river, sailors greeted their return to the Pool of London, some set sail for long voyages and some even, perish the thought, emigrated to the north of England, and later they even started using Macs.

The Apple theme is subtly repeated here.

This weblog will be neglected for a few weeks while I am on holiday. Comments are closed to avoid spam.

Actually, I will have to spend less time on it when I come back, as I have worked out that I need to spend the rest of my life either working, cleaning or exercising. (I just remembered the last time I flew back to Nuremberg I met an acquaintance who asked me how I was enjoying my retirement).

If I had been here longer I would have referred at more length to:

Employment Tribunal Claims – Tactics and Precedents – a British law blog,

and especially The Paisley Snail – Wellmeadow Cafe – A selection of Scottish law-related links gathered together for ease of reference. A meeting place for all those interested in Scots law, citizenship and education – with ginger beer and snails (with minitrials)
The last reference will not be lost on those who’ve studied torts

both via Delia Venables.

And Father Reggie – the Latin Vatican expert, with audio links, via Paul Frank

And World Wide Words on xenoglossy – the ability to speak a language without having learned it.

Shame about the referendums.

A translation is done for business purposes if it’s done for a freelance translator in another country, and that includes one who is not registered for VAT. So if I, in Germany, do a translation for a UK client, I charge VAT only if the client is a private person.

The diagram is taken from just before section 12 of VAT Notice 741, Place of Supply of Services. There is a list of notices online, but the number is given as 742, which isn’t correct.
HM Revenue & Customs has the notices online. The reverse charge, or tax shift, is described in 15.1.

The reverse charge arises when a translator in the UK, not registered for VAT (they often aren’t, and the threshold above which you have to register is higher), does work for me. It is deemed to be done in Germany, and I have to pay VAT on it. But at the same time I can deduct this VAT payment:

15.4 How does the reverse charge work?
You simply credit your VAT account with an amount of output tax, calculated on the full value of the supply you have received, and at the same time debit your account with the input tax to which you are entitled, in accordance with the normal rules. The partial exemption implications for reverse charge services are explained in Notice 706 Partial exemption.

The relevant parts of the statutes are mentioned in these articles or in the VAT notice.

Value Added Tax Act 1994 (UK)
Umsatzsteuergesetz 1980 (Germany)

Article in English by Kay Fisher at Translatorscafe.

Deutscher Artikel über USt für Übersetzer von Per Döhler auf der ADÜ-Nord-Website.

Taken at a local supermarket about ten days ago.

Here’s another translation weblog, Translation Musings. The blogger seems to have been active in April but not in May, however. (Via blogroll of The German-English Translator)