Riccardo Schiaffino, who doesn’t speak German, comments on a visit to Vienna in Saving a few dimes while spending a ton.

At the Leopold Museum’s show on the Vienna art scene up to 1918 the English translation of a note on the origins of WW I said the Sarajevo assassination was due to the ultimatum issued from Austria to Serbia.

Since the ultimatum of course followed the assassination, either the German original was strangely wrong or the translator had a shaky knowledge of modern history.

At the Belvedere, in the show celebrating Gustav Klimt and the Kunstschau 1908, the English legend under a costume design by Emil Orlik said it was “a design for Shakespeare’s ‘Das Wintermärchen'”. That is, the English label gave Shakespeare’s title in German. The correct translation should have been “a costume design for Shakespeare’s The Winter Tale”, or perhaps “… for a German staging of the Winter Tale”.

This isn’t purely a Viennese problem. I recall the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg always had the most dreadful English in their exhibitions, on the level of ‘why bother with a translation at all?’ I haven’t been to an exhibition recently, though.

Some translators would like to have their Land logo on their business cards, but apparently that isn’t permitted. For this purpose, a Land symbol is created for anyone to use: Das Landessymbol Freistaat Bayern:

Um den Wünschen der Bürger nach einem genehmigungsfreien Zeichen dennoch entsprechen zu können, hat das Bayerische Staatsministerium des Innern 1987 folgende allgemeine Genehmigung erteilt:

The site shows six symbols, including three for Franconia.

The Franconian one is quite nice. I suppose I could even merge it with two Ms – if I wanted to use it. I’m sure one could do something exciting with the Bavarian one, too. One could change the colours, for a start! Or is there a sanction against that?

In other Bavarian news, the Bavarian Federal Patents Court has held that the Weißwurst does not have to be made in Munich – see MarkenBlog.

But may one cut it with a knife, or must the contents be sucked out?

Tests at the Wallace Collection reveal that the best Viking swords bore the name Ulfberht, apparently a Franconian name. Franconia has moved in the past 1000 years, though, so this may even have been in Solingen. Many museums have fake Viking swords of about the same age as the good ones, but made of inferior steel because the Russians were blocking the trade route (a familiar story). The Viking Rune writes:

The tests show that high quality steel of the Ulfberht swords is from the mines on the territory of modern Afghanistan and Iran. However, in the 11th century the trade route was blocked by Russians and the supply of steel with high carbon content ended. The demand was huge and soon low quality fakes flooded the Scandinavian market. In outward appearance they were identical to genuine Ulfberhts and their blades were very sharp. Nevertheless, due to the fact that the carbon content of the steel from which they were forged had only a third of the same in genuine high quality swords, they could fatally disserve Vikings who bought them.

The main area where the swords were found was further north, along the Baltic coast and in Scandinavia, so it is suggested that the name Ulfberht may simply have been an invented brand name rather than the name of the maker, and the fake swords an early form of brand piracy.

Markenfälschung schon im Mittelalter.

Ulfberht makes me think of Dilbert, Dogbert and Catbert.

This was reported by the Guardian in December 2008, but has now filtered through to Spiegel Online.

(Via IPKat).

David Kopel at The Volokh Conspiracy seeks help with translation of the Mexican firearms statute:

Here’s a new project to utilize the immense collective mind of VC readers: an English translation of the Mexican firearms statute. The Mexican law, in Spanish, is here. My translation thereof into English is here. Neither the intern who did the first round of the translation, nor I, speak Spanish as a native language. Indeed, my Spanish is extremely primitive; I know less than an American middle schooler with one year of Spanish. Although I am developing an interesting vocabulary, of words such as “fuego circular” (rimfire).

The initial translation was done via machine, and then reviewed and modified by very inexpert humans. So I solicit readers with good Spanish skills to provide suggestions for improvements in any or all of the 91 Articles of the Mexican firearms law. Please focus on improving the translation, and not on arguing about policy questions involving the law.

Note the comments.

(Via Riccardo, who commented)

I remember a speaker saying that filing styles are different in Baden and Württemberg. Well, they have only been united since 1951.

So when I read the following in Im Namen des Volkers, my suspicions were aroused:

In BaWü werden die Akten meines Wissens nicht in Aktenordnern abgeheftet, sondern oben links durchbohrt und mit einem Faden aufgehängt. Macht sich gut beim Aktenlesen.

Sure enough, the first comment put him right:

Auch in BaWü ist das recht speziell: In der ordentlichen Gerichtsbarkeit gibt es im OLG-Bezirk Karlsruhe diese “badische Aktenheftung”, die Du beschreibst. Im OLG-Bezirk Stuttgart wird ganz normal geheftet.

Anders wiederum in der Sozialgerichtsbarkeit: Die verfährt landesweit nach dem badischen Modell. Bei der Verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeit weiß ich es nicht genau, aber jedenfalls der VGH und die VGe in Karlsruhe und Freiburg verfolgen das badische Modell.

And the last linked to a Wikipedia entry on Badische Aktenheftung, with illustrations.

That looks like a form of joining pages that would be good for translators too. You can read more of the original pages than in most methods. And I found the translation for bodger: Aktenstecher:

At least, I learnt it was called a bodger. Now I find only furniture-makers’ bodgers and bull terriers called Bodger. The sewing of legal documents seems to have become obsolete, but I do use a bodger for sewing translations if they are too big to bind easily.

The Aktenstecher can be bought from Vollzugliches Arbeitswesen (‘Wir lassen Sie nicht sitzen!’).

For more on Prussia and Bavaria, see the entry. There was a discussion on colours of files in various Länder in earlier comments.

A post in a BDÜ forum gave this link from the City of Konstanz.

The heading is ‘Hilfe für Migranten – Ehrenamtliche SprachmittlerInnen für ausländische BürgerInnen­’ – Help for migrants – pro bono translators and interpreters for foreigners.

It describes an attempt to build up a network of volunteer translators and interpreters for situations where a sworn translator or translator is not required by law, in social welfare and medical matters.

“Ein chinesisches Sprichwort sagt: Den Menschen zu helfen ist die Quelle des Glücks”, so Shu Jiuan Widmann bei der kürzlich erfolgten Präsentation des Projektes “Ehrenamtliche SprachmittlerInnen” im Landratsamt. Shu Jiuan Widmann ist in Taiwan geboren und spricht aus ihrer reichhaltigen Erfahrung als ehrenamtlich tätige Mittlerin zwischen den Kulturen. Nun wird sie mit dazu beigetragen, das Projekt “Ehrenamtliche SprachmitllerInnen” auf die Beine zu stellen, in dessen Rahmen sie künftig die Rolle der Ansprechpartnerin für die Sprachmitllernnen wie auch für die nachfragenden Institutionen übernimmt. Initiiert wurde das Projekt gemeinsam von Annette Breitsameter-Grössl von der Kontakt- und Koordinierungsstelle für Bürgerschaftliches Engagement im Landkreis Konstanz und der Integrationsbeauftragten der Stadt Konstanz, Elke Cybulla.

Ziel ist es, einen landkreisweiten ehrenamtlich tätigen Dolmetscherservice für gesundheitliche und soziale Einrichtungen, die nicht den vereidigten DolmetscherInnen vorbehalten sind, bereitzustellen und zu etablieren. Alle im Landkreis ehrenamtlich tätigen SprachhelferInnen sollen in eine Adress- und Telefonliste eingetragen werden, die beim AusländerInnenamt des Landratsamtes und der Integrationsbeauftragten der Stadt Konstanz hinterlegt ist.

Some training is intended, but it looks as if the only qualifications are speaking the foreign language and German, and ideally knowing Germany.

Representatives of the BDÜ were particularly concerned at the lack of quality control. And one person said that she would be happy to interpret free of charge for a psychotherapist or doctor, but only on condition that the psychotherapist or doctor also made no charge. Why is it always the interpreters and translators who are expected to work for nothing?

A Google search on “ehrenamtliche Dolmetscher” reveals numerous such schemes.