Deutscher Artikel in der FAZ.

bq. Die britische Niederlassung der Frankfurter Großbank wurde am Dienstag wegen mutmaßlichen Mobbings gegen eine ehemalige Angestellte zu einer Entschädigungszahlung von 800.000 Pfund (1,2 Millionen Euro) verurteilt.

On July 15 I wrote about the word Mobbing (workplace bullying).

Today the Guardian reported on a case at Deutsche Bank in London under the heading City woman wins £800,000 damages over bank bullies. The article even uses the word mobbing, albeit in inverted commas:

bq. The court heard that four female co-workers had targeted Ms Green, who was a company secretary assistant at the bank, and she was regularly the target of their lewd and vicious comments.
One colleague told Ms Green she stank and blew raspberries at her as she walked by; she was regularly ignored and was forced to lock her work away in her drawers, or it would vanish. Her name was also removed from the firm’s global intranet directory.
She was the victim of a campaign of bullying or “mobbing” by the group of women, the court heard.

The court said that the managers took a very weak line.

bq. The judge said he was satisfied the bank was in breach of its duty of care to Ms Green. The bullying was a long standing problem, line managers knew or should have known about it and acted, and there were other victims, he said.
“The management was weak and ineffectual,” Mr Justice Owen said. “The managers collectively closed their eyes to what was going on, no doubt in the hope the problem would go away.”

Herbert Hopf kindly wrote out for me the titles of three EU directives which contain measures on harassment at work, inter alia:

– Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin
– Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation
– Directive 2002/73/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2002 amending Council Directive 76/207/EEC on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions

Almost exactly 150 years after the Neanderthaler was found, we still don’t know much about them, but we do know what their language sounded like – or at least, one Ruth Omphalius thought up a Neanderthaler language for a German TV series. It has two-word ‘sentences’ and is loosely based on Inuktut, the language of the Inuit. “Igunartok!” is a general curse and approximates what the Neandertaler said on the occasion of a famous meeting (and not ‘Cro-Magnon man, I presume?’).

Neanderthalers always spoke with exclamation marks at the end, and their words started with capital letters, like German nouns.
Akrigeuyak! you idiot
Pokreitok! fool
Piktauyok! good
Nutkarpok! shut up

etc. etc.

(On this page, click on Mediathek. Look for Bilderserie: Sprechen Sie neandertalisch! – and in the clip Clantreffen im Neanderthal you can hear them speaking. If you ever meet any Neanderthalers, which is not very likely, you can recognize them from the mysterious background music that always accompanies them).

Exhibition in Bonn

(Indirectly via Handakte WebLAWg, where Rainer Langenhan links Neanderthalers to more recent residents of Düsseldorf)

Udo Vetter:

Neanderthal man / Der Neandertaler:

Sunday July 30 is Autobahn Church Day, according to the Süddeutsche. German Wikipedia has a map and Deutsche Welle has an English article on these churches.

The first autobahn church was built in 1958, I gather. There are now 21 or 31 of them, depending on who you believe. I’ve been meaning to look at one for the blog for some time now, but every time I see that sign Autobahnkirche, some wicked impulse tells me to drive on. Die Süddeutsche spoke to Pfarrer Klamt at St. Christophorus, Himmelkron (see no. 39 on this diagram of the A9):

Eigentlich hätte er ja gerne was Naturwissenschaftliches studiert. Doch dafür seien seine Schulnoten zu schlecht gewesen. Nun zelebriert Theologe Klamt Gottesdienste für Fernfahrer, Autobahnpolizisten und Rotkreuzhelfer. Er nimmt Durchreisenden die Beichte ab, segnet Fortbewegungsmittel und legt im Foyer Schlüsselanhänger und Autoputzschwämme zum Verkauf aus.

In August 2005 I mentioned how useful the May 2005 edition of Clarity was for translators.

It’s online now as a PDF file. Earlier issues here.

I wrote on June 7 that the Coroner Reform Draft Bill was to be published in parallel versions, one of which was to be in plain English.

That bill was published on June 12, and here is a page linking to it and other materials.

It has now been pointed out to me that this is not really a parallel plain English version, but merely extremely extensive notes. But I wasn’t the only person fooled! Here’s an example relating to treasure (the new name for treasure trove, Schatzfund):

bq. This publication is set out so that the Bill is as easy to understand as possible. It
begins with an overview of the contents followed by a list of the Bill’s measures.
The Bill’s clauses and schedules are down the left hand side of the page, with an explanation of the purposes of the clauses on the right hand side.

bq. Act:
35 Investigations in relation to treasure
(1) The Coroner for Treasure must conduct an investigation in relation to an object in respect of which notification is given under section 8(1) or 8A(1) of the Treasure Act 1996 (c. 24) (but this is subject to section 38).

bq. Explanation:
Clause 35: Investigations in relation to treasure
This clause sets out the circumstances in which the Coroner for Treasure must conduct an investigation in relation to treasure, and the purpose of such an investigation. Currently, responsibility for inquiring into treasure finds falls to the coroner in whose area the find is made. In the reformed system, the duty to investigate treasure finds for the whole of England and Wales belongs to a single coroner, the Coroner for Treasure, who will be able to draw on Assistant Coroners for Treasure as required. The workload is not expected to require more than one full-time post-holder.
The Coroner for Treasure is required by subsection (1) to conduct an investigation into objects which have been notified to him under the Treasure Act 1996 and under subsection (2) he has a discretion to conduct an investigation into objects which have not been notified to him but which he suspects to be treasure under that Act.

I wonder if the problem arose in the Times article I originally quoted: it referred first to an ‘easy-to-understand interpretation’ and secondly to a ‘simultaneous translation’. Perhaps I should look at the debates to see what was really meant.

Thanks to Political Umpire at Fora

Anna Netrebko wird Österreicherin

Was, kein Test?

bq. Anders als die meisten Bewerber für einen österreichischen Pass muss der Star keinen Staatsbürgerschaftstest ablegen.

Staatsbürgerschaftstest Fragen Wien.

10. Wo können Mütter in Notsituationen neugeborene Babys anonym abgeben?
Im Neugeborenen-Nest in der Rudolfsstiftung
Im Babynest Glanzing im Wilhelminenspital (Flötzersteig)
In der Kinderkrippe im AKH
11. Welcher Brunnen erinnert noch heute an die Eröffnung der 1. Hochquellenwasserleitung?
Donnerbrunnen
Hochstrahlbrunnen
Der „schöne Brunnen“ in Schönbrunn