Miscellaneous remarks:
Uncle Jazzbeau’s Gallimaufrey reports with what seems justified scepticism the Austrian term Verwaltungsvereinfachungsmaßnahmen. The term is not particularly long to the ear of a German speaker, but the term usually used for simplifying administration (a rich field in Central Europe) is Verwaltungsvereinfachung. The former gives a number of links, all in English, riding on the story that the Austrians are using a long word for the equivalent of ‘plain English’, ha ha. The latter gives more German-language links.

However, the term for plain German is not Verwaltungsvereinfachung, but Amtsdeutsch a.D. a.D. = außer Dienst = retired, i.e. official German retired. A Guardian article of June 9th on Austrian legalese by ‘William J. Kole, Associated Press writer’ must have been the source:

bq. Ironically, though, the German term for measures designed to cut through administrative red tape is a massive mouthful: “Verwaltungsvereinfachungsmassnahmen.”

bq. Waltraud Rumpel, a city hall spokesman, offered this stilted phrase – from an official notice to an Austrian citizen applying for a license to marry a foreigner – as an example of the kind of dense mumbo-jumbo that’s got to stop:

bq. It is herewith asked to pass on the letter, which arrived here from the wedding registrar’s office, to the aforementioned competent official with the request for a translation.”

The term is said to refer to measures intended to cut through administrative red tape, not to simplify language. Perhaps this was misinterpreted by later writers? At all events, plainer Austrian is a subcategory of simpler administration.

Frau Rumpel (good name) makes it clear what problems translators sometimes have. ‘It is herewith asked to pass on the letter’ – this is impersonal and would usually be personal in English. ‘Please’ would do here, but often it’s necessary to say ‘we’ or ‘he’ or ‘she’, and then you’re stuck if you don’t know who did this impersonal thing. Original: “Es wird gebeten, das vom Heiratsamt eingelangte Schreiben mit Ersuchen um Übersetzung an besagten Sachbearbeiter weiterzuleiten” – solche und ähnliche Satzmonster sollen im Magistrat bald der Vergangenheit angehören.

There appear to be manuals on how to write plain German in Linz and Vienna. This kind of book can be extremely useful because of all its examples of non-plain-language (is there a term for that? What’s the opposite of plain English?).

The Vienna brochure is available to those who work in the city administration, in print, on CD-ROM and on their intranet. It was presented to the public on June 8th. Can we get hold of a copy, Adrian? The Linz book can be bought for 21 euros inside Austria and more outside, see link above.

I’ve already mentioned the Amtsdeutsch online on the Austrian government website. Another example in the weblog of the Austrian lawyer Michael Kadlicz.

Die Süddeutsche Zeitung hat ein kleines Videoclip, in einer Schwabinger Kneipe aufgenommen, wo Engländer und Franzosen das Spiel vom 13. Juni am Fernsehen verfolgen, selbstverständlich in einem Irish Pub (auf “Hier geht’s zum Video” klicken).

bq. Beim ersten Spitzenspiel der Gruppe B treffen Brits und Frogs im Irish Pub Shamrock aufeinander. Berauscht vom ersten Tor und zwei, drei Guinness ziehen die Engländer anfangs noch über die Franzosen her: “Drinkin’ homos!” Doch dann kommt Zidane und löst französischen Freudentaumel aus. Ein wenig Trost für die plötzlich leisen Briten gibt es zum Schluss auch.

I know this is masochistic, but there is a small videoclip on the Süddeutsche Zeitung website of English and French drinkers watching last Sunday’s match on TV in a pub (an Irish pub, of course) in Schwabing (Munich). Click on ‘Hier geht’s zum Video’.

An article in the jobs section of today’s Guardian.

(Via Will Work for Favorable Dicta – not sure when the glory and fortune struck)

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You’re Great Expectations!
by Charles Dickens
Coming from humble beginnings, you have become pretty stuck-up in your
later years. While hard work and dedication were the path you first walked on, a sudden
fork brought you glory and fortune. Unfortunately, you have changed even more than your
bottom line. You really should turn back to your old friends and at least respect your
old life. Look out for haughty hotties.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Iggy of Blogalization reports that the Spiegel Online now comes with English summaries.

I assume the summaries are prepared in German and translated into English, at least some of them by native speakers of German. The interview with Helmut Panke of BMW has a certain heavy word-for-word feel about it and a giveaway misused whereby in the middle:

bq. “Of course the price of petrol has risen noticeably over the past months. But that is also a psychological problem. Apart from the weather and the performance of the German national soccer team, we Germans like nothing better than to moan about the high price of petrol. … Our customers are probably as aggrieved about the high price as the drivers of other makes. But that doesn’t make them put off the intended purchase of a car. … What good is a speed limit meant to be? … The German car industry “drives” its innovations, and thus its technological advantage, on the local motorways – that’s particularly true for car safety. … It’s no longer a matter of buying as many small components as possible in large numbers and hence cheaply. And BMW is big enough to be able to finance the development of new technologies – whereby engines are certainly the most expensive. If for example we use the same six-cylinder engine in all our series, that makes us highly efficient. … Our experience with Rover led us to the conclusion that one ought to concentrate on one thing. We are only going to be making premium cars: BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce.”

In der Süddeutschen Zeitung wurden die Ratschläge des Bundesjustizministeriums zur Patientenverfügung als Todesroman kommentiert. Das war am Samstag 12. Juni. Um den Artikel Der Todesroman von Alexander Kissler zu lesen, musste ich mich kostenlos bei der e-Zeitung anmelden.

A living will or advance directive is a document that tells doctors what I want to be done if I am unable to tell them myself. These are more common in Germany now and are known as Patientenverfügung or Patiententestament. From the BBC site:

bq. In the USA, advance directives have become so established legally and in clinical practice that the law there now says that medical staff must tell you about them if you are ever admitted to hospital.

bq. Here in the UK they are not given so much attention. However a patient’s advance refusal of treatment is already binding on doctors under common law (the law which is developed through court cases) although not yet enshrined by an Act of Parliament (although a recent opinion poll showed that 2/3 of British people would like to see this).

The German Federal Ministry of Justice has now issued a guide on wording an advance directive (Formulierungshilfe Patientenverfügung). An article in German in Sueddeutsche Zeitung, June 12th, Der Todesroman, treats this as literature (for links see above).

bq. Der Arzt soll ein Rezensent werden, der Moribunde ein Dichter. Der angeblich überwundene Paternalismus kehrt, leicht abgemildert, wieder durch die Deutungshoheit des Lesers im weißen Kittel, während der todkranke Autor ganz durch seinen Text ersetzt wird. Anders glaubt man nicht, dem komplexen Anspruchsgefüge Herr werden zu können. Jedem Bundesbürger wird geraten, sich möglichst früh “exemplarische Fragen” zu stellen, etwa: “Wurde ich enttäuscht vom Leben? Würde ich es anders führen, wenn ich nochmals von vorn anfangen könnte? Bin ich zufrieden, so wie es war?” Beim Räsonieren aber soll es nicht bleiben. Die Niederschrift ist gewünscht, wenn auch nicht geboten. Max und Lieselotte Beispiel machen es auf den Seiten 36 bis 41 des Abschlussberichtes vor. Sie sind die Musterpatienten und Vorzeigeliteraten, die natürlich rein fiktiven Helden der Endlichkeit.

Readers are advised that they should ask themselves ‘exemplary questions’, such as ‘Has life disappointed me? Would I live a different life if I could start again? Am I contented with my life as it as been?’ (Yes! Yes! No! – this is worse than the Friday Five questions some weblogs are constantly answering). Ideally, you should write down the answers. No, that’s enough of that.

There are two Tom, Dick or Harries filling out forms: Max Beispiel and Lieselotte Beispiel. Max (62) wants to be kept alive at all costs; Lieselotte (77) is more cautious. And they go into some detail about their lives:

bq. Lieselotte berichtet aus ihrem “abwechslungsreichen Leben”, von Kindern und Enkeln, von ihrer Hüftoperation. Grammatikalische Unebenheiten sollen den Eindruck des Authentischen hervorrufen: “Als mein Mann vor 15 Jahren verstarb, bin ich regelmäßig mit meinem Kegelklub weggefahren.” Lieselotte ängstigt sich vor “Schläuchen und Apparaten”. Max ist Optimist : “Ich bin mit meinem Leben zufrieden, habe im Beruf meinen Mann gestanden und immer alles gut im Griff gehabt.” Folglich vertraut Max, “zum zweiten Mal glücklich verheiratet”, ganz den “Errungenschaften der Medizin”. Er hängt am Leben.

(Über Perlentaucher.de)