Would you understand it if you received a postcard that read "Ihr Wertzeichengeber hat versagt"? Expatica's resident German teacher Renate Grasstat attempts to decipher the mysteries of Amtsdeutsch.

Conor, one of my students from Ireland, handed me a postcard he had received. It said: Ihr Wertzeichengeber hat versagt.  He did not understand what it meant. Neither did I.

The words were unmistakably German. Wertzeichen means token (although it is not quite clear which kind of token – literally: value token), geben is to give – so I assumed Wertzeichengeber  meant somebody who gives something which has a value to somebody – or, as the card said, especially to him: Ihr (your) Wertzeichengeber  failed. Failed??

It simply did not make sense. Who was that mysterious and so obviously unsuccessful person – so unsuccessful that somebody even felt obliged to inform people by mail about the failure?

It took me some time to realise:  this was a message confirming that Conor had lost some money in a stamp-machine that didn't work. He had called the number stated on the machine and asked for reimbursement. "His" Wertzeichengeber was the stamp-machine in the street he happened to be in when trying to post a letter.

Why didn't they just say so?

So why the hell didn't they just say so? The answer is: because there are two (or actually three, but we'll leave slang for another day…) completely different levels of German.

Nobody would say Wertzeichen instead of Briefmarke (stamp) – except at the post office. The post office seems to be a place on a different level of reality. They also insist on words like Postzusteller instead of Briefträger or Postbote.  Although, if I actually said "Kannst du mir eine Wertmarke geben?" or "Hast du heute schon den Postzusteller gesehen?" to my friends, they would just think I had gone crazy.

Fahrzeughalter and Hundehalter

Have you ever got a letter saying you parked your Fahrzeug with a certain Kennzeichen somewhere it was not gestattet to park? Translate Auto, Nummernschild  and erlaubt, and it makes sense.

Provided you are the Fahrzeughalter (car holder), of course. "Halter" has several different meanings, like for instance in Büstenhalter (bra) or in technical expressions – more or less like the English "holder". It can mean owner as well, as in Hundehalter (dog owner) – well, not really "owner", to be exact, but more a kind of relationship that has to do with taking care of something or paying taxes for owning it. 

Maybe it would not sound very friendly from the dog's point of view to say Hundebesitzer (literally: dog owner); it reminds people of  "possession" like with inanimate things. But I am not sure a dog would really appreciate being compared with a car!

No, no, I wasn't planning to steal your possessions, only entwenden them.

Flattering thieves

Talking of the police, there is another word in their vocabulary I really like: entwenden.

It sounds so elegant! The meaning is simply: to steal. Yes, we ordinary people have a word for stealing, the rather unpretentious Germanic word stehlen.

But this is far too simple for letters from the police. They use something that has to do with "turning" (wenden) "away" (ent- as a prefix usually means away, not, the opposite etc.), which I think is very flattering for the thief – like perhaps "to abstract" in English, which I find even more flattering.

But note: talking to a policeman might be a completely different matter. Being used to talk to people in the street (s)he would probably say klauen, the colloquial and rather rude version of the deed.

Sophisticated language

There are quite obviously many similarities between English and German (and many other languages) in the existence of several different levels of style. To be honest, I really love the English language for its richness, for the elaborate ways of describing human nature and human behaviour - like for instance in a Jane Austen novel or with P.G. Wodehouse. Impossible to translate that sophisticated (by the way, a word that is impossible to translate as well…) language properly into German!

We use our high level stuff almost exclusively for bureaucratic matters – maybe because we have no high level social life? - and  preferably in connection with authorities - hence the name Amtsdeutsch. By the way: the post office is a kind of authority here….

Acquiring tickets

Which reminds me of a piece of information the BVG, the Berlin transport syatem, delivered recently: Bitte denken Sie an den Erwerb Ihres Monatstickets! ("Please don't forget to buy a new monthly ticket")

 

Sprechen Sie Amtsdeutsch?

Ever come across erwerben? When teaching German, I usually explain the meaning by "buying or acquiring something that is not easy to gain". Like for instance a house, a piece of land, a rare book, a picture by Van Gogh or even knowledge.

But for the monthly ticket? Does it mean it is far too expensive, that people have to take pains to get it? Thank you, BVG, I had been waiting for this concession for a long time - although I fear this is not exactly what you intended to say.

Which shows what you – talking to the reader now - as a non-native German speaker probably know already: Be careful with using Amtsdeutsch!

To read more about Renate Graßtat you can click on Education - Language Instruction under Expatica's business directory.

Do you have questions about the German language? Write to Renate Graßtat and she may use your question in a future column.

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Renate is currently offering new classes on "Survival German", Business Language, Understanding the Media, German Literature and Exam Preparation 2006. Visit www.learn-german.de or call +49 (0)30 615 26 35 for more information.

14 February 2006

Copyright Expatica 2006

Subject: Ask our German teacher, learning German, German language, German teacher in Berlin, Amtsdeutsch, bureaucratic German