German Name - Addressing People

Addressing People

German is a language with a clear and mostly wanted T–V distinction. It is common that people who are informally addressed with du (friends, relatives, children) are also called by their first name, while people who are formally addressed with Sie are called by their last name, with Herr or Frau ("Mr." and "Mrs.") put in front. The way to address people in grammar version is: Male: Female: Herr(Mr) Sie(she) Er(He) Es

At the transition from childhood to adulthood, one might be called in a third form, namely using Sie with the first name (Hamburger Sie) . Sie is common for persons over the age of 15. This is how high school teachers may address their pupils about 16 and 17 onwards, and parents might rarely use the same way to address their teenage children's friends if they have not known them since childhood. This usage is considered somewhat highbrow; noted humorist Max Goldt has remarked that this is the way upper-class parents would address their daughter's boyfriend over the breakfast table. Usage of Sie for family members or even among engaged couples has become extremely rare and considered the pinnacle of stiff, old-fashioned etiquette.

The opposite form, du with the last name (Berliner Du), but leaving away Herr or Frau, is frequently used among retail workers or enlisted men in the military wearing badges with just their title and last name (for example, Herr Schmidt, Frau Müller), who will address each other in the colloquial way while, for convenience, sticking to the name form on the badge. It is also common among kindergarten teachers who thus address each other the same way small children, who have yet to learn the Du/Sie distinction, address them under inclusion of Herr and Frau. The latter usage is a product of pedagogical reform in the 1960s and 1970s; before then, children in kindergarten addressed their teachers as Tante ("aunt") or Onkel ("uncle") and with their first names.

Further, in some areas it is common in schools that students are addressed by their family name or an abbreviation of it as a nickname by classmates if two or more share the same given name (which given that all students are born at about the same time while certain names are high in fashion, is a very frequent occourance). In any other, somewhat more formal surrounding, whether private or professional, this form of addressing someone would be considered rude at least ('Kasernenhofton', Drill Seargent's tone).

The diminutive form Fräulein (meaning "Miss", literally little woman) to designate an unmarried woman is not considered politically correct anymore and thus has fallen out of official use. A minority of women, especially elderly unmarried women, may still insist on being addressed in this manner (seeing it as an honorific rather than discrimination), but most consider it to be a bit derogative. After all, nobody ever dared addressing an unmarried young man as 'Männlein' (lit. little man).

Similarly, addressing a woman by her husband's first name is largely unknown or at most considered archaic. In times of increasing equality of treatment, many would even regard it an outright offence to practically degrade her into nothing but her partner's appendix. Laura Bush would not be Mrs. George W. Bush (Frau George W. Bush), but Mrs. Laura Bush. Thus, the wife of Gerhard Schröder, Doris Schröder-Köpf, is referred to as Frau Doris Schröder-Köpf, never Frau Gerhard Schröder. In spite of this, it is possible for women to be adressed by the profession of her husband. The most common example would be Frau Doktor (Mrs doctor) being the wife of Herr Doktor (Mr doctor). In certain situations it is thus possible for Doris Schröder-Köpf to be called Frau Altbundeskanzler (Mrs former chancellor, note the usage of the male form Altbundeskanzler not Altbundeskanzlerin in this case).