Herr Doktor

Germany is a funny country. If you've never lived there, you'd never know, but you can get an idea from reading the news. Germany is mildly obsessed with titles. The monarchy was kicked out of the window in 1918. Those who used to fly high came crashing hard on the cobbles of the street. But to this day, you're supposed to pay respect to those of higher descent, by putting Graf in front of a count's name and Fürstin in front of a duchess's.

Titles are important in regular life too. If you are a professor, people will call you Herr Professor, and if you're a doctor, Herr Doktor. I have friends who had their title put onto their IDs and bank cards. Not when a new card was due; no, they expended effort to have their current cards changed. This all sounds a bit stuck up to me. I already find the UK ridiculous. The NatWest agent helping me open a bank account when I arrived was adamant about putting the Dr on my card. She actually yelled at me when I put Mr on the form.

Anyway, Germany might not be as ridiculously self-important as Austria where about five dozen official professional titles are in current use, but things have to be correct. I think that's at the bottom of it. You worked hard for the title, you might as well use it. Bizarrely, you were only allowed to do that if you earned it in Germany (and now also the European Union, by extension). The Spiegel reports on the nonsensical story of American directors of Max-Planck-Institutes who were criminally investigated for posing as something they weren't, while they clearly were it, doctors.

Now, apparently, this ambiguity has been resolved, and even "Americans with a Ph.D. are now allowed to call themselves Dr. in Germany", as the Spiegel reports. It doesn't say anything about Germans with a Ph.D. from the US, though. Just to be on the safe side, I'll continue to be officially known as Herr Förster to my countrymen. I'm docandreas only on this blog.