> Pro tip: don't look in the kitchen when governments brew up safety critical systems. I was scared to fly over Germany for a while...
The author has a lovely writing style for this kind of content.
- Herr Doktor is a traditional German title, roughly equivalent to the more-known "Doctor of Medicine (MD)" or "Juris Doctor (JD)".
- Is the allusion to Moses due to this story being post-war/unification and Moses is a Jewish figure? (There might be technicalities between "Jew", "Israelite", and "Abrahamic" but I'm even more ignorant here than I am of German customs.)
- Is "space on the stone tablets", "11th Commandment" an allusion to the (in)famous German noun-phrases? Like "Wohnungsgeberbestatigung" which is actually three words (trans: "apartment-provider's confirmation"/"landlord's confirmation").
So...explainer from anyone who got this line?
The Moses 11th Commandment, is a comment on the biblical story of Moses. He was given 10 laws from God, and etched them onto a stone tablet. The Doctors of Germany are annoyed becuase the there should have beeen an 11th COmmandandment and it should have been, 'The Doctor is always correct'. The Doctors of Germany have forgiven God for this oversight.
And since the fact that ein Herr Doctor is always right is such a fundamental law in German society (again, this is obviously a hyperbole and meant ironically) one would've expected it to be included in Mose's list of commands. But since it isn't, ehe only rational reason for it to have been omitted must've been the fact that he didn't have much space left for that 11th command. That's all.
That makes sense.
Herr Doktor just means Mister Doctor. "The Doctor is always right is the 11th commandment. Moses ran out of space to add that to the stone tablets (where he wrote the first ten)."
I think it is worded awkwardly. I also had trouble parsing that.
Never seen it in practical German though.
> And is even more right than a regular Herr Doctor because he is also an Engineer.
On the contrary. The traditional universities didn't want to accept technical universities as full ones.A full university is supposed to have theology, jurisprudence, philosophy and medicine. Technical universities were more practical oriented and to some degree looked down upon. So they couldn't give "proper" doctor titles. Just "dr.-ing." (note the hyphen), compared to "Dr. Med.", "Dr. Phil."...
The Dutch apparently do have a double title for doctors, which are also engineers.
Well, google does give 180K matches
Never come across them before I looked for uncommon terms for doctors in the English language. I am not saying it is not a word or incorrect, but that I haven't seen it in practical use. Have you observed that?
I suppose this is technically true, but AFAIK, you'd just use 'dr.', which would imply that you're also 'drs.' or 'ir.' (as you can't be one without also being the other).
Of course, these days, communication is more casual and you'd be just as likely not to use your title. When I was in University, all of my Dutch professors signed their emails with just their name (no titles), but one of my professors from Germany would stubbornly sign all his emails as 'dr. ir. nat. habil.' :D
The author says that people with a doctor degree are always right. Moses would have written that down as well but he had no space on his stone tablets left.
My dad worked a lot in Germany for Dow Corning in the 80's and 90's and it's a very distinct engineering culture from many other places.
Most of which have been JDs, by the way, which are both rarer and more important sounding in Germany.
And if you think this is getting a bit ridiculous, let me introduce you to our neighbor Austria. Take it away, Herr Geheimrat…
Coming from a country (Portugal) where having an Engineering degree still has a similar connotation and there are still some that make the point to be called Eng. SoAndSo, specially on smaller towns and villages, it was kind of ironic to find a society where it is taken to the next level.
Besides government officials and foreign signatories, the largest section is indeed about clergy.
Note that this is super formal. In most business you can get by with Dr. and Prof., nothing else.
"Eure Spektabilität" and "Eure Magnifizenz" for the "Dekan" (dean) and "Rektor" (president/chancellor), respectively, of a university. I wish to meet one, just to use that term.
Having a PhD has never been an issue, usually an advantage, often neutral.
As for the salary - this is normal. You apply to an engineering position so your experience in engineering positions/education counts. A PhD is not a hinder but not a huge booster either. This is not different from other countries, except for Germany and to some extend Poland and Italy.
Please note that France is extremely unique when it comes to engineering schools. Our pride in prépas and then top schools does not count at all abroad. You finished Polytechnique? OK, that's an engineering school in the top 100-400 of international schools.
Well, it's common in the US too, from what I've read. Tech companies (in IT at least) don't particularly care for PhDs...
I worked in IT for two large US companies (from mid-90's to end-00's) and the first job my PhD was not a particular asset (but nothing wrong with that) and it helped for the second one.
No, but it is often perceived as a sign that "let's skip this person, they are too researchy, older than a college graduate, and likely to ask for more too".
"Wenn diese Deutschen einen Bahnhof stürmen wollen, kaufen die sich erst eine Bahnsteigkarte!" - Lenin (probably not really though.)
(Disclaimer: we live in Japan and he lived in Switzerland before)
In undergraduate -- It was always Professor LastName. In grad school, other cost, it was Doctor Lastname. We had a discussion there, and learned that in Germany, it was Herr Doctor Professor Lastname.
When talking to them, it's Herr Professor.
Austria loves their honorifics, though. Every school teacher is a Professor, and the Professor's wife is Mrs. Professor.
Since the difference between tenured and non-tenured teachers is beyond the understanding of 10-18 year old pupils, they called every teacher "Professor".
Same in Poland! But only for high school.
(b) "Herr Doktor is always right" - a central tenet of German society (or basically, organization politics) according to the author.
(c) Such a central tenet that it should have been on Moses tablets as the 11th commandment, but Moses run out of space.
(d) Benevolent as they are, however, the Doktors, forgave Moses for that oversight.