On 6 February 2003 the Federal Labor Court ruled on a question that employers may not ask. Stiftung Warentest summarized the ruling: Die Frage nach der Schwangerschaft ist unzulässig. Wenn ein Arbeitgeber sie dennoch stellt, darf die Bewerberin lügen. The question about pregnancy is not allowed. If an employer asks it anyway, the applicant may lie. This holds even when a pregnant woman may not do the job at first. Questions about membership in a party or a union are also not allowed. The legal news site LTO calls this eine Lizenz zum Lügen, a license to lie. In practice, a job interview may cover the work, but not family plans or political ties.
Your Magnificence
Magnifizenz — magnificence. German Wikipedia: the form of address for the rector of a university. At ceremonies, rectors are still sometimes addressed this way, as Eure Magnifizenz.
Spektabilität — distinction. Deans of faculties are still sometimes addressed as Spektabilität or Spectabilis in formal speeches.
Inside universities, Magnifizenz is still fairly common, but in front of outsiders it is rarely used except at academic ceremonies.
Sie in the Bathtub
In Loriot’s cartoon sketch Herren im Bad, first broadcast on 15 June 1978, Dr. Klöbner and Herr Müller-Lüdenscheidt find themselves in the same hotel bathtub, because Dr. Klöbner got the room number wrong. The two men argue in a measured tone, addressing each other as Sie. Wissen Sie, dass viele Menschen überhaupt kein Bad besitzen? Do you know that many people do not own a bath at all? Sie lassen sofort die Ente zu Wasser! You will put the duck in the water at once!
Wait Until You Are Offered the Du
The Goethe-Institut teaches German to beginners around the world. Its worksheet Du oder Sie? explains: Das formelle „Sie“ benutzen Erwachsene, die sich nicht oder noch nicht gut kennen. Adults who do not know each other, or do not know each other well yet, use the formal Sie. For the workplace it gives one rule: Als neuer Mitarbeiter müssen Sie warten, bis Ihnen das „du“ angeboten wird. As a new employee, you must wait until you are offered the du. The Hamburger Abendblatt gave the same advice in 2014: Neulinge sollten immer darauf warten, dass Kollegen oder Vorgesetzte ihnen das Du anbieten. Newcomers should always wait for colleagues or superiors to offer them the du. Chiara M. Meidinger, a board member of the German Knigge Society, says who makes the offer. In private life it is the older person, and at work the higher-ranking one.
Du Sideways, Sie Upward
In a representative YouGov survey of 1,035 employed people in Germany in September 2019, 69 percent said they say du to their colleagues. Only a quarter said du to their superior. Among those aged over 55, the figure was 17 percent.
Titles in Address
A guide for students at the University of Trier gives the correct written forms: Sehr geehrter Herr Professor Knodel and Sehr geehrte Frau Dr. Freudenreich. It adds that many a chief physician would not let even a patient call him merely Herr Doktor instead of Herr Professor. A guide on e-mail etiquette used at Goethe University Frankfurt tells students: Wenn Ihre Lehrenden akademische Titel führen, sollten Sie sie verwenden. If your teachers hold academic titles, you should use them. A first name is appropriate only once the addressee has explicitly offered the du. Erst dann ist die informelle Variante Liebe/r <Vorname> angemessen. Only then is the informal form Dear followed by the first name appropriate. The doctorate even appears on the German identity card. The identity card law lists the Doktorgrad, the doctoral degree, among the few details printed on the card.
The Professor Who Went Back to Sie
The Trier guide for students tells of a professor who at first said du to her staff. Over the years she found that younger staff found it increasingly hard to say du to a respected and older superior. She also found that it is much easier to criticize staff, to warn them or even to dismiss them, when one is on Sie terms with them. According to the guide, most professors therefore switch at some point in their careers to an obligatory Sie with new staff, if they have not used it from the start. The guide also says who makes the first move. A research assistant would hardly offer the du to the head of department, but the other way round would be more conceivable.
Job Ads That Say Du
In a 2017 Careerbuilder survey of 1,018 users of the job site jobs.de, 35.2 percent rated du in job ads as negative and wenig wertschätzend, showing little respect. 26.2 percent liked it, and 38.6 percent said it made no difference. In 2019 researchers in Osnabrück surveyed 1,306 people aged 15 to 65. The participants did not prefer applicants to be addressed with du, either in the job ad or in the job interview.
Call Me Julian
In July 2021, as the new coach of Bayern Munich, Julian Nagelsmann told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag: Die Spieler dürfen mich gerne duzen, ich höre meinen Vornamen tatsächlich auch lieber als meinen Nachnamen. The players are welcome to say du to me, I actually prefer hearing my first name to my last name. He added: Siezen oder duzen ist für mich in den modernen Zeiten kein Indikator mehr für Autorität oder nicht. For me, in modern times, Sie or du is no longer an indicator of authority. Even here, the offer of the du came from the coach.
The Shrinking Sie
In a 2023 Forsa survey for the job site Jobware, 27 percent of men and 31 percent of women said they want to be addressed with Sie in job ads. According to the same report, 64 percent of employees had wanted Sie five years earlier. It is not clear whether both figures come from the same question, so the size of the change is uncertain. A Questionpro survey reported in 2024 found that only 10 percent say Sie to all their colleagues. 35 percent say du to all of them. The largest group, 48 percent, say du to some colleagues and Sie to others.