TITLES IN GERMANY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11684, 13 July 1912, Page 3 (Supplement)

TITLES IN GERMANY.

: Title-giving- and title-bearing m .Germany are mado. a serious business. It is dangerous-to-assume one. that does not belong to you, and it is almost equally dangerous to withhold one, rrorn a man to whom it does belong. .... . The following is an address which is probably written thousands of times a . week in Germanyi is a courtesy, due to a well-known official whose'rank is far below that of a Minister of State ' "Highly reverenced Mr Ileal lrivj Councillor, highly to bo level ence4 Mr President." - The title councillor lias four degrees, thus: -Positive, councillor; co.mpsi ative, higher councillor; supeilativo, privy councillor, and extra superlative real privv councillor. • Then to complicate matters there axe a .hundred or moie other councillorsr such as councillors or legation, councillors- of State, sanitary councillors, forest councillors, and tpwn police councillors. < u Titles o&another-class have to do with tlie-wearer's occupation. Thus a, Miimch newspaper repords tber death of Frau So and Soj wife of the Roj al Theatro Colorgnnders' Assistant In Bavarian, newspapers used to be round notices, inserted by the persons themselves of "the betrothal of So -and "Royal Supernumerary Hav-Bmder s daughter." or'of So and So, "Head Billposter's daughter." - /• - When a royal,personage dies his ooaj - is spoken, of, jivith becoming rerereiice, as "tho lugh corpse" or the "most high corpse." ~ ."" < ... Much may ,be said in favor of tlie German titl9 system. For instance, in German-v* when -a man takes the,, prefix,, "doctor" he-has^ti-right to do;so. title cannofc :have been' bought, begged, or self-created. - Moreover, one may be sure that he has won his title m a uni-. versitv and-that his doctorate does not emanate from an unknown seminary. . So too professors are such by rank and right, conferred duly bv the State because deserved, for the title cannot be assumed otherwise.