The battle over how to address people in German

As the formal 'Sie' falls out of fashion some people are unsure of how to address people

Photo by Constantin Wenning on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

A couple of days ago I was taking a walk through an estate that once belonged to the Prussian monarchy when a young boy came panting up the hill on his bicycle.

He stopped in front of me and asked: “Entschuldigen Sie, können Sie mir bitte die Uhrzeit verraten?”

The phrasing of his question was so antiquated that I felt like I had literally stepped back into the Kaiser era. In English, it would sound something like: “excuse me, would you be so kind as to inform me of the time of day?”

In Berlin of all places, the boy’s exquisite manners stood out like a sore thumb.

The German capital is a place where people are almost proud of the coarse, direct way they talk to strangers. Born-and-bred Berliners are legendary for their skill in anmotzen (biting your head off). And anmotzen just doesn’t work as well if you are addressing someone with the formal Sie instead of the colloquial Du.

Scolding someone on the street who doesn’t get out of the way q…