Impressum - getting it right

One of Germany's biggest mysteries - and most common linguistic fallacies

Warning: there is no such button on a website as an Imprint. If you use Imprint on your website you are making yourself look very unprofessional.

Question: why is it that so many German websites have a button in the English version leading to a mysterious page called the "Imprint"? You never find this button in other areas of the world. In fact in the US and UK if you saw an "Imprint" button on a website you'd expect to click through to a stamp or branding iron for a cow. So what is this Imprint thing all about?

Mistranslation in magazines

Before the days of the Internet, the German word Impressum originally refered to the publishing details in a magazine. If you want to know who the publishers are, the editors, contact details etc there is often a page in magazines just for that. In the US and UK this normally has no header above it. You stumble across it by chance when flicking through the pages. In Germany they love putting Impressum above it - and it's often indexed on the contents page. See English Vogue or similar big magazines: the page has no title!

So the correct translation of Impressum in a magazine would be Publishing Details.

In technical terms, however (for the real printing experts), this would be a masthead, but most other people would not be too sure what this refers to.

Mistranslation by a leading German dictionary

The technical meaning of Impressum outlined above - in a magazine - is commonly understood in the printing industry but nowhere else would they be sure what the masthead is. But to make things worse, a masthead is "The title of a newspaper or periodical as it appears across the first page, front cover, or title page of each issue." [Source: Dictionary.com]. It's a kind of nameplate. So as you are not refering to this in a magazine, avoid the word masthead and simply use Publishing Details.

Origin of the word Imprint on websites

But there is another word for this 'Impressum' or masthead that is also common in the printing industry: imprint. According to Dictionary.com this is "The name of a book's publisher printed on the title page or elsewhere, usually with the place and date of publication." [1]

So, dictionaries being dictionaries, they have to include words like this for translators. Grab a dictionary from your nearest bookshop and that's what they say. Impressum = Imprint.

Misuse on German websites

A widespread misinterpretation that has unfortunately become common practice.

So this is why you see Imprint on lots of German websites. It's a literal translation of a PRINTING INDUSTRY TERM. Even though it's totally meaningless to 99.99% of native speakers. (If you're not German, a bit of info for you: the (German) imprint is basically about the website, who published it, address, etc. In fact it is obligatory for any website in Germany of a business or commercial nature.)

Since the 80s, when some web programmer somewhere in Germany was stuck for a word and reached out and grabbed his or her dictionary "that's the way we've always done things". It's common practice. Practically every Tom Dick and Harry is now convinced that we native speakers know what the Imprint button is for. The clever ones, including leading internet agencies like Stoll & Fischbach (who, quite coincidentally, use us to do all their website copy), have now worked this one out and write the proper word.

Solutions

Technically speaking you could leave the "Impressum" out in the English version as it it is only needed for legals reasons in Germany. But it's probably better not to. So if you have to put it in, englishtalk suggests the following:

• About
• Legals
• Statutory declaration (at a push)

But what about the disclaimers and liabiliy (Haftung), or data protection (Datenschutz)? Well, call them precisely that. Under the button saying Legals, have a section called Liability and another called Data Protection.

AVOID these terms on a website

• Imprint
• Masthead

Check your website

If your website already says Imprint on it (where the German button says Impressum), we would kindly like to point out that the person who supplied the word

a) Needs to stop believing the dictionary as it may be quoting the term in the wrong context
b) Needs to look at US and UK websites, this is surely evidence enough that "Imprint" is wasted on English ears
c) If they work for your agency: needs replacing with English advertising experts who do know what they're talking about

englishtalk recommendation

About or Legals