Anybody know German?

[arndis]

If anyone knows German, or knows someone who does, I need a little bit of translation done. This semester's nightclub/restaurant project is in Berlin, so I'd like to know what the German version of its name is.

The long version is "the Tesla Aetheric Transference Company, Brandenburg Station." The short version is "the Tesla." Online translators can't cope because the name is too steampunk. The venue is a kind of interuniversal railway station, but instead of riding trains we're teleporting matter around through the ether.

Clarification of sense:

• Tesla is a proper name, the founder of the company. (Yes, Nikola Tesla -- who else?)
• Aetheric Transference is the process, and this is what seems to be giving the translators fits.
• Station in the sense of railway station.

Anyone able to help?

Comments

[amazon-syren.livejournal.com]

Moria might be able to swing that. He speaks German. (And would probably quite enjoy the club, too).

You can find him on facebook (which might get you a translation sooner) here.

Good luck! :-)

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I think you know ragnhildr -- and I'm pretty sure she knows German. Whether she'd know how to translate something esoteric like that - I don't know. Some things don't quite translate.

[zunger.livejournal.com]

I just checked one of Einstein's talks, and the term he used for the aether was "Äther." He was talking about the luminiferous aether (the hypothetical substance in which light is a wave) as opposed to the classical aether (the fifth element that the gods breathed), but I suspect that the word is the same for both. So... "Tesla Ätherische Übertragung GmbH, Bahnhof Brandenburg"?

(I don't actually speak German beyond the ability to partially decode technical papers, so this should be taken with a massive grain of salt)

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

GmbH would not be correct. GmbH is more like a "ltd" or "inc" than "company". It is a specific type of limit-liability corporate construct.

[zunger.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was a bit of a loose translation. In English I would expect to see signs like "Tesla Aetheric Transference Co." (especially in the 19th century); I figured that a GmbH was slightly more ominous than an AG, since mad scientists are unlikely to have public stock offerings outside of Silicon Valley.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Ah, ok.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

It has been a loooong time since I spoke German, but I largely agree with zunger. The two changes I would make would be to replace "GmbH" with "AG" (as already noted) and "Bahnhof" with "Hauptbahnhof". [The latter means "main/major station" and would be used for the one-per-city stations, not the minor stops. I gather that this latter meaning would be the one desired here.]

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

Strictly speaking, "Übertragung" may mean "transmission" rather than "transference," but I think there's enough similarity for this to work.