old German title?

[huddyhuddy]

Hi,

First, to wish everyone HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!

I am trying to find out the meaning of an old German title:

H.W.H then comes the name of the person, who was a doctor: H.W.H Dr....

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Neil

[drmessimer]

Neil: It looks ike Dr. Stanislaus Libermann. It appears to be an Austrian Passport ca. 15 May 1915. Dwight

[huddyhuddy]

Hi Dwight,

Thanks for the reply.
I was looking at the the part that comes before the Dr. Looks like H.W.H ? any ideas?

Neil

[drmessimer]

Neil: That's a tough one, but i'll go out on a limb and take a shot at it. It might stand for Hochwald-Haustechniker, which appears to be some sort of engineering title for a person who deals with the business of equiping buildings with a full line of utilities, i. e. gas, electricity, all plumbing, climate control, etc. I've seen the title that way and I have seen it as simply, Haustechniker. Maybe his speciality was equipping house in the high forest, which probably makes sense in Austria. In any event, I'm pretty sure he was an engineer. I found both versions in De Vries, German-English Science Dictionary, McGraw Hill, 1959 and in A. F. Dorian, Handwörterbuch der Naturwissenschaft und Technik, Deutsch-English, Elsevier Publishing, Amsterdam, London, New York, 1970. Dwight

[huddyhuddy]

Hi Dwight,

That is a great amount of information! wow!
Would you kow what the W stand for betweeen the 2 H's?

Have a grt weekend,
Neil

[drmessimer]

Neil: the W is the Wald part of Hochwald. Hochwald actually means high forest or seedling forest, which is why I'm guessing that Dr. Liebermann might have been some sort of specialist in designing systems for buildings located in the forest. Dwight

[huddyhuddy]

Hi Dwight,

Thanks! I would have never been able to solve it! grt info!

Thanks again,
Neil

[drmessimer]

Neil: Glad to do it. Hopefully another forum member has seen the title, Hochwald-Haustechniker and can provide a better translation. Dwight

[HPL2008]

I had read this thread when it was first posted, but did not comment on it because I could not and cannot come up with a proper identification for the "H.W.H." abbreviation.

However, as a native speaker of German, I can assure you that "Hochwald-Haustechniker" is not the answer.

While the terms "Hochwald" [= high forest], "Haustechnik" [= building services/domestic engineering] and "Haustechniker" [= company technician/in-house technician] all exist in the German language, the combination of Hochwald-Haustechniker does not exist as a job description and does not make any sense whatsoever. There is no such thing as a "high forest in-house technician".

A quick Google search tells me that a business called "Hochwald-Haustechnik" (or HWH) [see: Hochwald Haustechnik GmbH Kell am See, Heizsysteme, Bäder, Wellness ] does exist, but this is just a company name: "Hochwald" is derived from its geographical location (Kell am See in the Schwarzwälder Hochwald area) and "Haustechnik" is the field in which it operates.

Apart from that, the profession of the document holder is clearly given as "Advokat" [= "Advocate"] and his Doctorate would surely have been a Law degree.

Like I said, I cannot positively identify the "H.W.H." abbreviation. I have seen it occasionally used for "Hochwürdiger Herr", although that is more commonly abbreviated as "H.H." This, however, is used as a formal title/form of address for Deans of the Catholic Church and would seem odd for an advocate.

Whatever it is, it is one of the many formal titles used in the old Austro-Hungarian monarchy for distinguished dignitaries, officials, academics, politicians etc.

[huddyhuddy]

Hi,

Well, this means I need to continue to search 8)

Thanks you all,
Neil