Glossary entry

German term or phrase:

Beauftragter

English translation:

contractor

Added to glossary by Ken Cox
Jan 23, 2009 20:55
15 yrs ago
21 viewers *
German term

Beauftragter

German to English Bus/Financial Business/Commerce (general) Swiss Standard German
General context: the document is a consulting contract drafted by a Swiss company with offices in the Canton of Zurich.

The term 'Beauftragter' refers to the opposite party of the Auftraggeber. As is clearly indicated by the contract, the Beauftragter is independent (one of the provisions is that the Beauftragter will register with the Swiss social security office as a self-employed person) and is not an agent of the client, but instead commissioned to perform a specific task for the client.

See below for specific context.

The options I am considering are 'Commissioned Party' (accurate but clumsy), 'Contractor' (common, but it may not reflect the German), and 'Consultant' (which reflects the actual situation but is far from the meaning of the German). Although 'Commissionee' might be possible, it sounds unnatural to me and on the Web I see it almost exclusively in translations.

Specific context:

Beratungsauftrag
zwischen
[party A] Auftraggeberin
und
[party B] Beauftragter
Die Parteien vereinbaren was folgt:
I. Inhalt
1. Der Beauftragte berät und unterstützt die Auftraggeberin. Er wird damit beauftragt für die Auftraggeberin eine Konkurrenzanalyse in schriftlicher Form zu erstellen über die Firmen ………………………..
II. Termine
2. Der Auftrag beginnt am ……………………
3. Der Beauftragte verpflichtet sich, nach 14 Tagen einen Zwischenbericht und die abschliessenden Konkurrenzanalysen bis ………………. abzuliefern.
4. Die Auftragsdauer kann im gegenseitigen Einverständnis verlängert werden.
III. Pflichten des Beauftragten
5. Der Beauftragte verpflichtet sich, den Auftrag persönlich durchzuführen.
6. Der Beauftragte verpflichtet sich mit der Vertragsunterzeichnung zur umfassenden Geheimhaltung sämtlicher Informationen, welche ihm in Erfüllung dieses Auftrages offengelegt werden. Diese Geheimhaltungsverpflichtung gilt auch über die Beendigung des Auftrages hinaus.

Proposed translations

+1
31 mins
Selected

(independent) contractor

AFAIK, I think "contractor" or "independent contractor" is sufficient. "Auftrag" could be translated as "project"
Peer comment(s):

agree Kim Metzger : I would use either contractor or consultant.
28 mins
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Actually it's a tossup -- my initial idea (before posting the question) was to use 'consultant', but I decided to use 'contractor' in case the client decides to repurpose the translation sometime."
22 mins

Authorised agent

On the basis that the contractual party is independent
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29 mins

commissioner (mandatee, designee, appointee) see explanation below

I found the term commissioner backed by several sources. the strange thing is, however, that it stands for Auftraggeber as well. Since I dont know how you chose to translate Auftraggeber, I added some other alternatives for Beauftragter.
Something went wrong...
+5
39 mins

(Contracting) Consultant

Since it is a Consultancy Agreement (Beratungsauftrag), the Beauftragter is the Contracting Consultant. I would only use the word "contracting" the first time, to be faithful to the German implicit meaning, and just Consultant the rest of the time.
Peer comment(s):

agree Ivan Nieves
13 mins
Thanks!
agree Kim Metzger : I would use either contractor or consultant.
22 mins
Thanks!
agree Claire Cox : Yes, this would work well
53 mins
Thanks!
agree dorian12
15 hrs
Thanks!
agree Harald Moelzer (medical-translator)
3 days 8 hrs
Something went wrong...
12 hrs

party engaged

May be an option; a little shorter than commissioned, too...and sounds a tad more natural to me, even for a contract.
Something went wrong...
1 day 16 hrs

Employee/Representative

Hi,
If this is related to job and a contract between the employer and employee, then the word could also mean employee or representative. For e.g. when we say Qualitätsmanagement-Beauftragter (m/w) (related to job) then in English we can use Quality management-Representative (m/f).
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