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Vol/53 No/5 2014 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER The Linguist 33 INSTITUTE MATTERS Potsdam revisited MIKE HARRINGTON JOINS THE GERMAN SOCIETY FOR ANGLOPHONER TAG 2014 SOCIETIES It was great to be back in Potsdam on 20 June, 16 years after a German Society Study Weekend in the city, for the Anglophoner Tag 2014. We kick-started the three-day event at the Hinzenbergklause on the banks of the Havel. The work ethic of the catering staff was one of determined, East German efficiency, and anyone arriving more than five minutes late found their main course and starter already on the table. It was an amusing start, which helped to break the ice and get us networking straightaway. John Graham emphasised networking as the core element of the Anglophoner Tag (AT) in his introductory talk on Saturday in the impressive GDR-style Mercure Hotel. Giving a history of the event since its first meeting in Xanten in 1995, he explained that it had developed from grassroots initiatives for greater professional and social cohesion between German and English regional groups of the BDÜ, CIOL, Aticom, ITI and DTT. Ralph Elliott covered a wealth of material in his slot on CAT (computer-assisted translation) tools. As 80% of participants said they already used them, he concentrated on the pros and cons of the various systems on the market; the volume of data used in their translation memories (TM); and the efficiency of their search and concordance features. Elliott feels that most systems are becoming too dependent on Microsoft. Trados Studio is the most widely used but MemoQ, which uses less data space, is catching up. Top-of-the- range but highly expensive is Star Transit NXT. A thorny issue is that many of the system providers are also translation agencies, posing risks to confidentiality agreements and intellectual-property rights, particularly as the TM contains the complete source and target texts. The theme of this year's AT was 'Translation and the Remembrance of Things Past' and the next two speakers, Paul Daniels and Elke Limberger-Katsumi, took a historical approach. Daniels looked at the importance of writers such as Karl Kraus and Kurt Tucholsky – both neglected in English translation – in understanding the Weimar Republic and its failure prior to the rise of the Third Reich. On his blog, Daniels has translated works from the Weimar period – a mammoth task for which he deserves much admiration – and explored the subject in detail (http://weltbuehneenglishtranslation.wordpress.com). Limberger-Katsumi's fascinating talk complemented an exhibition on the pioneers of simultaneous interpreting at the Nuremberg Trials, created by the AIIC German Region. Interpreters at the trials received scant training on using the new technology and were under constant physical and emotional stress. One of the few interpreters who is still alive, Peter Less, celebrated his 93rd birthday on the day of our meeting, an anniversary we marked later that day. Our coffee breaks were spent reading the pioneers' resumés – a moving experience. After lunch, tour guide Jacob Sandler spoke about the Potsdam Conference at Cecilienhof Palace, a series of conferences between Churchill/Attlee, Roosevelt/Truman and Stalin from 1943 to 1945. The consecutive interpreters faced a vast array of topics: the fate of defeated Germany; the ultimatum to Japan leading to the nuclear attacks; and the progression towards the splitting of Europe into two blocs. Following the formal presentations, the evening boat trip along the Havel was pure enjoyment. On Sunday morning, we visited the Potsdam Conference exhibition at Cecilienhof, which vividly reflected Sandler's talk the previous day. We ended the weekend with a walk through the Neuer Garten to the old Russian colony of Alexandrowka, where a man with a Russian surname and a Berlin accent sold us gorgeous cherries. HISTORIC SITE: Cecilienhof Palace (above) © ISTOCKPHOTO