There is a lot of confusion, misunderstanding and errors that some books and websites cause and perpetuate because of too much, unnecessary and incorrect translation from one language to another. Good translations are a great idea, as people who do not speak the language in question can share the same knowledge, but what I am talking about here, a form of translation overkill, is counter-productive.
Anyone who has ever tried to translate a single term or a whole piece of text using a dictionary and/or translation software will probably know that a translation, even if it looks fine at first glance, can cause problems if it is not used in the context of the original wording. This applies not only to normal terms, but also to things like company names, which (at first glance) appear to be unproblematic.
Of course, it may seem more or less difficult to pronounce and/or understand the original terms and names, and I know that this can negatively affect the learning curve in some areas, but there are two important points about translation that should be kept in mind, especially in the context of porcelain identification and history:
Names have been changed throughout history for various reasons, but you should consider the problems involved. How would you feel if your name was changed to something else, and perhaps not the best? Obviously, many people react unfavourably when their name is rendered useless. Use a simple online translator, from German to English, and "Nicholas Taube" may suddenly become "Nod Pigeon". Definitely not what you want to see, is it?
Various Czech and Polish sites translate literally everything, right down to people's real names (e.g. "Franz" suddenly becomes "Frantisék"). OK, it is a fact that many people of Austrian/German origin who lived and worked in the area of the later Czechoslovakia, for example, did indeed have their names changed, but it is another thing to find names changed by translation.
It is undesirable and unfortunate to find websites that display a particular person's name in one section, and in the same section, the same person's name is displayed as the (incorrect) translated name. This is particularly confusing when there is no explanation of the two forms of the name being used. I've found that in many cases, the person mentioned has never actually changed their name. Take, for example, the porcelain manufacture rRudolf Kämpf, who was apparently married to a Mrs Y. Kampfova, which is nothing more than the Czech translation of her real name, Josefine Kämpf. I quote this from what I have read, but I have also recently seen what happens when such information is misread, as the author of another website text suddenly spoke of a "Y. Kämpf (neé Kampfova)", utter nonsense, of course.
To take the above example in relation to porcelain: the family name Kampfova can be found everywhere in the family and company history, but only its original form Rudolf Kämpf was and is recognised as a trademark and the epitome of quality. No one would recognise or collect/buy porcelain made under the name Ruda Kampfova from Loučky (which does not even correspond to the well-known "RKG" mark); what is recognisable is porcelain made by Rudolf Kämpf in Grünlas (which of course corresponds to the well-known "RKG" mark). Names should be left unchanged in a historical context, even if the town is now called Loučky.
The website of the successor company (called Leander until 2006) presented its history based on a complete translation, stating that their predecessor was Rudolf Kampfova. Only after realising the marketing potential of the original name Rudolf Kämpf and its new registration as a trademark did they change his name to Rudolf Kämpf on all website pages, PDFs and catalogues, leaving the rest of the family involved until then with the name Kampfova, which is simply incorrect, as they never changed their name. Just like Antonia Kümmelmann, who is quoted as Antonia Kummelmanova. The page also contains several typographical errors: Dr. jur. Julius Heller is mistakenly called Yuliy Geller and Rudolf Dieterle is mistakenly called Rudolf Diterl. This would be bad enough on any collector's site, but a company history page in this form is a disgrace.
Another example of the effects of poor translation is that of Wilhelm Julinek, which has been translated to death by Czech translators, resulting in garbage like Vilém Julink or Viléma Julinka being used in the same text. Even worse is the story of another porcelain maker, the businessman Johann Theodor Menzl. His name is often mistranslated as Johann Tiwador Menzl or (even worse) truncated to just Tiwador Menzl. Such a mistranslation not only corrupts the context of his marks, as many manufacturers use a mark made up of initials, and this makes it all the more important to use the correct name. In this particular case, the mistranslation to Tiwador Menzl doesn't refer to the trademark "JOME" (derived from JOhann MEnzl). To top it off, the author also completely omitted the original place of business, namely the town of Jokes-Wickwitz, and replaced it with the name of the nearest larger town, Jakobsburg (Czech Jakubov).
Thinking in terms of keywords for a website page, it is easy to see that the results of a website search (e.g. Google, Yahoo, etc.) exclude each other, meaning that people using the correct form will hardly find the translated form, and vice versa, even if both pages are actually about the same thing. If you believe that AI-based search results are different you still have a lot to learn about the claimed intelligence of such tools.
When trying to explain the problems with inaccurate translations, we should consider websites that have taken the translation of factory names from German into English completely out of context. The information provided is often inconsistent, meaning that a particular company state or period is mentioned in several forms or stages of translation.
There are many typical translation errors, for example a Porzellanmalerei (a decoration studio) is no Porzellanmanufaktur (a porcelain manufactory). And a Porzellanmanufaktur (manufactory, a business with a lot of manual labour and hand painted decorations) is not the same as a Porzellanfabrik (porcelain factory, mass production and mainly transfer decoration, except when combined with an art department). However, many English language sites make no distinction between these terms or often confuse them. It is frustrating to see that even today the World Wide Web is full of such misleading nonsense.
To make matters worse, other people copy information from such already misleading sources, either adding their own ideas in the same language or running the content through yet another translator. Various non-English sites took information from a (now defunct) website on Bohemian porcelain and ceramics, translated it into their own language and presented it online in both text and PDF format. The results were disastrous, and even though some US visitors may claim that it is none of their business, some US "experts" used exactly these sites as a source of information for their own write-ups. How people can believe that a bad translation of an already bad translation can be a reliable source of information is beyond me. And no, Google Translate is not perfect. It is just a simple translation aid; even in 2024 it was still far from being a really good translator.
Mistranslated results are all over the place, and to say that this is confusing and unfortunate is an understatement for the newcomer, even the collector. I was sent manuscripts by two different authors who asked me to cross-check and comment on their documents, only to find the exact same mistakes repeated in both. Bear in mind that this is valuable reference material for future collectors, material that our children or heirs may need to use. To know that such material is flawed because the authors are too ignorant to have their texts translated correctly is sickening. Modern authors should check and verify their sources and have the content cross-checked by competent, context-aware speakers of both languages.
The few examples above clearly show what can happen when people do not use the original and correct place names, as well as personal and family names - bear in mind that these are just a few examples from a whole range of sites affected by the translation bug. Even though I have mainly chosen Czech/Polish translations as examples, sites in the USA or elsewhere are just as affected.
As the author of the PM&M website - a site itself often quoted elsewhere - I feel it is my responsibility to treat all historical elements with the respect they deeply deserve. This includes, of course, the correct use of all relevant names, be they family, company or place names, and of course the correct use of all necessary non-English characters, whatever their original language.
I cannot stress enough the importance of using the original name forms. It would be beneficial to all if the use of crippled forms and poor translations on all websites were brought to the attention of the author in question, so that the person responsible can revert to the original/correct form and inform themselves before spreading incorrect data further. This will not only benefit tomorrow's knowledge, but will also lead to far better search results here and now.
[ Version 1.05 ]
© 2004-2026 C.S.Marshall, all rights reserved