English translation: select fraternity of public servants
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Danish to English translations [PRO] Other / employment
Danish term or phrase:tjenestmandskollektivet
This term is from a website concerning the migration of Swedish Engineers to i.a. Germany in the early 19th century where the following sentence appears:
"De adskilte sig fra den store masse af lønarbejdere ved deres ”ingeniørstolthed”, en stor interesse for arbejdsopgaverne, samt at de tilhørte **tjenestmandskollektivet**".
How can "tjenestmandskollektivet" best be translated into English?
Explanation: As far as I know, there is no exact equivalent in English history or society. Civil servants are roughly the same, but not entirely. (= statstjenestemand, embedsmand etc. according to Gyldendals Røde)
"Tjenestemænd" were/are a very wide group, including local government officials, clergy, teachers and people who manned the emergency services like firemen.
Apart from being "tjenestemænd", I am not sure that they all felt part of a single group, but they did feel a sense of responsibility and fellowship with colleagues.
The common denominator is that they were regarded as indispensable to society, and they are not allowed to strike if they are employed under Tjenestemandsloven as tjenestemænd (M/K in these days). On the other hand, they enjoyed privileges such as good pension schemes, before most people could look forward to more than a very modest "folkepension".
They commanded a certain envy at times as well as respect, so they might have seemed like a special class on their own, but I think this is very difficult to render in a neat phrase in English without losing a lot in translation.
Thanks for your help, Christine, in the form of a very comprehensive answer to my question - which, it seems was not trivial! 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
Explanation: As far as I know, there is no exact equivalent in English history or society. Civil servants are roughly the same, but not entirely. (= statstjenestemand, embedsmand etc. according to Gyldendals Røde)
"Tjenestemænd" were/are a very wide group, including local government officials, clergy, teachers and people who manned the emergency services like firemen.
Apart from being "tjenestemænd", I am not sure that they all felt part of a single group, but they did feel a sense of responsibility and fellowship with colleagues.
The common denominator is that they were regarded as indispensable to society, and they are not allowed to strike if they are employed under Tjenestemandsloven as tjenestemænd (M/K in these days). On the other hand, they enjoyed privileges such as good pension schemes, before most people could look forward to more than a very modest "folkepension".
They commanded a certain envy at times as well as respect, so they might have seemed like a special class on their own, but I think this is very difficult to render in a neat phrase in English without losing a lot in translation.
Best of luck!
Christine Andersen Denmark Local time: 08:41 Meets criteria Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 54
Grading comment
Thanks for your help, Christine, in the form of a very comprehensive answer to my question - which, it seems was not trivial!
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +1
