English translation: Imperial, Electoral and Mercantile City
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German to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - History / Description of Frankfurt
German term or phrase:Reichs,-Wahl- und Handelstadt
I'm working on an exhibition for the Goethehaus in Frankfurt. There are to be explanatory "Stele" (what's this in EN?) with texts and pictures in DE and in EN. This is the title of the first one and on the next there are the words "Frankfurt am Main". The best translation will include elements of all three terms (Reichsstadt, Wahlstadt and Handelsstadt) and I assume it is aimed at describing Frankfurt's importance in Goethe's day. I can imagine "Economic Centre" for Handelsstadt, Reichstadt might be "Free Imperial City", but what about "Wahlstadt" - "Electoral City" ?Can I combine them to "Free Imperial and Electoral City"or is this not historically correct? Another problem arises (graphically speaking) if the EN gets much longer than the GE, the whole thing is a title in upper case.
Please help and give me some pointers, if necessary I can allow my client to decide. TIA !
I have used Helen's final suggestion with capital letters all through as it is a title. Thank you, everybody, for the history-lesson-in-a-nutshell and the great links. If only one's clients realized what thought we sometimes have to put into just three words! 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
This is indeed a great link and although the book was written by an American just after WW2 and aimed exclusively for the American troops serving in Frankfurt, it is remarkably free of propaganda. I get the impression he is aware of the rich German culture which the Allies had destroyed (yes I know this was a side effect of quashing the Nazis). Thanks for finding it for me!
... with "Electoral City" and with "(Free) Imperial City", but what about "Commercial City" or "(Free) Trade City" for Wahlstadt? Have you tried googling these terms in combination with Frankfurt? It throws up some interesting stuff. Good luck with the job - it sounds fun!
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Answers
1 hr confidence: peer agreement (net): +4
City of emperors, prince electors and merchants
Explanation: I don’t like to use ‘electors’ in isolation because it has a different meaning in modern political usage and would therefore be confusing until the visitor reads what is underneath.
I think ‘merchants’ is more in keeping with the mediaeval theme of this part of the exhibition.
Helen’s version and mine each contain 47 characters including spaces. This one goes down to 40 if you omit ‘prince’.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 22 hrs (2010-11-18 10:42:28 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
"Emperors, prince electors and merchants" is probably quite adequate on its own in the context and cuts down on the number of characters.
If you want to stick with 'imperial' and 'electoral', the adjectival form of 'merchant' is of course 'mercantile'.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 22 hrs (2010-11-18 10:48:33 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
However, my reservations about using 'electors' on its own applies equally to 'electoral' which, at first glance, seems to be something about the modern political system, e.g. electoral reform.
Andrew Swift United Kingdom Local time: 02:08 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 144
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thank you Andrew for your suggestion and I particularly like the "merchants" bit. However I am not so sure about "City of..." in my context
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +4