agent

Which translation, when

Why

Agent translates by office and by doctrine, and the cognate serves neither. The offices are Vertreter and Bevollmächtigter in the general law, §§ 164, 167 BGB, and Handelsvertreter in distribution, § 84 HGB, a full statutory regime including the termination compensation of § 89b HGB, while Agent in German belongs to intelligence services and entertainment, with Agentur surviving honestly in Werbeagentur. The doctrine is the deeper gap: German representation runs on Offenkundigkeit, § 164 Abs. 1 BGB attributes the contract to the principal only where the agent acts recognisably in his name, and § 164 Abs. 2 BGB puts the contract on the intermediary himself where the foreign name stays hidden, narrow case-law pockets aside. The undisclosed principal of English agency, stepping in and enforcing directly, has no German seat, and a structure that leans on him leans on air. The process agent of jurisdiction clauses, finally, is a procedural office of its own, der Zustellungsbevollmächtigte, not a Vertreter at large.

Typical mistakes

• Agent der Gesellschaft reads like espionage or entertainment, the legal words are Vertreter, Bevollmächtigter, Handelsvertreter, and the cognate empties the sentence of law.
• Undisclosed agency does not travel, § 164 Abs. 2 BGB binds the hidden intermediary himself, narrow case-law pockets aside, so a structure that relies on an unnamed principal enforcing directly imports English doctrine into a system built on Offenkundigkeit.
• The commercial agent is a statute, § 84 HGB, with the compensation claim of § 89b HGB at the end, so agency agreement is der Handelsvertretervertrag where distribution is meant, and looser renderings hide an entire regime.

What matters

Distribution structuring meets the word first: the company appoints an agent for Germany. As Handelsvertreter, § 84 HGB, the appointment carries a statute, including the compensation claim of § 89b HGB at the end. As Agent it carries nothing, and as verdeckter Vertreter it carries the wrong person, § 164 Abs. 2 BGB puts the contract on the intermediary himself. The English word chose none of this, the German word must.

Examples