board

noun · Vorstand

Board splits in two before it translates, German stock corporations run two-tier, Vorstand leads, § 76 AktG, Aufsichtsrat supervises, § 111 AktG, and § 105 AktG keeps the rooms separate. The one-tier board of directors exists here only in the SE as Verwaltungsrat, everywhere else that word is Switzerland leaking through.

Which translation, when

Vorstandthe management board of the AG, § 76 Abs. 1 AktG, leading under its own responsibility, die Geschäftsführung its GmbH counterpart. Where board means the executive room.

Aufsichtsratthe supervisory board, § 111 Abs. 1 AktG, control, not management, and strictly separate, § 105 Abs. 1 AktG bars double membership.

Verwaltungsratthe one-tier board German law keeps only for the SE, Art. 38 SE-VO, §§ 20 ff. SEAG, and otherwise the Swiss word that leaks into machine output.

Why

The English board assumes one room and German built two. The AG runs two-tier, der Vorstand leads under its own responsibility, § 76 Abs. 1 AktG, der Aufsichtsrat supervises, § 111 Abs. 1 AktG, and the incompatibility rule keeps the rooms apart, § 105 Abs. 1 AktG, nobody sits in both, a stopgap secondment of up to a year aside, § 105 Abs. 2 AktG. Translation therefore routes by function, management board is Vorstand, in the GmbH die Geschäftsführung, supervisory board is Aufsichtsrat, and the verb decides where a bare board lands, strategy sits with the Vorstand while hiring and firing the Vorstand itself is Aufsichtsrats-Sache, § 84 AktG. The one-tier board of directors has exactly one German home, the SE may choose the monistic system, Art. 38 SE-VO, and then governs through a Verwaltungsrat, §§ 20 ff. SEAG, which is also why Verwaltungsrat outside an SE context usually signals Swiss drafting in the training data. The non-executive director dissolves on arrival, supervision is institutionalised here, so NED translates as Aufsichtsratsmitglied, by function, not adjective, and the advisory board, der Beirat, remains, in company law, a creature of the articles, the GmbH’s favourite optional organ.

Typical mistakes

Verwaltungsrat der AG ist Zürich oder eine SE, the German AG has no one-tier board, the rooms are Vorstand and Aufsichtsrat, § 105 Abs. 1 AktG keeps them apart.
The board decides is untranslatable until you know which room, hiring and firing the Vorstand belongs to the Aufsichtsrat, § 84 AktG, leadership to the Vorstand, § 76 AktG, so the verb must be routed before the noun is rendered.
Non-executive director has no seat in the two-tier world, supervision is institutionalised in the Aufsichtsrat, so NED translates by function, Aufsichtsratsmitglied, not by adjective.

What matters

Governance memos crossing into AG-land must split the board first: board approval of the strategy is Vorstands-Sache, § 76 AktG, board approval of the CEO’s contract is Aufsichtsrats-Sache, § 84 AktG, and a Verwaltungsrat appears only if someone actually formed an SE, Art. 38 SE-VO. The memo that keeps one board for both has merged two organs German law keeps strictly apart, § 105 AktG.

Authority

§ 76 Abs. 1 AktG
§ 84 AktG
§ 105 Abs. 1 AktG
§ 111 Abs. 1 AktG
Art. 38 SE-VO
§§ 20 ff. SEAG

What the machine misses

Board arrives in machine output as Vorstand or, Swiss training data showing, as Verwaltungsrat, and the German two-tier system needs the room named, leadership in the Vorstand, control in the Aufsichtsrat, double membership barred. The output that lets one board do both has quietly reorganised the company, and the reader cannot tell who may actually sign the resolution in front of them.

Examples

management board	der Vorstand
supervisory board	der Aufsichtsrat
advisory board	der Beirat
board meeting	die Vorstandssitzung