officer

noun · leitender Angestellter

Leitende Angestellte for the officer tier below the board, § 5 Abs. 3 BetrVG, Organmitglieder where officer means the governing body itself, Beauftragte where the officer guards a function, and Offiziere only in uniform. D and O survives untranslated, the deductible rule of § 93 Abs. 2 Satz 3 AktG is built around the imported term.

Which translation, when

leitender Angestellterthe senior-manager tier below the organs, defined for works-constitution purposes in § 5 Abs. 3 BetrVG, hire-and-fire powers, Prokura or genuinely entrepreneurial tasks. The officers half of directors and officers.

Organmitgliedwhere officer reaches the governing body itself, Vorstand, Geschäftsführung, the member of an Organ, the circle D and O policies insure, the AG’s Vorstand carrying the mandatory deductible of § 93 Abs. 2 Satz 3 AktG.

Why

Officer covers two German tiers and one function, and the cognate covers none of them. Where directors and officers is meant, the directors map to Organmitglieder, Vorstand and Geschäftsführung, and the officers to the leitende Angestellte, defined in § 5 Abs. 3 BetrVG by hire-and-fire authority, Prokura or entrepreneurial tasks. The insurance world keeps the English label, D and O is established German market usage, and the statute regulates the product under its imported name, § 93 Abs. 2 Satz 3 AktG mandates the deductible for the AG’s Vorstandsmitglieder. Where officer names a guardian of a function, German answers with the Beauftragte, the data protection officer is der Datenschutzbeauftragte, Art. 37 DSGVO, the compliance officer der Compliance-Beauftragte. Titles, finally, are not functions, the CEO on the business card is in law der Vorstandsvorsitzende of an AG or der Geschäftsführer of a GmbH, and translation follows the Rechtsform, not the letterhead. Der Offizier, meanwhile, has stayed in the barracks, and die Offiziere der Gesellschaft summon a parade, not a management tier.

Typical mistakes

Die Offiziere der Gesellschaft serve in the wrong army, the corporate tiers are Organmitglieder and leitende Angestellte, § 5 Abs. 3 BetrVG, and the cognate summons the military.
The officer of data protection officer is der Beauftragte, Art. 37 DSGVO names the Datenschutzbeauftragte, and Datenschutz-Offizier files the role under uniform.
Titles are not functions, CEO on the card can be Vorstandsvorsitzender or Geschäftsführer in law, and the translation follows the Rechtsform, not the letterhead.

What matters

D and O renewals translate the insured circle, not the acronym: the policy covers Organmitglieder, Vorstand and Geschäftsführung, with the statutory deductible for the AG’s Vorstand, § 93 Abs. 2 Satz 3 AktG, and extends to leitende Angestellte, § 5 Abs. 3 BetrVG, while the label D and O itself stays English on the German policy. Die Offiziere der Gesellschaft would insure a parade.

Authority

§ 5 Abs. 3 BetrVG
§ 93 Abs. 2 Satz 3 AktG
Art. 37 DSGVO

What the machine misses

Officer marches into German as Offizier in machine output often enough to matter, and the civilian slots are elsewhere, Organmitglieder for the governing body, leitende Angestellte for the tier below, Beauftragte where the officer guards a function like data protection. The military residue is loud, but the quiet miss costs more, D and O programmes insure a legally defined circle the mistranslated org chart no longer describes.

Examples

directors and officers	Organmitglieder und leitende Angestellte
chief executive officer	der Vorstandsvorsitzende
data protection officer	der Datenschutzbeauftragte
compliance officer	der Compliance-Beauftragte