European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 22, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                In Germany it s the name old thing by Marg Fisher Washington Post in a society where Laws forbid showering after 10 p m.-, using a phone Extension in your Home or. Mowing the Lawn Between noon saturday and monday it should come As no great Shock that in Germany the government must approve your name. A couple in Frankfurt recently discovered that while Schroder is a perfectly common last name and a Good enough first name for the Beethoven obsessed Young pianist of the peanuts comic strip it is verboten As a boy s name in Germany. City officials nixed the couples plan to name their child after their beloved comic character. Reason the name is not sex specific. A. Same for Woodstock Pushkin Hemingway. Martinli Herking and Mowe the German word for Seagull a Germany s name arbiters rejected them All. It is up to the individual City clerk to decide whether a name is acceptable Quot said Beate Hoge Schurz the clerk in Bonn who approves children s names. Quot our Only real Rule is that a name must indicate the gender of a  also May not be Quot Odd Quot As one clerk described his own Standard. Example up muck the name of a German cartoon character was rejected. Because other children might find  unfamiliar. If germans choose foreign names for their offspring clerks ring up the embassy of the country of origin. If the embassy does not know the name its out a a practice that has led Many enraged germans of mixed heritage to Appeal decisions to court. Sometimes they win sometimes they done to. Clerks say this is a considerably More Liberal procedure than the old German Way under nazi Rule foreign names were prohibited. If the society for the German language has its Way name rules Are not Likely to be liberalized. Wilfried Feibicke the society s special adviser on first names,.is tired of newspaper stories about poor parents who have been forbidden to name their child Stec palme the. German word for Holly. A /. Quot this conflict has two sides Quot he said explaining that. The government must protect children against parents who seek to Burden them with foolish names. A court recently allowed a Germa couple to name their. Daughter scroll an after a character on a swedish to. Series that became popular in Germany. Feibicke said he warned the court not to allow the name because it Means Quot old Crone Quot in swedish. But the judge said germans had come to associate the name with Quot a Jolly Little Blond  what will happen if the Carrier of this name learns swedish or travels to Sweden Quot Feibicke  action line Quot imagine one Day a chinese vietnamese or african children s Book appears and its hero conquers All hearts and some parents name their child after that hero. Then 40 years later after one of these children has become a judge he suddenly reads in a Book of names that his \ name Means snot nose a a a. Feibicke was however calmed by the action of a German judge who last year refused a couple permission to name their child Verleih Nix which Means Quot done to lend  ,. A a. Germany is a nation ruled by Laws and there Are Laws to govern nearly every human activity. Some Laws May seem arbitrary but in a society that puts great emphasis on order they Are a commonly accepted part of daily life. A a a a a. The prohibition against phone extensions is part of modern Germany a extensive privacy Protection a in this Case a postwar attempt to prevent a recurrence of the surveillance abuses that occurred in nazi Germany. The bans on late night showering and weekend Lawn mowing Are meant to protect against noise that could disturb the sleep or relaxation of others. A doctor i Dusseldorf recently challenged the showering restriction after being fined $67 for violating it one humid August night. A court backed the doctor but told him to limit his nocturnal showers to 30 minutes. Despite the ruling the restriction remains in effect throughout most of the  Law governing names has been particularly hard on women who want to keep their Maiden names after marriage it forbids them from doing so. The Law was liberalized in 1976, when the government allowed women to Combine their Maiden names with their husbands producing hyphenated monikers that can twist the most flexible Tongue. The Bonn parliament boasts members with names such As Herta Daubler Gmelin Sigrid Skarpelos Sperk and Heiby Marie Wieczorek Zeul. In March Germany s highest court declared the Law favouring the Many a name unconstitutional saying it Quot cannot be justified through objective differences Between the  the court ordered the parliament to involuntary Extension ? family separation pay  soldiers on Quot All others Quot hours who Are involuntarily extended beyond their Date of reassignment receive the family separation pay of $65 a month my family along with Many other service members families is residing in the United states while the. Service members Are on a two year unaccompanied tour and does not receive family separation pay. When i was assigned overseas my family planned our finances based on being reunited after two years. Now they Are telling us to Bear two separate household expenses for some indefinite period of time. I am no longer on a voluntary All others tour. Will we Bear additional expenses for serving our country two households Are much More expensive and now with the involuntary Extension i no longer have a Choice of one or two households. Sgt. 1st class Joel c. St. Clair Lan Stuhl Germany in sgt. 1st class Ronald Flynn staff finance noncommissioned officer he Usa eur and 7th army of Corm replies let me take this Opportunity to answer this highly sensitive subject. Current directives Only authorize payment of family separation allowance Fra Type ii when one of the following conditions apply 1 the Soldier has not elected to take an All others tour and transportation of dependents is not authorized at government expense to the permanent duty station and they do not reside at or near the soldiers permanent duty station.2 the Soldier is on temporary duty away from the  continuously for More than 30 Days and dependents do not reside in the Vicinity of the temporary duty station.  write a new Law allowing women to keep their own name. But until a new Law is passed the court said couples who cannot agree on a married name will have to live with the Many a. Names Are at once a Public affair and an intensely. Private matter Here. Germans answer the Telephone by announcing their last name Only. First names Are often considered a secret revealed Only to Good friends. It is not unusual for co workers to sit Side by Side in an office for years without knowing each other s first names. Businessmen frequently refuse to divulge their first names to reporters and secretaries often profess not to know their Bossy name. Newscasts identify Public figures by title and last name Only. First names seem to attach Only to beloved sports figures. Tennis aces Steffi Graf and Boris Becker. Became known by their first names Only. In Eastern Germany where the former communist regime imposed a wider use of the familiar form of Quot you Quot society is quickly reverting to the Western Norm. People who just a few months ago used the familiar do. Now Greet with a distancing formal be the 1,100-year-old. Device that serves to separate the old from the Young and friends from acquaintances the Sie do dilemma is especially Tricky in the workplace a Quot verbal slalom Between distance and. Respect Quot said essayist Dieter Bochow. The informality of foreigners is seeping into German society and some linguists believe it May replace the formal Sie entirely. At Ikea the swedish furniture retail Chain workers Are All do to one another. In sports clubs and schools Dumas become infectious but the very same people who go by first names on the soccer Field often return to Herr Schmidt and Frau Muller in the office the next Day. At a traditional Germah company such As the Siemens electronics giant old habits can be very hard to break. Quot As a 150-year-old business Quot Siemens spokesman Enzio von Kuehlmann Stumm told a reporter Quot we can hardly change from today to tomorrow As if we were a firm of people of the same  soldiers that have elected to serve on All others Tours do not qualify for the Fra Type ii entitlement. This includes any extensions both voluntary and involuntary. We have gone Back to the department of the army for Relief in this matter due to the Stop loss program but have been unsuccessful in getting an exception to the current policy. A to write us readers action line is the readers a court of last resort,&Quot.striving to answer some of the questions. About life overseas in a military environment or questions about policies and guidelines when other avenues for answers Are not readily available if you have a question and Don t know where to turn for the answer write to readers action line co the stars and stripes Apo 09211-4211. All letters must be signed and preference will be Given to those seeking information of general interest to our readers. Page 16 a the stars and stripes monday april 22, 1991