Translations: Envoys of Language and Culture
A good translation reads like an original – at home in its new context and speaking to your new audience.
Transferring reading experiences into a new linguistic and cultural environment: English into German, for companies and agencies with a concrete project. My rates are listed below – so you know where you stand before you even ask.
The Work
Working on a translation, especially in a corporate context, is always a rewarding challenge – it means understanding both cultures and mediating between them while staying as true to the source as possible. With more than two decades of experience, I translate your English texts into German, focused squarely on your new target audience: marketing material, internal training, technical documentation, or fiction, in language that sounds natural rather than translated. My clients value not just the translation, but the editing suggestions I make along the way – which is why I work with most of them long-term.
What I Can Do for You
Translation EN>DE
Corporate and product communication, tutorials, user interfaces, manuals, and fiction.
Transcreation
Beyond translation: I analyze your source and rebuild it in German, original yet true to your messaging and product.
Editing/PMTE
The finishing touches on your translations, from structural and line editing to spelling and grammar, including the review of machine-translation output.
DTP
On request, I deliver the finished layout of the translated documents in MS Office and Adobe Creative Suite, ready to use.
What I Translate – and What I Don’t
I firmly support the native-speaker principle: a translator should render into their native language. I therefore work from English (US/UK) into German (Germany). German into English I offer only in the context of work translations or together with an English-language editor.
My focus is corporate communication – print, online, multimedia – along with user interfaces, manuals, tutorials, and help centers for software and apps. Other translations, preferably literary, on request. One important limit: I am not a sworn legal translator, so I cannot take on contracts or other legal documents.
How I Work
After reading the source carefully and clarifying any open questions, I produce a draft translation, which is refined and sharpened in the editing phase. A further editing pass plus automated and manual spelling and grammar checks round off the text. My maximum daily capacity is 3,000 words, shared across all active projects – so I always name a realistic delivery date with your quote.
Your Content Stays Yours
You receive an exclusive, temporally and spatially unrestricted right of use for the translation within the intended target medium. Use in other media or contexts – say, publishing a brochure text on a website – is agreed and remunerated separately. Adding your translations to translation memories or using them to train AI is likewise subject to a separate charge.
Do You Need a Quote?
Looking for a translator for a specific project? Send me an email – no form, no funnel.
To prepare a quote quickly, your message should include:
- the service(s) you need – translation, transcreation, editing/PMTE, or DTP
- the source text, or at least a sample of no fewer than two pages
- the volume – word and/or page count
- the subject area and text type (marketing, UI, manual, fiction …)
- your preferred deadline
- your company and billing address, for the quote itself
Without quantities or access to the source, I can’t give you a firm quote – so the more you send, the faster and more precise my offer.
Interested, but no current projects?
Just keep my in mind and in your database – with the following documents:
Your Questions, my Anwers (FAQ)
How much do I charge?
We can always talk about rates, especially for larger projects. And for long-term collaborations – from a minimum of 5,000 words per month – rates are negotiable. The figures below are guideline prices for initial offers:
|
Service |
End customers |
Agencies*** |
|
Translation, up to 1,000 words (per word) |
€0.20 / $0.20* |
€0.10 / $0.10* |
|
Translation, from the 1,001st word (per word) |
€0.15 / $0.15* |
€0.08 / $0.08* |
|
Transcreation, editing, proofreading, text extraction & processing (per hour or part hour) |
€75 / $75* |
€45 / $45* |
|
Minimum order value |
€20.00 / $20.00* |
€20.00 / $20.00* |
|
48-hour delivery (express surcharge) |
+25%** |
+25%** |
|
24-hour delivery (express surcharge) |
+50%** |
+50%** |
|
Same-day, weekends, holidays, or outside office hours (Mon–Fri, 9–18 CET/CEST) |
+100%** |
+100%** |
* All prices are net, plus statutory VAT where applicable. Dollar prices are available to customers outside the European Union.
** Subject to availability and free capacity.
*** I partner selectively with agencies and enterprises, based on fit and past experience.
Which tools do I use?
For consistent quality I use the CAT tools MemoQ and SDL Trados, with current licenses and up-to-date dictionaries. If you need me to use a different CAT tool, please provide the licensing – everyone works best with the tools they know. Where it improves or speeds up the work, and in agreement with you, I may use machine translation as a basis.
Do I use AI?
Yes – as a tool, not as a replacement. I may use machine translation as a starting point, but every text is revised, checked, and finished by hand. I don’t deliver anything I couldn’t have written without it, and I tell you in advance when a result rests substantially on AI. Your source stays yours; adding it to translation memories or using it to train AI happens only by agreement.
Which formats can I process?
I work with all common editable formats: DOC/DOCX, XLS, PPT, RTF, TXT, HTML, and XML, as well as XLIFF and project files for MemoQ and Trados, and InDesign IDML. In every case I ask for a PDF of the original so I can check context.
Non-editable files – PDFs, Illustrator files, images (JPEG, PNG, PSD, GIF …), and video – incur extra costs, because the text has to be extracted or transcribed first. From non-editable sources I deliver a bilingual document; for a ready-to-use file I need the corresponding raw data. DTP is charged separately.
Samples of my Work
You may have come across my translations without knowing it – I work under strict confidentiality for clients like ManpowerGroup and Criteo. So, to show what I do, here are a few public samples, some of them translated for the pleasure of it:
The Story of the Good Little Boy Who Did Not Prosper
Autor: Mark Twain
Even though his writings will soon have a century and a half under their belt, Mark Twain was a master of satire who still makes me laugh today. Here you will find his delightfully wicked ‚Story of the Good Little Boy‘ — I hope you enjoy it!
A Dream within a Dream
Autor: Edgar Allen Poe
Although I’m not a big fan of poetry, Edgar Allan Poe’s work never fails to move me. That’s why I decided to try my hand at his short, yet incredibly intense poem, ‚A Dream Within A Dream‘.
Freedom of the Park
Autor: Goerge Orwell
Freedom of the press, censorship, and police brutality: these are the themes of George Orwell’s short commentary ‚Freedom of the Park‘. The piece was written in 1945 – and, unfortunately, has lost hardly any of its relevance today.
Demon is a Job from Hell
Autor: Helmut Barz
A demon has roamed the earth for several centuries—always on the hunt for black souls for his master’s army. But then he falls in love… As a practice exercise, I translated my own novel, ‚Demon is a Job from hell‘. Here is a sneak peak.