- This article is about the title and rank. For people of this name, see Hauptmann (disambiguation).
Hauptmann is a German word usually translated as captain when it is used as an officer's rank in the German, Austrian and Swiss armies. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The German Army (Deutsches Heer heɐ) is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The current name of the Military of Austria is Österreichs Bundesheer ("Federal Army of Austria " official English name Austrian Armed Forces The military of Switzerland, officially known as the Swiss Armed Forces, is a unique institution somewhere between a Militia and a regular army. While "haupt" in contemporary German means "main", it also has the dated meaning of "head", i. e. Hauptmann literally translates to "head man", which is also the etymological root of "captain" (from Latin caput head).
More generally, it can be used to denote the head of any hierarchically structured group of people, often as a compound word. For example, a Feuerwehrhauptmann is, in Austria, the captain of a fire brigade, while the word Räuberhauptmann refers to the leader of a gang of robbers.
Official Austrian titles incorporating the word include Landeshauptmann, Bezirkshauptmann, Burghauptmann and Berghauptmann. A Landeshauptmann ( German for "state captain" literally 'country headman' plural Landeshauptleute or Landeshauptmänner as in Styria till 1861
In Saxony during the Weimar Republic, the titles of Kreishauptmann and Amtshauptmann were held by senior civil servants. The Free State of Saxony (Freistaat Sachsen ˈzaksən Swobodny Stat Sakska is the easternmost federal state of Germany. The term Weimar Republic ( ˈvaɪmarɐ repuˈbliːk is used by historians to signify the democratic and Republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933
External links
| Junior Rank Oberleutnant |
German officer rank Hauptmann |
Senior Rank Major (field grade officers) Stabshauptmann (warrant officers) |
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