Certainly, ordinary Germans would find this gender-neutral language perplexing. But it is not as if gender-neutral German has simply been cooked up by a few woke academics in the UK. Quite the opposite. So-called Gendersprache (gender language) has been zealously promoted by many public institutions in Germany for a while now. Federal and state governments, as well the media and big corporations, are all trying to push this new ‘inclusive’ way of speaking.

Take the city of Hanover, for example. Gender-neutral language has been used for all official communications since 2019, with many other local governments following suit. Or take the first female chief of the Berlin police, Barbara Slowik. In 2019, she announced that she would no longer be referred to as the ‘police chief’ (der Polizeipräsident), as the term is masculine. But instead of opting for the feminine form of the same title (die Polizeipräsidentin), she decided on the gender-neutral ‘Polizei Berlin’ – meaning literally ‘the Berlin police’. Which is as nonsensical as it sounds.

German businesses are also subject to the imperatives of Gendersprache. Companies looking for new hires must show they are open to all genders of applicant in their listings by including the letters, W, M, D – weiblich (female), männlich (male) and divers (a new addition equivalent to ‘other’). Failure to include these letters on a job advert could leave them open to lawsuits.

Make no mistake, Germany’s political, cultural and business elites really are some of the wokest in Europe.