Foreword vs Preface in German

Question

In the English language, Foreword and Preface are different in meaning, and books frequently have both of those:

• Foreword: another author endorses the book,
• Preface: the author(s) tell how they came to write the book.

However, I am not sure how to make this distinction in German. The Vorwort seems to me to be more of a preface than a foreword.

How would these two different words be translated when they occur at the beginning of a book?

Answer 1

Both are called »Vorwort« in German. When a book has both a foreword and a preface, then the preface is often called

Vorwort des Autors

Sometimes you also find

Geleitwort

when it is a foreword.

Here is an example, the German translation of the 6^th edition of Design Patterns by Gamma, Helm, Johnson and Vlissides. In this book we have at the beginning, before chapter 1 (which is »1 Einführung«):

• Vorwort des Übersetzers der 6ten Auflage
  ^{(Foreword by the translator of the 6th edition)}

• Vorwort des Übersetzers
  ^{(Foreword by the translator)}

• Vorwort
  ^(Preface)

• Geleitwort von Grady Booch
  ^{(Foreword by Grady Booch)}

• Leitfaden für den Leser
  ^{(Reader's guide)}

• 1 Einführung
  ^{(1 Introduction)}