People are a bit more concerned with academic, professional, and other titles in Austria than in other German-speaking regions; it's not unusual to refer to people with all their titles instead of simply the "highest" one they have obtained. I've recently taken responsibility for publishing an official staff list for my institution and so I want to make sure I get the order and positioning of the titles correct. Are there any official rules for this, or failing that, some widely observed conventions that I should be following?
I vaguely understand that "German" titles (i.e., German-language professional titles, and academic degrees granted by German-language universities under the pre-Bologna system) typically come before the name, while academic degrees granted under a Bologna- or English-style system typically come after it. But what order should the prenomial and postnomial titles appear in? That is, do professional titles come before or after academic degrees? And should academic degrees be listed from lowest to highest, or highest to lowest? Moreover, how can I decide which of two academic degrees is higher? (For example, does an M.Sc. outrank an MBA?)
Let's take the following example: Max Mustermann is an overeducated Universitätsprofessor (Univ.-Prof.) who holds a Dr. rer. soc. oec., a Dipl.-Ing., a B.A., an M.Sc., and an MBA. What's the correct way of writing his name including all titles?
- Univ.-Prof. Dr. rer. soc. oec. Dipl.-Ing. Max Mustermann, B.A., M.Sc., MBA
- Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. rer. soc. oec. Max Mustermann, B.A., M.Sc., MBA
- Univ.-Prof. Dr. rer. soc. oec. Dipl.-Ing. Max Mustermann, MBA, M.Sc., B.A.
- Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. rer. soc. oec. Max Mustermann, MBA, M.Sc., B.A.
- …something else?
More generally, is there an authoritative, published style guide that I can refer to to settle such questions?