Open Source Developer Knighted

unixfan writes "Georg Greve, developer of Open Document Format and active FOSS developer, has received a knighthood in Germany for his work. From the article: 'Some weeks ago I received news that the embassy in Berne had unsuccessfully been trying to contact me under FSFE's old office address in Zurich. This was a bit odd and unexpected. So you can probably understand my surprise to be told by the embassy upon contacting them that on 18 December 2009 I had been awarded the Cross of Merit on ribbon (Verdienstkreuz am Bande) by the Federal Republic of Germany. As you might expect, my first reaction was one of disbelief. I was, in fact, rather shaken. You could also say shocked. Quick Wikipedia research revealed this to be part of the orders of knighthood, making this a Knight's Cross.'"

Comments

A knighthood?

[Lars T.]

Nope. Really shoddy research there. Or reach-search:

Orders of merit which still confer privileges of knighthood are sometimes referred to as orders of knighthood. As a consequence of being not an order of chivalry but orders of merit or decorations, some republican honours have thus avoided the traditional structure found in medieval orders of chivalry and created new ones instead, e.g. the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

You see, it says "knighthood" right there.

Re:Right Direction--More Money and Sex Appeal

[Fluffeh]

Your surprise (and assumption the rest of us are surprised) is a result of cultural conditioning. Open source developers are (in popular culture where I live) unshaven, smelly, poor, obese, socially awkward, annoying, nerdy, pimple ridden, inferior beasts dungeoned in their mother's basements because they are incapable of anything else.

While I hate to bag my fellow developers, sadly, the ones who really champion open source do tend to display more of those traits than my other developer friends. Actually, a good mate of mine, who does a bunch of work with .Net and for the most part loves MS has got to be one of the best dressed folks I know. Also, he is fit as a fiddle, goes surfing almost daily and has a lovely wife.

I hate stereotypes, but really, the one you describe is somehow apt for my exposure to this world :)

Yes m'lord for pimple popping developers?

US Citizens restrictions on receving nobility

[gavron]

First, my congratulations on your honor. Assuming you're a US citizen, and assuming you're NOT an elected government official nor employed by the government, enjoy said honor! Ehud http://topics.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlei "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state."

Re:US Citizens restrictions on receving nobility

[mce]

For starters, he's a German national and hence the US Constitution is not relevant.

Next, he was not granted a title of nobility. He was given a medal that in other certain countries would rank equivalent to the knight level in a typical order of chivalry.

On top of that, being a member of an order of chivalry is not equivalent to being a member of the nobility. I should know, as I'm myself a knight in a Belgian order of chivalry. Just about any Belgian army officer (reserves included) who has been active for long enough is a knight in one or more such orders. That does not make them nobility.

If you consider unknown Belgian awards to be too obscure to be a reference, look at the famous "Knights Cross of the Iron Cross", so well known that it is often just referred to as "The Knights Cross". This award - in its various gradations - is very well known for being the most desirable award anyone in the WWII German armed forces could receive. But rest assured that winning one did not imply any title of nobility being granted by mr. H. who, in fact, despised the old German nobility. Besides, from a legal point of view nobility was abolished in Germany in 1919.

Re:Who is he?

[icebraining]

Especially since they forgot to mention is the founder (and president) of the FSF Europe.

Germany loves F/OSS

[Kenz0r]

This isn't the first time the German government shows respect to F/OSS:
Matthias Ettrich, founder of KDE was knighted late 2009.

Some German cities announced in 2003 that they'd be moving away from Microsoft, towards Linux. (source)
Munich is one city that I know of that has actively been moving their infrastructure towards F/OSS. (source)

(Disclaimer: I'm not German, I'm just going by what I read on the internet.)