Talk:Friedrich Zander

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The are no direct evidences that the patronymic Arturovich (or perhaps Arthurovich) was part of his original (German) name. But most Russian sources say he was a Soviet pioneer of rocket science. I am not an expert about German people living in pre-Soviet, Soviet or modern Russian times, but I guess his name was spelled during his life with patronymic. Another questions is - was he really from an ethnically German family? If this is true, then all Russian sources should say so. But I couln't find any relevant statement. I've just added his patronymic according to Russian sources. I know for some Germans who lived inside Russia and they have used patronymics too, so I can't see why Zander did not. Best regards. --XJamRastafire 12:04, 2 Feb 2004 (UTC)

A couple of on-line references to Zander's German ethnicity: European Journal of Physics, Latvian Institute.

Note that this also explains the transliteration issues: the initial "Z" in German is pronounced like a "ts", which is why the name was transliterated "Ц" in Russian. When the English-speaking world first learned about him, they didn't know of his German heritage, so transliterated the "Ц" as "Ts", as usual.

When he was using his name in Russian, I'm sure that he used a patronymic as well, which is why I agree it should be left in the Russian version of his name, but I don't think it belongs in the German version. Probably only his baptism certificate could really prove this one way or the other!

I'm sure we both know reasons why Soviet sources (and maybe Russian ones now) keep quiet about Zander's ethnicity! I'm sure that during his life he probably kept pretty quiet about it too... --Rlandmann 10:12, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Is there any evidence that Tsander ever spelling his name in German fashion? He was born in Latvia, and was probably of mixed ethnicity. It is odd to change the spelling based on some notion of German race. 66.235.17.97 05:22, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

This is wrong. Just because someone is an "ethnic German" doesn't mean you can change the spelling of their name. My Grandmother's name was Crouse, but we don't change it to Kraus because she was descended from Germans. So, I'm going to change it and see how that flies.

[edit] Germanizing names

Why is Tsander's name transformed into a German spelling? It's particularly incorrect to change the spelling of his middle name, which is a Russian-style patronymic. And if his grandfather was named Konstantin, it is not clear he was even purely ethnic German. Do we even know if his family spoke German or spelled their name in that fashion?

This was inappropriate and non traditional. The German and Latvian spellings could be mentioned at the beginning, but it is very peculiar to spell his name "Zander". DonPMitchell 02:56, 13 February 2006 (UTC)