If you live in Germany (or certain other German-speaking countries such as Austria and Switzerland) and have a website (or publish other printed media such as books, magazines, etc.), you must have an "Impressum."

The German Telemediengesetz was ratified in 2007 and states that all published media – whether online (i.e. a website) or printed (e.g. newspapers and magazines) – must include information identifying the owner and author of the information published. This information should be included in the "Impressum."

More about the Impressum here: Impressum → What is it and when do you need one

If you happen to run your website in English for international audiences, you might ask yourself how "Impressum" is correctly translated to English and if there actually is an English word for "Impressum". We have you covered. Just keep on reading.

Impressum is one of those words that seem to defy translation. There is indeed no exact equivalent in English – "imprint" and "masthead" being the most common mistranslation. However, understanding the difference between its usage in website versus print can make it easier to find a translation that comes close to the spirit of the meaning.

<aside> ⚠️ Important It doesn’t matter whether the website has a .de domain or .com domain and if the website is in German or not. If the website is published in Germany (read: by a company registered in Germany), it is classed as a German website and must include an Impressum.

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The German word "Impressum" comes from the Latin word "impressum", meaning "the impressed, engraved, pressed in, impression". So, what is the English equivalent of the term "Impressum"?

What is the English word for "Impressum"?

Unlike in Germany, website owners in the US or UK are not required to post information about who owns the website and their contact information. However, there is a comparable UK regulation for printed publications. According to the Printer's Imprint Act of 1961, "every printer must write their name and address on the first or last leaf of every paper or book they print, or face a penalty of up to £50 per copy." Please keep in mind that this only applies to printed publications and not to websites. This statute does not exist in the United States.

Because there is no legal necessity for an "Impressum" on most English websites, it can be difficult to discover the correct English translation for "Impressum."

Impressum? Imprint? Legal Notice? Legal Disclosure? A short Google search reveals that all of these terms are regularly used to translate "Impressum." However, two of them are inaccurate.

Here's a breakdown of the four distinct translations of "Impressum," why they're used in this situation, and which word you should use when translating your German Impressum website into English:

Impressum - Impressum in German, impressum in English? Well, that would be a great, straightforward answer, but it isn't correct. The word "Impressum" is Latin in origin and is not commonly used in English.
Imprint - "Impressum" is literally translated as "imprint," but the English word has a distinct meaning: "imprint" is most usually used in the sense of leaving a physical imprint on something. The phrase is also used in publishing (as mentioned above), but only in books and other printed media. On websites, the term "Imprint" is not used for the "Impressum."
We've finally arrived at the correct English translations of "Impressum": Legal Notice and Legal Disclosure(s). Both versions are possible and extensively used, but "Legal Notice" is likely to be more popular and, as a result, the preferred version. Further possibilities include Company Details or Company Information and Legal Notifications.

Conclusion

Now that we have precisely sorted out the correct English translation for the word Impressum, we have to ask ourselves one last question: why do we want to know so exactly how this word is translated when it basically doesn't matter in English-speaking countries?

Conclusively, we have to admit that this is more of a mind game task, but of course, the goal still is to avoid wrong translations.

So, how do we name the Impressum now if your company is based in Germany or in another country that requires an Impressum, but that is written in English?

We like to keep things simple and minimized and believe that is best to just stick to the German word – or to extend it slightly with the above-mentioned most common English terms: