That's how I start my mails to our IT dept. My solution when addressing to a group of people that uses one mail address, like "Liebes IT-Team".Letter that is dropped in every mailbox in the street and dumped before reaching the main door. It is something I would expect from an advertising ComFreek's suggestion of using "Sehr geehrter Empfänger" sounds quite.That is a rather formal sounding phrase that could be translated as: Dear Sir or Madam! Please note and act/reply accordingly where required. Mit der Bitte um Kenntnisnahme und gegebenenfalls Bearbeitung/Antwort. So giving them a chance to drop out at the first line might lower your chances of getting a useful reply. I am also not quite sure whether you are looking for an opening for a note on which you do not necessarily expect any feedback or for a letter/mail on which certain people in the group of recipients are expected to react.įor the first case, I wouldn't bother too much and just an appropriate opening, like "Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren" "Hallo zusammen".įor the second case, be aware that today many people do not read their mail carefully anyway. I also agree that most of the proposed translations sound either odd or rather impolite. Use the friendly and respectful phrase »sehr geehrte Damen und Herren« instead.ītw: I also think that the English phrase is impolite for the same reasons (my personal opinion).Īs many others already wrote there is no direct translation. So, although »wen auch immer es betrifft« is the best matching German translation of »to whom it may concern«, but you never should use it. This is very unfriendly, not to say aggressive. This is, as if the person you want to talk to stands directly in front of you, but you look over her or him and shout to the crowd that surrounds you. anybody else but the person you really want to talk to. The word »wen« is in accusative case, and it addresses a third person, i. This is like spreading a red carpet in front of him or her.īut in »wen auch immer es betrifft« you do not address the person you want to talk to. It is very polite and friendly to start a conversation by addressing the other person directly using a vocative. And you use it to honor the recipient of the message. You can't use a vocative for anything else. This case/feature is used for the only purpose to directly address the recipient of your message. In »sehr geehrte Damen und Herren« you use a grammatical feature, that is very old and can be found in other languages (like Latin for example) as distinct grammatical case, but in German it is just a stylistic feature: The vocative.
The problem is, that this phrase is extremely impolite. But there is a problem with the correct German translation of »to whom it may concern« which is: So, »to whom it may concern« seems not to match with »Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren«.