Apparently it translates to:
Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff who, of old were conscientious shepherds whose sheep were well tended and carefully protected from attack by rapacious enemies, who, of old twelve thousand years ago, to them appeared, when the first earth human from the spaceship, using light as origin of power, that started its long journey between the starry space, searching for those stars that have habitable planet circles and in which the new race of sensible humanity could procreate and enjoy a lifelong joy and peace with not a fear for attack by other intelligent creatures from starry space
As for the authenticity, I have really no way of knowing, but he was apparently in several editions of the Guiness Book of Records, including with a picture in the 1980 edition. According to the internet!
As for real world truth and Perlmonks--it's just an amusing anecdote.
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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Bit odd someone called wolf looking after sheep don't you think.
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Hmm this translation looks far better than the German version ...
I think you successfully backengineered the intention of the joker who created this myth. 8)
Seems like someone stuffed a paragraph of some sci-fi into bablefish and erased the whitespaces and you got the original back. Believe me the translation is senseless crap and certainly no family name (and it's supposed to be German, not Afrikaans, Danish or even Yiddish)!
If an American official really supplied such a passport he was either joking or drunk...
And if the Book of Records really printed it ... ehm ... well maybe that's why they named it Guinness... ;-)
UPDATE: Wow there is not only a WP-Page it's even translated into 5 languages with plenty of Germans complaining in the discussion-page =).
Wouldn't be surprised if he's going to win a nobelprize next week and becomes governor of California shortly after...
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Did you find these references on the scanned pages of a books published in 1954 and 1957 respectively?
There are also a bunch of links (at the bottom of the WP page), that (apparently) link to the scanned pages of newspapers around the same time. They don't work for me, but maybe you need to sign up to view them.
If it was a hoax, it was a damned elaborate one that way pre-dated the internet.
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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