Who put the Doctor in German wine?

Some might find the following link interesting (just scroll down);

http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/5179

Salute

It seems that Central Europe, including Italy, is the heartland for addressing people with titles coming from their educational/professional qualification. Indeed I think that it goes further in Italy than in Germany or Austria; a person seems to belong to quite an uneducated species if he/she cannot add Dottore, Professore, Avocato, Ingeniere, etc. in front of his/her name, a difference with Germany being that in Italy not all such titles used have been earned.

Steve Slatcher

Over here I'd say "Dr" is common in any context where your research credentials are important - not just academia, but also in commercial research organisations. In my first couple of jobs, to address a PhD holder as "Mr" would have not been really disrespectful, but just wrong. Of course, first names were OK in less formal contexts, but If you used a title you needed to get it right!

Re the UK, I am perhaps behind the times but, whilst I accept that in a professional context people address a PhD holder as "Dr", I would have thought that it would be unnecessary, even OTT, to use "Dr" as a form of address for a PhD holder in any other situations, except when dealing with a medical doctor.

Here in Belgium, some of the more pompous members of the legal profession as well as visiting Portuguese riding masters like to be addressed as "Maître".

And we are forgetting the most revered of all titles in the French speaking world: "Patron"

Best
Rogov

More likely I am behind the times Tim - but I was not talking about professional contexts in general - just commercial research organisations/companies.