In original season, Träumend (season 2) and Ouvertüre (prequel OVA) each episode has a strange name such as Fräulein Rose (Season 1 Episode 1), Rozenkristall (Season 2 Episode 1) and Ewigkeit (OVA Episode 1). About the only ones I understand are from Season 2:
being the final battles to determine Alice
I am wondering what is the meaning behind these names?
Well, none of the names are truely strange, they are merely German ;) Going by the episode lists on AniDB which I remembered to be consistent with the titles I saw on-screen the titles and translations are:
Fräulein Rose — Miss Rose or Lady of the Rose; likely a reference to Shinku. Her appearance.
Kleine Beere — Small berry, Hina-ichigo’s translated name as far as I remember. Her appearance.
Mercury Lampe — This is nonsense in German. A mercury lamp (also Suigintou’s translated name) would be Quecksilberdampflampe. But that is long and doesn’t sound poetic, (as nothing containing Quecksilber does) so they probably decided to just translate lamp to Lampe. The reference is, of course, Suigintou’s appearance.
Jade Stern (should be Jadestern in proper German) — Jade star. Suiseiseki’s translated name and the episode in which she appears.
Die Treppe — The stairs. You remember that horrific filler episode, don’t you?
Tränen — Tears. Contrary to the earlier episodes I don’t quite know what this refers to.
Träume — Dreams. Because of the dream Shinku is in.
Lapislazuli Stern (should be Lapislazulistern in proper German) — Lapis lazuli star. Souseiseki’s translated name and the episode in which she appears.
Die Gefängnis — The prison. They got the article wrong, it should be das. I don’t know why none of the production crew could look the word up in a dictionary when they did so well with everything else (even umlauts). But whatever. The title of course references the prison the dolls and Jun are in in Souseiseki’s master’s dream.
Abschied — Farewell, preparing for Shinku’s departure into the N-field.
Schicksal — Fate. Because of all the fate that is involved.
Reiner Rubin — Pure ruby. Shinku’s translated name.
Because it is all about Shinku, repairing her and her intermediate win against Suigintou.
Rozen Maiden Träumend: (träumend is dreaming)
Rozenkristall (should be Rosenkristall) — Rose Crystal. As was said, this is Bara-Suishou and her appearance episode.
Enju — Erm, yeah, it’s a proper noun. We get to know him.
Kanarienvogel — Canary. This is the episode where we get to know the canary yellow doll Kanaria.
Vereinbarung — Contract.
Because Suiseiseki enters one with Jun.
Der Brief — The letter, because both Hina-Ichigo and Suiseiseki copy Souseiseki in writing letters of thanks and the episode centres around this.
Engel — Angel. This is the episode where Suigintou meets Megu.
Teegesellschaft — Tea company (could be both the people around you and the firm — like in English). Kanaria manages to ‘persuade’ the other dolls to join her master for a tea party.
Puppenmacher — Doll maker. This is where Jun starts visiting Enju to watch how dolls are made.
Der Tadel — The reproach.
There’s quite a lot of criticism going on from one side to another — it’s practically the first Alice game episode. I’ll let you choose who is being reproached.
Tomoe — well, okay ;).
The one where Hina-Ichigo gets to be with Tomoe one last time.
Rosengarten — Rose garden.
A reference to the dolls’ fighting grounds.
Alice — yeah, you got that.
Rozen Maiden Ouvertüre: (Ouvertüre is overture)
Ewigkeit — Eternity. I don’t quite know why this name was chosen, but maybe just because it sounds cool.
Eitelkeit — Vanity. Possibly because this episode shows us the source of Suigintou’s pride in herself.
I have not seen the OVA and do not have acess to any of the episodes. So I can't really help connect the meaning of the titles to theyr episodes.
Those names are in german, and perhaps not very good german.
Fräulein Rose being composed of Fräulein, which is an outdated word for a young or unmarried woman (Wikitionary says the word in now avoided and considered disrespectful and sexist) and the word Rose, which does means rose, meaning something like "Young Lady Rose" or "Young lady of the Rose". Probably meaning Shinku.
Rozenkristall is a result of the word Rose being turned into an adjective for kristall, which means "crystal". The word would mean "Crystal Rose". Which is the meaning of "Barasuishou".
Ewigkeit means Eternity.
Träumend means Dreaming.
Ouvertüre is Overture, no secrets, as the OVAs are a prequel.
I suggest using google translator for any other german title you find in the series, as it seems to be the theme used by the producers.
