I thought a Frau with a Dr. married to a Herr with a Dr. would just be Frau Dr.? Dr. Dr. has the very specific meaning of "has multiple doctoral degrees". I think my dad's technically Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. by German rules, probably something insane like Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Dr. phil. in Switzerland, but my mum (who's a doctor as well) only got the Prof. bit for free. so was Frau Prof. Dr. And now I have a headache from doctor-counting.
It depends how much you want to show off with it. Follow your instinct, address your needs. The "Swiss" don't care at all. And you don't have to care about them not caring either. In short: do as you please.
Even in Germany, where Dr. comes up more often in the conversation, it is ridiculous to put in on the mail box, even if one sees it sometimes. Business card is the better place to put the title and when addressing them in person.
Last time I heard a doctor's wife being called "Frau Doktor" was in 1976, after I moved to a little town in Heidiland. My wife stopped that medieval nonsense pretty quickly. Never heard it since then.
It depends on what kind of visitors you expect. Generally you of course can do without the Dr-title. But if you often have party-guests or guests out of "academic circles" the "Dr." or "Dr. phil." may be useful. An old friend of us has the same title. He does not have it on the letterbox and generally does not use it in his correspondence, BUT DOES use it in letters to newspapers and magazines and radio/TV-stations and political parties.
If you sit down in a Ticino- / Italia- ristorante and start reading an serious looking newspaper or magazine (particularily if you start making notes) you get addressed as Dottore and if you start reading a book, you get addressed as Professore
"Al-Assad visits Moscow's State Institute for Foreign Relations in Moscow on January 25, 2005, where he was awarded with a honorary doctorate." CNN
Just for completness, this is an additional way to earn a doctorate. I believe his wife has some more of those honorary doctorates. I'm not implying that a honorary doctorate makes anyone a criminal against humanity per se but well ...
Mind you, this is because of my culture back home but if someone write Dr. On his letterbox at home which is not his office, it is seen as very pretentious.
But again, my culture is not Swiss so I don't know how it is perceived here.
I like the great Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman's comment on this craze. He always refused honorary doctorates, saying that he thought it was phony, and asking why we should have honorary doctors when we do not have honorary plumbers.
Titling is a thing from the past, it should be scrapped together with all the "Sie", Herr, Frau...
there are people accomplishing amazing things everyday in the world and they are not rewarded with any titles, but I assume that they don't care 2 secs about any title...
I agree. Though my former president and disident Havel was a lit and phil genius, not allowed to study in his time so I forgive some scoring free doctorates, for life achievements if they work really hard, risk a lot, expect nothing and some universities decide to honor that, who are we to feel like it should be regulated..it's entirely biz of that particular institution.
The door titles are a thing done at home with PhDs too, it's different, 5 yr program. Im glad it's not expected here.