Quite a few summers ago, I picked up this little Kontor sign at a flea market and attached it to the office door.
The meaning of it gets questioned by old and young, by Germans and foreigners alike. Kontor is the old German word for office.
From Wikipedia: A kontor was a foreign trading post of the Hanseatic League. In addition to the major kontore in London, Ipswich, Bruges, Bergen, and Novgorod, some ports had a representative merchant and a warehouse. …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kontor
* Niederlassung eines Handelsunternehmens im Ausland
* Büro
* Geschäftsraum, Handelshaus
The word Kontor is derived from the Latin verb computare (to calculate).