Im also German and its usually older people that address young girls/women as "Frulein". Happened to me already too and it didnt bother me at all.
If a younger person would address an older woman as Frulein it would be somewhat inapproriate and a polite native German speaker wouldnt do that but as a non native speaker it will certainly be forgiven.
In real life the female clerk would have taken him down a peg or two, and sued him for sexual harassment after having slapped him silly.
Im having a hard time believing that youre actually a German speaker or have any idea about the German speaking world. What you wrote is Bull****!

Sorry, but it is utter BS to say that the word is "verboten" in German - how on earth did you come up with that?? The fact is that it is no longer used very much, or rather it is not used at all by anyone over the age of 50 or so, I'd say. It just has an old-fashioned ring to it. For me, one of the issues has always been the fact that there is no belittling male equivalent in German - that always irked me. Plus, when applied to older women, it pretty much meant "old spinster" - because you would use it for a woman who is not married, and nowadays we just feel that that is nobody's business. Which is also why Ms was introduced into the English language, so that there wouldn't be that awkwardness of not knowing whether to address a woman as Miss or Mrs.
I'm a German native speaker, by the way.

Fascinating thread. No, really!
I wonder what other foreign words we non-foreigners use incorrectly. I'd love to hear some out of date "Americanisms" in non-American films, for example. I get a kick out of trying to figure out which actors are "Brits using an American accent". I'm not expert at it but it's fun to try.
We are on episode 2 of the series, and enjoying it a lot.

What is the big deal? This is a complete work of fiction is it not? They can use whatever words, terminologies, etc that they want to. Of course they should keep it as real as possible by adhering to commonly used words, but this isn't a German film, its an English film. I would call this an extremely minor goof, and maybe even an intentional goof if the script writer just liked the word Fraulein.

Pyne most have learnt German in Namibia (or from a Namibian teacher)
. There they still today still speak quite old fashioned German and are extremely proud of the fact that their style of language is completely void of modern German slang.

No mention in all these replies that the French have also done away with Mademoiselle, all women over the age of 18 being addressed as Madam. Britain is also moving this way, an airline ticket I bought recently explained that all female passengers would be addressed as Mrs regardless of status!

Actually it has nothing to do with the writers or the language of the film. Pine
himself
is an Englishman. Germans may not use the word "Frulein" that much anymore but English and Americans (there was never any PC movement in American German) still do. So an English character using a German word that is still commonly used in England is perfectly appropriate and expected.

.
This is an English-language adaptation of an English-language book published in 1993. No matter what the current perceived "rules" are for the German language in Germany or in Switzerland, and no matter when this part of this miniseries is supposed to be taking place, the screenplay is written for an English-speaking audience, who are unaware that Frulein may no longer be PC and who are very aware that Frau means Mrs. whereas Frulein means Miss. Therefore unless the female hotel employee is married or widowed, it's no surprise in an English-language adaptation that she is called "Frulein".
.

In the Zermatt hotel Pine keeps addressing the female hotel clerk as Frulein. In the 1990s the German language authorities got rid of that assignation.
You mean I can no longer have an assignation with a Frulein? Darn. [Scratches German-speaking world off list of possible vacation destinations.]

This message has been deleted.

You would be completely right about Germany where nobody uses it anymore
but in Switzerland in a very conservative and expensive Hotel it does not seem that much out of place.
Swiss people say many things differently. Im a native speaker from Germany btw.
the term signorina, but it hasn't the "little/lesser" meaning of Frulein.
Thats exactly what it means.

Yep, right on.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3692184/Cologne-New-Year-s-Eve-attack-victim-pregnant-raped.html

Yes, PC can certainly make some people VERY goofy. For example; the OP - clearly a white knight sjw mangina - is obviously very "triggered" by the abusive and demeaning term Frulein when used by the oppressive cis white patriarchal male Jonathan Pine (who happens to be a fictional character, although he is written by a real life oppressive cis white patriarchal male John Le Carr who should obviously be slapped in the face and arrested for sexual assault, right?). Yes, THAT incident is worthy of a mention as an example of how women are not treated as equals and the fact that use of the term has been discontinued is a HUGE victory in the struggle for equality.
Meanwhile, the torture, rape and murder of Sophia and the torture and rape of Jed, well. Nary a peep. But what do you expect? OP is probably one of the same clear headed, logically thinking, rationally minded people who thought letting millions of north african males (i.e. the REAL "rape culture" that OP probably screams about in his many blogs and youtube videos) into Germany, to abuse and rape German women - and then blame it on the women who are obviously provoking their attackers - OP probably thought this was a good idea. Oh, but wait! I bet at least some of those rapists were using the term Frulein while attacking a woman. GO GET 'EM, OP!
"If you're waiting for a woman to make up her mind, you may have a long wait." Preacher

Political correctness makes some people goofycouldn't the person who used FRAULEIN, especially if it wasn't their first language, simply be told politely that that word is verbotten in the new Germany

Finally someone with a bit of sense. I, too, am German, although I've lived abroad for the last 30 years. Until I saw this thread I would never have considered "Frulein" to be rude in any way, and actually I still don't. I looked it up in the "Duden" and although it states that the word has fallen out of fashion and "Frau" should be used, nowhere does it say that "Frulein" is forbidden to be used.

I live in Vienna, am a native German speaker and I have never ever (!) got the impression, that calling a young unmarried woman "Frulein" would be rude in ANY way. In Vienna I hear it quite often (mostly for teenage girls, not adult women) in a very charming way, like a waiter asking the "Young" "Frulein" what she would like to order. Yes, it is not used a lot anymore but I can't think of any of my female friends who would take it as an insult. Never even crossed my mind. Reading all these comments I was "what the beep are they talking about" the whole time.

Italians for example still use the term signorina, but it hasn't the "little/lesser" meaning of Frulein.
The ending -ina implies a diminutive (Signora: lady, Signorina: little lady), so yes it does. Same as the Spanish seora/seorita and French madame/mademoiselle. I don't know why it's such an issue with German, but maybe the gender assignation (frulein being neuter or "it") might be part of why it's seen as particularly demeaning in that language. In the romance languages there's no such thing as neutral gender nouns, so signorina, seorita, and mademoiselle are all feminine gender nouns.

I'd say it would translate/compare to calling an adult man "little man".
A hotelier or "night manager" of cause wouldn't use "Frulein".
It's not a bad or mean word by intent, it just has no place where equal rights are supposed to be in effect.
Italians for example still use the term signorina, but it hasn't the "little/lesser" meaning of Frulein.

Why do women wish to hide their marital status?

In my old German math book (section on conics) there were two consecutive problems. One referred to "ein Mdchen (kleine Made)" and the other to "ein Mdchen (keine Made)". The joke being that Mdchen even though it normally means "girl" can also be grammatically correct diminutive of "Made" or a maggot. So the problems clarified if it was a "small maggot" or "not a maggot", the difference between the two only being the letter "l".

Frulein, especially since it is grammatically bound to a neutral voice (it) is a tat disrespectful and condescending.
The same can be said of the word "Mdchen" but it is still used, is it not? I once had a German teacher who said she had tried using "die Junge" for "girl" but all that did was confuse people.

Ever since we lost visual signals for the marital status of a person (like our Middle European version of the hijab, the Kopftuch or certain other parts of our clothes that indicate social status like apron colour, hairdo etc) we women tend to prefer a neutral address, which would be Frau. Frulein, especially since it is grammatically bound to a neutral voice (it) is a tat disrespectful and condescending.
Or in other words: there are no visible signs nowadays to discern if a person of either sex is married or in a legal (same sex or different sex) partnership or living unmarried with another person, seeing someone on a loose or regular base or even interested in partnership in either way. So how would you like to discern if this "young woman" in front of you is married (defined by her association with a man) or unmarried and therefore deemed to be titled as Frulein? And how old does a woman have to be to loose the appellation "young woman"? Under twenty? Over? Over thirty? And how do you know how old she is? Do you ask? Or just assume?
You see, the definition of Frulein is based in a rather strict social system which a) deemed women to be less than man (there is no male equivalent for Frulein) and b) which does not exist any longer. We are quite enlightened, thank you very much, and don't need this kind of address any longer. It is obsolete.
Which, by the way, happened over time, by itself, through people and not an institution.

Languages change but unlike France there is no normative language institution in Germany. The Duden Gesellschaft is purely descriptive. Working on an empirical base of how often a new word was used by certain (different) sources (like newspaper articles, mentions on radio and TV and lately social media as well). If this new word hits the mark it gets included in the next Duden. (This is the shortened version of the process actually it is a bit more complex.)
I agree that Frulein is rather obsolete, though I would never bite someons head off for it. Though someone as correct and "British" as Pine would never make this mistake. He would correctly use Frau.

Languages change for whatever reason over time. Even English. Frulein is just not acceptable anymore. If they ever invent a comparable word for Ms. then they'll probably switch to that if people get used to it. It's just the way it is.
In Germany, as in many other countries, for example France, there are official language authorities.