What does “Ausweis” mean in German?

Ausweis is your ID — any document that proves who you are. It comes from sich ausweisen, “to identify oneself,” built on weisen (“to show, point”): an Ausweis is literally the thing that shows who you are. One root covers every kind — the Personalausweis is the national ID card German adults are required to have, and the more specialised versions just swap out the front half.

Change the first part and you name the ID: Presseausweis (press pass — the clip’s word), Studentenausweis (student card), Dienstausweis (work or service ID). The same weisen root runs through Beweis (“proof”) and Hinweis (“hint”), all built on the idea of showing or pointing something out — which is exactly what a press pass is meant to do.