As if to prove my point, I have now in the last two days received two letter addressed to Mr ... (i.e. me). In both cases I had filled out a form online and in both cases I had put down Mrs ... but the first name Max just seems to override everything. What is the point of having a form which allows you to specify your gender if everyone ignores it anyway. GRRRRRRR!!!!!
On a more serious note, it is an interesting phenomenon that people always revert to the pattern they know best and the one that makes most sense in their world. Max is not a girl's name in Germany and therefore I must have made a mistake.
Eventually at some point they might get over this.