Germany, Persuasion, Presenter - understand-culture

Facts at the Center

The Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Hannover published an interview with the intercultural trainer Nancy Rienow on presenting to audiences in the United States. The article opens: In Deutschland präsentiert man gerne fakten-zentriert. In Germany people like to present with the facts at the center. A presentation is built on figures, data and studies. Rienow adds that the presentation style of German business people is very serious.

She notes one more habit. Bei deutschen Präsentationen wird sehr gerne auf die lange Tradition des Unternehmens verwiesen. German presentations very often refer to the company’s long tradition.

Behind the Newspaper

Dahinter steckt immer ein kluger Kopf. There is always a clever head behind it. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has used this advertising slogan since 1961. Since 1995 its campaign has shown well-known people photographed behind the open newspaper. In 2010 one of them was Joachim Gauck.

The paper itself has had no editor-in-chief from the start. A board of publishers sets its line. In 2009 the board had five members. When the paper turned 60 that year, one of the publishers, Berthold Kohler, said it would celebrate quietly. Uns selbst zu feiern ist noch nie so recht unsere Art gewesen. Celebrating ourselves has never really been our way.

The Author Who Is Not There

Patrick Süskind’s novel Das Parfum, Perfume, has sold millions of copies and has been translated into 45 languages. Its author turns down public appearances, interviews and even some prizes. After his essay Über Liebe und Tod, On Love and Death, appeared in 2006, he withdrew from public life completely.

When he turned 70 in 2019, his publisher stated: Er ist kein Phantom. Es gibt ihn wirklich. He is not a phantom. He really exists. In 2012 a newspaper printed a photograph of him that showed only his left eye and ear.

The Hidden Orchestra

In the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, the audience cannot see the orchestra. The pit is covered. It is called the mystischer Abgrund, the mystic abyss. Among opera houses, the hidden pit is unique to Bayreuth. The festival was first held in 1876.

The festival’s own magazine explains why. Richard Wagner wanted the Mühe der Tonerzeugung, the effort of producing the sound, to remain invisible. The musicians were not to be seen by the audience, and no light from the pit was to reach the auditorium. The listener should fall under the spell of the music ohne jegliche Ablenkung, without any distraction.

The Robe

German judges wear a robe in court, the Amtstracht. In 2015 the Bavarian justice system published a press release of the local court in Augsburg about a lawyer who had appeared without one. The robe, it said, marks judges and lawyers as independent organs of the administration of justice. Denn die Person tritt hinter dem Dienst an Gesetz und Recht zurück. For the person steps back behind the service to law and justice.

On 18 February 1970 the Federal Constitutional Court upheld the duty of lawyers to wear the robe. The court said that the robe contributes to jener Atmosphäre der Ausgeglichenheit und Objektivität, that atmosphere of balance and objectivity. This, it said, is of at least indirect use in finding the truth and the law in a trial.

Good Design Is Unobtrusive

Gutes Design ist unaufdringlich. Good design is unobtrusive. This is the fifth of the ten principles of good design by Dieter Rams, who led the design team at Braun for more than 30 years.

The explanation reads: Produkte, die einen Zweck erfüllen, sind wie Werkzeuge. Products that serve a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be neutral and restrained, um Raum für die Selbstdarstellung des Nutzers zu lassen, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.

Stand-Ins for the Band

In May 1978 the German band Kraftwerk released the album Die Mensch-Maschine, The Man-Machine. The band members had life-size mannequins of themselves made by Obermaier, a mannequin maker in Munich. Each one cost 4,000 marks.

The dummies were on show at the album’s launch in Paris, at a nightclub on the 56th floor of the Montparnasse Tower. In later concerts, robots made to look like the musicians at times replaced them on stage.

Judged by Number, Not by Name

In a German public architecture competition run under the federal Guideline for Planning Competitions of 2013, the jury does not know whose design it is judging. Under the guideline, each participant marks every part of the entry only with a Kennzahl, a code number. The entries stay anonymous until the jury has decided. The jury assesses the shortlisted designs in writing, and the decision is recorded in minutes. Afterwards all entries are exhibited in public with the authors’ names, together with the minutes.

Serving the Matter

On 7 November 1917 Max Weber gave his lecture Wissenschaft als Beruf, science as a vocation, to students in a Munich bookshop. In it he said: „Persönlichkeit“ auf wissenschaftlichem Gebiet hat nur der, der rein der Sache dient. In the field of science, only the person who serves the matter purely has personality.

Faust to Wagner

In the scene Nacht in Goethe’s Faust I, published in 1808, Faust’s assistant Wagner says: Allein der Vortrag macht des Redners Glück, delivery alone makes the speaker’s fortune. Faust answers: Es trägt Verstand und rechter Sinn / Mit wenig Kunst sich selber vor! / Und wenn’s euch Ernst ist, was zu sagen, / Ist’s nötig, Worten nachzujagen? Understanding and true sense present themselves with little art. And if you are serious about having something to say, do you need to chase after words?