A German commonplace in engineering and quality discussion: the result is only as good as the route to it. The claim is not moral. It is that an outcome produced by an uncontrolled process cannot be relied on to recur.
At eye level
At eye level. The German phrase for a relationship between parties of equal standing, and the standard description of how a negotiation ought to be conducted. It is a physical claim about posture. Neither party is looking up or down.
Maintenance
Wartung. German equipment comes with a maintenance schedule, and service contracts covering it are normal for machinery, lifts, heating systems and vehicles. Reliability is not treated as a property of the object. It is treated as something maintained.
Coming to the matter
To come to the matter. The German for getting to the point, and the metaphor is different from the English one.
A point is a place in an argument. Die Sache is the thing under discussion. English asks you to be concise. German asks you to arrive at the substance.
The prescribed periods
Fristen. German procedure runs on prescribed periods — to respond, to object, to appeal — and they are counted in weeks. The clock is generous and it is strict. Nobody is asked to reply immediately, and nobody is permitted to reply late.
The land register
Das Grundbuch. The German land register records, for every parcel, the owner, the boundaries, the mortgages, the easements and the restrictions — maintained by the courts and legally authoritative. What is written there is what is true. The register is not evidence of the position. It is the position.
The vocabulary of the boundary
Dienst ist Dienst und Schnaps ist Schnaps — duty is duty and schnapps is schnapps. Two things, not to be mixed.
Nach Feierabend — after the working day, used as a time of day in its own right.
Urlaubsanspruch — holiday claim. Not an allowance or an entitlement in the soft sense. A claim, in the legal meaning, enforceable.
Abschalten — to switch off. What a German is expected to do at the end of the day, and the metaphor is electrical.
The path is the goal
Der Weg ist das Ziel — the path is the goal. A German commonplace, and in a working context it is meant literally rather than as consolation.
Es kommt darauf an, wie man’s macht — it depends on how one does it. Said about outcomes that look identical.
Pfusch — botched work. A German noun for work done by the wrong method, applicable even when the result holds.
Co-determination
Mitbestimmung. German law gives employees seats on the supervisory boards of large companies — half the seats in firms over two thousand employees. The structure assumes that an outcome reached without one side represented is not a legitimate outcome, and builds that into company law.
The rating plate
Das Typenschild. German products carry a rating plate: manufacturer, model, serial number, technical values, standards met. The object identifies itself, permanently, so that it can be traced back long after the paperwork is gone.