Accountability Archives - understand-culture

Words for Whose Job It Is

Dafür bin ich nicht zuständig — I am not responsible for that. It is the standard sentence for saying that a matter belongs to someone else.

Es fühlte sich niemand zuständig — nobody felt responsible. Duden gives this as an example sentence for the word.

Das ist nicht mein Bier — that is not my beer. In everyday speech it means “that is not my business.”

Das fällt in mein Ressort — that falls into my department. Duden defines a Ressort as a firmly outlined area of tasks and responsibility.

Kompetenzgerangel and Zuständigkeitsgerangel — wrangling over competence, wrangling over responsibility. Duden marks Kompetenzgerangel as colloquial and disapproving.

Zuständigkeitshalber — for reasons of responsibility. The word belongs to the German of official letters.

In Swabia, the shared areas of an apartment building are cleaned in turn. This is the Kehrwoche, the sweeping week. Some buildings still have a sign with the word Kehrwoche in bold print. It hangs on the door of the tenant whose turn it is. The custom was once also backed by decrees. In 1492, Duke Eberhard ordered for Stuttgart: Damit die Stadt rein erhalten wird, soll jeder seinen Mist alle Wochen hinausführen. So that the town is kept clean, everyone shall carry out his dung every week. Stuttgart abolished the duty to sweep every week on December 17, 1988. Since then, sidewalks only have to be cleaned when they are dirty.

Snow on the Sidewalk

In German towns, the sidewalk in front of a house becomes the owner’s responsibility in winter. The towns pass the duty to keep it safe to the owners by local statute. Owners must clear the snow and spread grit, typically from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Saturday. An owner can pass the duty on to the tenants, but only with a clear clause in the lease. A notice in the stairwell is not enough. If someone falls on a sidewalk that was not cleared, the person who had the duty pays damages and compensation for pain and suffering.

Each Minister’s Own Portfolio

Article 65 of the Basic Law lets the Chancellor set the guidelines of policy. Then it says: Innerhalb dieser Richtlinien leitet jeder Bundesminister seinen Geschäftsbereich selbständig und unter eigener Verantwortung. Within these guidelines, each federal minister runs his portfolio independently and on his own responsibility. German government calls this the Ressortprinzip, the portfolio principle. When two ministers disagree, the federal government as a whole decides. The principle goes back to the Prussian reforms. They abolished the old cabinet system and created a state ministry nach dem Ressortprinzip klar gegliedert, clearly organized by portfolio. The ministers for the interior, foreign affairs, finance, justice and war each answered to the king.

Applications Sent to the Wrong Office

German social law has a rule for the citizen who asks the wrong office. Under § 16 of the First Book of the Social Code, an application filed with an authority that is not responsible, an unzuständig authority, must be passed on to the responsible one unverzüglich, without delay. Since April 2011, the public service number 115 has answered questions about dealings with the authorities. Its promise is that it does not matter welche Behörde, Verwaltungsebene oder Zuständigkeit betroffen ist, which authority, level of government or area of responsibility is involved.

Schools Belong to the States

Language, schools, universities, education, radio, television and the arts are the business of the German states. This is the Kulturhoheit der Länder, the cultural sovereignty of the states. It means that the states have the primary responsibility for legislation and administration in culture. The rule follows from the Basic Law. Wherever the Basic Law does not expressly give a field to the federation, the states are responsible.

Classroom Duties

In German schools, pupils take on named classroom duties, the Klassendienste or Klassenämter. The Tafeldienst makes sure the board is clean before each new lesson. The Ordnungsdienst keeps the room tidy. The duties pass from pupil to pupil in turn. A secondary school in Bremen explains its list this way: Zudem schult die Aufgabe, Verantwortung zuverlässig und sorgfältig wahrnehmen zu können. The task also trains the children to carry responsibility reliably and carefully.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Goethe wrote Der Zauberlehrling in early July 1797. It appeared in Schiller’s Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1798. While the old master is away, his apprentice brings a broom to life with a spell he cannot control. He cries: Die ich rief, die Geister, / Werd’ ich nun nicht los. The spirits I called, I now cannot get rid of. The line became a proverb. Then the master returns and stops it with one command: In die Ecke, Besen! Besen! Into the corner, broom! Broom!

The poem ends with the master’s words. As spirits, only the old master calls them up, for his own purpose: Denn als Geister / Ruft euch nur, zu seinem Zwecke, / Erst hervor der alte Meister.

The Helmsman Who Stayed at the Wheel

Theodor Fontane’s ballad John Maynard first appeared in 1886. A ship is on fire, and the helmsman stays at the wheel in the smoke until the ship reaches the shore. Again and again the captain calls: Noch da, John Maynard? Still there, John Maynard? The answer comes: Ja, Herr. Ich bin. Yes, sir. I am. Later it is: Ja, Herr, ich halt’s! Yes, sir, I am holding it! The refrain says what follows: er hat uns gerettet, er trägt die Kron’, / er starb für uns, unsre Liebe sein Lohn. He saved us, he wears the crown. He died for us, our love is his reward. The ballad is still part of the German curriculum in many schools.

The Dike Master

Theodor Storm’s novella Der Schimmelreiter first appeared in April 1888. Hauke Haien becomes the Deichgraf, the official responsible for the dikes. The old dike is damaged. Ole Peters plays the danger down and the workers grumble. So Hauke does not carry out a full repair. With great pangs of conscience, he settles for patchwork. Later the dike breaks at exactly that spot. Hauke plunges with his horse into the raging water and cries: Herr Gott, nimm mich; verschon die andern! Lord God, take me, spare the others!