Etwas auf seine eigene Kappe nehmen — to take something onto one’s own cap. It means to accept responsibility or liability for it.
Das geht auf meine Kappe — that goes on my cap. The everyday way to say that a mistake was yours.
Den Kopf hinhalten — to hold out one’s head. To take the blame, often for something others did.
Klappern gehört zum Handwerk — rattling is part of the trade. Germans use the proverb to say that a business has to make some noise about its work. It is usually said with a slight apology, by someone who is about to advertise himself.
In 1974, Günter Guillaume, one of Chancellor Willy Brandt’s closest aides, was exposed as a spy for East Germany. He had stayed close to the chancellor for more than a year while he was already under suspicion. On 5 May 1974, Brandt told the leaders of his party that he would resign. With his resignation he took responsibility for negligence inside the federal government.
On 27 June 1993, a police operation at the railway station of Bad Kleinen went wrong. A GSG 9 officer and a terrorist of the Red Army Faction died. Federal Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters took political responsibility and resigned on 4 July 1993.
On the night of 20 February 2010, Margot Käßmann drove through a red light in Hanover with a blood alcohol level of 1.54 per mille. She was bishop of Hanover and chair of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany. The council unanimously expressed its confidence in her. Four days later she resigned from both offices. Am vergangenen Samstag habe ich einen schweren Fehler gemacht, den ich zutiefst bereue. Last Saturday I made a serious mistake, which I deeply regret. She said that she could not stay in office with the authority it needs.
On 8 May 1985, forty years after the end of the war in Europe, Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker spoke at a commemoration in the plenary hall of the Bundestag in Bonn. Schuld oder Unschuld eines ganzen Volkes gibt es nicht. Schuld ist, wie Unschuld, nicht kollektiv, sondern persönlich. There is no guilt or innocence of a whole people. Guilt, like innocence, is not collective but personal. He added that the younger generations cannot confess a guilt of their own for acts they did not commit.
Oliver Kahn was named the best player of the 2002 World Cup. He was the first goalkeeper ever to receive the Golden Ball. In the final against Brazil, he pushed a shot from Rivaldo straight to the feet of Ronaldo, who scored the first goal. Kahn later told the magazine kicker: Ich muss mit meinem Fehler leben. I have to live with my mistake.
Elf Freunde müsst ihr sein, wenn ihr Siege wollt erringen. You must be eleven friends if you want to win. The line was engraved on the base of the Victoria, the trophy of the German football championship. The trophy was awarded from 1903 to 1944.
In Die Schuldfrage, The Question of Guilt, published in 1946, the philosopher Karl Jaspers separated four kinds of guilt: criminal, political, moral and metaphysical. He rejected the idea of a collective guilt of the German people. Verbrecher ist immer nur der einzelne. Only the individual is ever a criminal.
German criminal law rests on the principle keine Strafe ohne Schuld, no punishment without guilt. Section 46 of the Criminal Code begins: Die Schuld des Täters ist Grundlage für die Zumessung der Strafe. The guilt of the offender is the basis for setting the sentence. A sentence is therefore measured against what this one person is to blame for, and not only against the harm that was done.