CIRSmedical.de calls itself the reporting and learning system of the German medical profession. People who work in health care can report mistakes, near misses and critical incidents there, so that others can learn from them. The site promises that reporting is anonym und sicher, anonymous and safe.
The Duty to Disclose a Treatment Error
Since 26 February 2013, § 630c of the German Civil Code has required a doctor who sees signs of a treatment error to inform the patient. The duty applies when the patient asks, or when it is needed to protect the patient’s health. The next sentence protects the doctor. If the error was made by the doctor or a close relative, the disclosure may be used as evidence in criminal or administrative-fine proceedings only with the doctor’s consent.
Accident Investigation Without Blame
The German law on air accident investigation, the Flugunfall-Untersuchungs-Gesetz, says what an investigation is for. Section 3 says that it looks for the causes of an accident so that future accidents can be prevented. The same section then says what it is not for: Die Untersuchungen dienen nicht der Feststellung des Verschuldens, der Haftung oder von Ansprüchen. The investigations do not serve to establish fault, liability or claims.
A Faster Fresh Start After Insolvency
For insolvency cases filed from 1 October 2020, Germany cut the time to discharge the remaining debts from six years to three. A person whose business or finances failed is free of the old debts sooner. The federal justice ministry described the goal as ein schnellerer Neuanfang, a faster new start.
The Press Must Correct Itself
Section 3 of the German Press Code says that a publication must correct a report that later proves false. It must do so unverzüglich von sich aus, without delay and on its own initiative. The guideline adds that readers must be able to see that the earlier report was wrong.
Error Culture in the Army
The Bundeswehr’s central regulation on leadership, Innere Führung, tells superiors that they lose nothing by asking their soldiers for advice and, where necessary, admitting mistakes. In 2021 the Bundeswehr’s own journal on leadership gave an issue to Fehlerkultur. One article names Risikovermeidung/-scheu, the avoidance of risk, as a main obstacle. It says soldiers may hesitate when they suspect a risk to their careers, and that decades of savings demanded by politicians encouraged eine risikoscheue Kultur, a culture that avoids risk.
Volkswagen and the Chain of Errors
On 18 September 2015 it became public that Volkswagen had used illegal software in its engine control to cheat emissions tests. On 9 October a Börsen-Zeitung editorial wrote that at VW the fear of failing and being dressed down by a superior, vom Vorgesetzten abgekanzelt zu werden, had apparently been much stronger than the sense of wrongdoing. In December the chairman of the supervisory board, Hans Dieter Pötsch, said at a press conference in Wolfsburg that it had been “a chain of errors that were allowed to happen”. He added: “There was a mindset in some areas of the company that tolerated breaches of rules.” The chief executive, Matthias Müller, named the goal: to discuss more openly and to allow mistakes, Fehler zuzulassen.
Mistakes as Helpers in School
In 2003 a report on research by educators in Tübingen and Fribourg said of German schools: Noch immer stehen hier Fehler für Misserfolg, Versagen und Strafe. Here mistakes still stand for failure and punishment. Teacher training material at TU Dresden now describes mistakes as Helfer und Schätze, helpers and treasures. It says a good error culture does not ask who made the mistake. A blog for teachers run by a school-supplies company points out that the letters of Fehler, mistake, can be rearranged to spell Helfer, helper.
Failure on Stage
At a Fuckup Night, founders tell an audience how their businesses failed. The idea came from Mexico, and by 2017 it had spread to more than 250 cities in 80 countries. Its stated aim is to remove the stigma of failure. The first Fuckup Night in Munich took place on 5 July 2018. Its organizer, Josef Willkommer, named what the evening works against: diese Versagenskultur, diese Kultur des Scheiterns, this culture of failing.