Naming the Problem Archives - understand-culture

Words for saying it plainly

Klartext reden — to speak plain text. Klartext is also a message that is not encrypted, so that anyone can read it.

Tacheles reden — to talk tachles, a word that came into German from Yiddish. Duden defines it as saying your opinion openly, without false consideration.

Butter bei die Fische! — butter with the fish! It is a regional call to stop holding back and settle the matter now.

Ross und Reiter nennen — to name the horse and the rider. You say openly whom and what you mean.

Um den heißen Brei herumreden — to talk around the hot porridge. It is a complaint about someone who does not dare to raise the real point.

Das geht gar nicht — that does not work at all. It is the everyday verdict on something that is plainly unacceptable.

In October 2013, reports said that the American intelligence service NSA had spied on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone. On 24 October, arriving at an EU summit in Brussels, she gave her comment about the United States: Ausspähen unter Freunden – das geht gar nicht. Spying among friends is simply not acceptable.

The jolt speech

On 26 April 1997, Federal President Roman Herzog spoke at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin. He listed the country’s problems without softening them: der Verlust wirtschaftlicher Dynamik, die Erstarrung der Gesellschaft, eine unglaubliche mentale Depression. The loss of economic dynamism, a rigid society, an incredible mental depression. He said that discouragement prevailed, and he gave the number of unemployed as 4.3 million. Then he said what had to happen: Durch Deutschland muss ein Ruck gehen. A jolt must go through Germany. The speech has been known ever since as the Ruck-Rede, the jolt speech.

The Federal Court of Audit’s annual remarks

The Bundesrechnungshof, the Federal Court of Audit, checks whether the federal government spends its money properly and economically. It collects its findings in a volume called the Bemerkungen, the remarks. The findings are specific. The Bemerkungen 2025 stated that the expansion of the locks on the Mosel River, at 855 million euros, was neither necessary nor economical. It also reported that the Finance Ministry had spent 35 million euros on more than 17,000 smartphones for the customs service.

The Black Book of public waste

Every autumn since 1973, the Bund der Steuerzahler, the Taxpayers’ Association, has published its Schwarzbuch, its black book of public waste. The 2026/27 edition lists 100 cases. The city of Stuttgart put up sails and parasols for 350,000 euros, some of them under a huge plane tree. The town of Hadamar in Hesse built a toilet block on a fairground for 355,700 euros. In Schleswig-Holstein, 6.7 million euros of public money went into technology that is not used.

The soldiers’ commissioner

Any German soldier may write directly to the Wehrbeauftragte, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, without going through the chain of command. The office was created in 1956 under Article 45b of the Basic Law. Every year the commissioner writes a full report for the Bundestag. In March 2024, Eva Högl presented the report for 2023. She said that the armed forces were shrinking and aging, and that recruitment was not satisfactory. Many barracks, she said, were in a state she called erbärmlich, miserable.

Trapattoni’s press conference

On 10 March 1998, Giovanni Trapattoni, the Italian coach of Bayern Munich, gave a press conference in broken German. He criticized the performance of his own players in public and by name, among them Mehmet Scholl and Mario Basler. Was erlauben Strunz? How dare Strunz? A player who did not perform was schwach wie eine Flasche leer, weak like a bottle empty. He ended with Ich habe fertig, I have finished. That last sentence became a German saying. When Helmut Kohl was voted out of office, the SPD quoted it on a poster.

The restaurant tester

From 2005 to 2013, and again in 2017, RTL broadcast Rach, der Restauranttester. In each episode the chef Christian Rach tested a restaurant that was in trouble. Then he confronted the owners with his analysis, which was usually worded drastically.

Where the jury crossed the line

The RTL talent show Deutschland sucht den Superstar first aired on 9 November 2002, with the producer and composer Dieter Bohlen on the jury. In February 2008, the Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media demanded a fine of 100,000 euros from RTL over daytime repeats of the show, which it judged harmful to children. It cited the degrading nature of the jury procedure and the editing of the casting sessions, which made a laughing stock of the candidates in front of millions of viewers. Erich Jooß, head of the council of the Bavarian media regulator, spoke of inszenierte Infamie, staged infamy.

Marking every error

From 2009 to 2015, a regulation of the Saxon ministry of education set out how Abitur papers were to be marked. It stated the rule plainly: Sprachliche und formale Mängel sind in allen Prüfungsarbeiten zu kennzeichnen. Errors of language and form must be marked in all exam papers. Each type of error had its own code. R marked spelling, GR grammar and Z punctuation. The same regulation set out separate codes for faults in content. The first marker corrected in red ink, and the second in green.