Change Archives - understand-culture

Words of the Year

Every year, the Society for the German Language chooses the words that marked the year. Several of them describe the distance between the wish to move and the movement itself.

Reformstau — reform jam. Word of the year 1997.

Funklochrepublik — the republic of mobile dead zones. Second place in 2018.

Fluch-Hafen — the curse port, a play on Flughafen, airport, for Berlin’s new airport. Ninth place in 2012.

German Angst — used in English in German, for a supposedly typical German hesitancy. The German Wikipedia calls it a stereotype.

In spring 2019, 79 percent of Germans told the Allensbach Institute that it was important for Germany to be among the leading countries in digitalization. In April of the same year, 51 percent agreed with the sentence Mir sind viele dieser technischen Neuerungen unheimlich, many of these technical innovations make me uneasy. Among people under thirty, about a quarter agreed. Among people over sixty, 75 percent agreed. Asked whether science should accept some risk when testing new technology, 46 percent said yes. Thirty-nine percent said that if there is even a small risk, it is better to give up the progress.

An Opportunity, but Late

In 2015, the trade association Bitkom asked German companies with twenty or more employees about digitalization. Ninety-six percent said it was an opportunity for their own company. Fifty-six percent also said they were latecomers, and another 8 percent said they had fallen far behind. In a survey published in January 2020, Bitkom asked managing directors and board members again. Fifty-eight percent called their company a latecomer, and 3 percent said they had missed it altogether. Thirty-six percent saw themselves as pioneers.

The Agency for Leaps

In 2019, the federal government founded SPRIND, the Federal Agency for Leap Innovation, in Leipzig. Its task was to find and fund research ideas with the potential for leap innovation. Soon the agency was held back by the rules of public administration. According to its director, the Federal Court of Audit made sure that, contrary to the plan, all its hires fell under the Besserstellungsverbot, a rule that bars pay above public sector levels. In May 2021, Chancellor Merkel criticized the structures created for the agency as allowing too little movement. In November 2023, the Bundestag passed a law to free it, the SPRIND-Freiheitsgesetz, the SPRIND Freedom Act. The agency for leaps needed its own law before it could move.

Campaigns for Confidence

In 2005, twenty-five media companies ran a national campaign called Du bist Deutschland, you are Germany. It aimed to spark a movement for more confidence and personal initiative. Its lines included Du bist das Wunder von Deutschland, you are the miracle of Germany. Critics called it a feel-good campaign. In the same year, the federal government and German industry launched Deutschland – Land der Ideen, Germany, land of ideas. Twenty years later, on 3 November 2025, the federal government started another national campaign, Das kann Deutschland, Germany can do this. One of its stated aims was Zuversicht für den Wandel stiften, to create confidence for change.

New Territory

On 19 June 2013, at a press conference with Barack Obama in Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel said: Das Internet ist für uns alle Neuland. (The internet is new territory for all of us.) #Neuland quickly became the most-discussed term on German Twitter. The next day, the car rental company Sixt ran an advertisement with Merkel’s picture: Für alle, die #Neuland entdecken wollen. (For everyone who wants to discover #Neuland.)

When Germany Changes Fast

Germany can change very fast. On 28 October 2010, the Bundestag extended the running time of the nuclear power plants. On 11 March 2011, the disaster in Fukushima began. Three days later, the government announced a three-month moratorium for the seven oldest plants and for Krümmel. On 30 June 2011, the Bundestag voted with 513 of 600 votes to end nuclear power. Eight reactors lost their licenses on 6 August 2011. German unification was faster still. The Berlin Wall opened on 9 November 1989. The D-Mark came to East Germany on 1 July 1990, and the country was united on 3 October 1990.

Not a Single Euro

On 27 February 2022, three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the Bundestag that Europe was living through a Zeitenwende, a turning point in history. He announced a special fund of 100 billion euros for the armed forces. Zeitenwende became the German word of the year. On 14 March 2023, the day she presented her report for 2022, the parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, Eva Högl, said in an interview: Aber von den 100 Milliarden ist im Jahr 2022 noch gar kein Euro und Cent bei der Bundeswehr angekommen. (But of the 100 billion, not a single euro or cent reached the Bundeswehr in 2022.) She added: Es dauert alles viel zu lange. (Everything takes far too long.)

The Vocabulary of the Frame

Im Rahmen der Gesetze — within the framework of the laws. It is a standard formula of German law and administration.

Rahmenbedingungen — framework conditions. Also Rahmenvertrag, Rahmenlehrplan and Rahmentarifvertrag, a framework contract, a framework curriculum and a framework collective agreement.

Aus dem Rahmen fallen — to fall out of the frame. Duden explains it as departing strongly from the norm.

Den Rahmen sprengen — to burst the frame, to go far beyond the usual.

Sich im Rahmen halten — to stay within the frame, not to exceed a certain measure.

Spielraum, Freiraum, Handlungsspielraum — room to play, free space, room for action.

Erst die Pflicht, dann die Kür — first the compulsory program, then the free program. The words come from gymnastics and figure skating. Duden defines the Kür as an exercise whose parts the athlete puts together by free choice.

Industry 4.0

Industrie 4.0 is a German coinage. Henning Kagermann, Wolf-Dieter Lukas and Wolfgang Wahlster introduced it to the public at the Hannover Messe in 2011. Their article in VDI nachrichten was titled Mit dem Internet der Dinge auf dem Weg zur 4. industriellen Revolution (With the Internet of Things on the way to the fourth industrial revolution). On 14 April 2013, a working group chaired by Siegfried Dais of Bosch and Henning Kagermann of the National Academy of Science and Engineering presented its recommendations at the same fair. In 2015, Reinhard Clemens of T-Systems said the goals of the national Industry 4.0 platform had been missed, because concrete results and coordination were lacking. The computer scientist Wolfgang Halang called it sicher vermessen und unseriös, certainly presumptuous and not serious, to announce a fourth revolution before it had happened.