In early July 2023, the Bundestag was about to pass a major change to the law on heating systems in buildings, in the last week before the summer break. A CDU member of parliament, Thomas Heilmann, asked the Federal Constitutional Court to stop the vote, because members had too little time to study the final text. On 5 July 2023, the court issued an interim order by five votes to two, and the vote was postponed. The court weighed the risk of an irreversiblen Verletzung der Beteiligungsrechte, an irreversible violation of the member’s right to take part, against the cost of a delay. The Bundestag passed the law on 8 September 2023. In July 2026, the court decided the main case. It ruled Heilmann’s application inadmissible and found that the deliberations had been very compressed, but neither exceptionally short nor empty of content.
Against the Will of the Workforce
On 20 December 2024, after more than seventy hours of talks, Volkswagen and the IG Metall union reached an agreement. ZDF called it the longest negotiating marathon in the company’s history. More than 35,000 jobs were to go by 2030, but in a socially acceptable way, without compulsory redundancies. Employees gave up pay increases. The head of the works council, Daniela Cavallo, listed what the workforce had gained, and ended with this: nicht zuletzt die Gewissheit für den Vorstand, dass bei Volkswagen Veränderungen gegen den Willen der Belegschaft zum Scheitern verurteilt sind. (Not least, the certainty for the board that at Volkswagen, changes against the will of the workforce are doomed to fail.)
The Investor Deal That Was Called Off
In December 2023, the 36 clubs of the German Football League voted in a secret ballot to sell a share of a company holding their media rights to an investor. The deal needed a two-thirds majority, and it passed with exactly the 24 votes required. It was reported that the head of Hannover 96 had voted against his own club’s instruction. Fans protested in stadiums across the country with silence and with tennis balls and chocolate coins thrown onto the pitch. On 3 February 2024, a match between Hertha BSC and Hamburger SV was stopped for more than thirty minutes. On 21 February 2024, the league ended the process. Hans-Joachim Watzke, chairman of its supervisory board, said: Eine erfolgreiche Fortführung des Prozesses scheint in Anbetracht der aktuellen Entwicklungen nicht mehr möglich. (Given the current developments, a successful continuation of the process no longer seems possible.)
The Residents of Grünheide
In 2024, Tesla wanted to expand its car plant in Grünheide near Berlin with a freight station, warehouses and a daycare center for employees. More than 100 hectares of forest were to be cleared. The municipality asked its residents. On 20 February 2024, it announced the result: 3,499 against and 1,882 in favor, with a turnout of over 70 percent. The vote was not binding. The state’s economy minister said it showed dass die Bedenken und Befürchtungen der Menschen deutlich überwiegen, that people’s concerns and fears clearly outweigh the rest. Tesla cut its plan. Instead of 100 hectares, 50 were to be cleared, and the planned logistics areas and the daycare center were dropped. On 16 May 2024, the municipal council approved the smaller plan.
The Arbitration on Live Television
Stuttgart 21, the plan to put Stuttgart’s main station underground, was first presented to the public in 1994. The formal approval procedure began in 2001. In 2010, when construction started, the protests grew. On 30 September 2010, the police used water cannons in the palace garden, and hundreds of people were injured. The state’s premier then proposed an arbitration led by Heiner Geißler, a former CDU federal minister. From 22 October to 30 November 2010, supporters and opponents argued over the facts in Stuttgart’s city hall, and the sessions were broadcast live on television, radio and the internet. The news channel Phoenix had its second-highest ratings up to that time. A year later, on 27 November 2011, the state held a referendum on leaving the project. Statewide, 58.9 percent voted against leaving it.
Controversial in Class
In 1976, at a conference held by the Baden-Württemberg state agency for civic education in Beutelsbach in Swabia, scholars of civic education found three points they could agree on. They are still an important reference for civic education. Teachers may not overwhelm students into holding desired opinions. Students must be enabled to analyze a political situation and their own interests. And the second rule reads: Was in Wissenschaft und Politik kontrovers ist, muss auch im Unterricht kontrovers erscheinen. (What is controversial in scholarship and politics must also appear controversial in the classroom.)
Conflict as a Creative Force
The sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf, a pioneering thinker of liberalism, built his work on one idea about conflict. He did not see it as a disturbance of social order. He saw it as eine hervorragende schöpferische Kraft, an outstanding creative force, of social change. He wrote about it from his 1957 book on class conflict in industrial society to Der moderne soziale Konflikt (The Modern Social Conflict, 1992).
Say It to the Board
On 7 November 2009, the Süddeutsche Zeitung published an interview with the Bayern Munich defender Philipp Lahm that the club had not approved. Lahm criticized the quality of the squad, the transfer policy and the lack of a clear philosophy: Man darf Spieler nicht einfach kaufen, weil sie gut sind. (You cannot simply buy players because they are good.) Two days later, Lahm met the board. He apologized for the way he had done it and for the tone, and he accepted a fine. The club’s statement said that Lahm has accepted that it would have been better to express his opinion directly to the board. Lahm later revealed in his book that the fine was 50,000 euros.
A Culture of Arguing With the Boss
In September 2015, after the emissions scandal broke at Volkswagen, the head of the works council, Bernd Osterloh, wrote to the company’s employees. He demanded a fundamental change: Wir brauchen für die Zukunft ein Klima, in dem Probleme nicht versteckt, sondern offen an Vorgesetzte kommuniziert werden. (In future we need a climate in which problems are not hidden but communicated openly to superiors.) And: Wir brauchen eine Kultur, in der man mit seinem Vorgesetzten um den besten Weg streiten kann und darf. (We need a culture in which people can and may argue with their superior about the best way.) In 2011, a VW technician had warned the head of engine development about illegal practices. An internal audit later left open why that warning had no consequences.
In Good Time and in Full
In a German company with more than twenty employees entitled to vote, management must inform the works council rechtzeitig und umfassend, in good time and in full, about any planned change in operations that could bring significant disadvantages for the staff. It must then discuss the plan with the works council. The law lists what counts as such a change. It includes closures and relocations, and also the Einführung grundlegend neuer Arbeitsmethoden und Fertigungsverfahren, the introduction of fundamentally new working methods and production processes. Management must try to reach an agreement on how the change will be carried out. If it carries out the change without having tried, employees who lose their jobs can sue for compensation. A change of method that skips the negotiation can cost money for each person affected.