From 15 January 2025, Germany’s electronic patient record was tested in three model regions: Hamburg and the area around it, Franconia, and parts of North Rhine-Westphalia. About 230 doctors’ practices, 60 pharmacies and a few hospitals took part. The health ministry had planned the national start for 15 February. It was delayed, partly because the Chaos Computer Club had shown security gaps at the end of 2024, and partly because testing got off to a slow start. The record could be used across the country from 29 April 2025. Practices, pharmacies and hospitals were required to use it only from 1 October 2025. The minister, Karl Lauterbach, wrote that providers should nicht unter Druck geraten für Umstände, die sie nicht zu verantworten haben, not come under pressure for circumstances they are not responsible for.
The Euro Starter Kit
The euro replaced the D-Mark on paper on 1 January 1999. Germans kept paying with D-Mark notes and coins for three more years. From 17 December 2001, banks sold euro starter kits: a bag of euro coins worth 10.23 euros for 20 D-Marks. Germany provided 53.5 million of them. ZDF summed up the aim: Vertrautheit schaffen, Wechselgeld sichern und die Umstellung an den Kassen beschleunigen, to create familiarity, make sure there was change, and speed up the switch at the checkouts. The D-Mark remained legal tender until 31 December 2001, and large parts of retail and the banks voluntarily accepted it until 28 February 2002.
The Vocabulary of Settling In
Eingewöhnung — getting used to something. It is also the word for a small child’s first weeks at daycare.
Einarbeitung — being worked into a job. Companies speak of the Einarbeitungszeit, the working-in period, and the Einarbeitungsplan, the onboarding plan.
Sich einleben — to live one’s way into a new place. Duden explains it as getting used to new surroundings and becoming at home in them.
Seinen Einstand geben — to give one’s entry. A new colleague marks the start in a job with a small celebration or a round of drinks. Duden marks this use as mainly southern German and Austrian.
Schonfrist — a period of protection, a time of grace before something unpleasant begins.
Aller Anfang ist schwer — every beginning is hard.
The People Have Spoken
Winfried Kretschmann of the Greens became head of government in Baden-Württemberg in 2011, and he had opposed the Stuttgart 21 rail project. On 27 November 2011, the state’s voters decided in a referendum that it should go ahead. The next day Kretschmann said: Das Volk hat gesprochen, und das akzeptiere ich, auch wenn es nicht meinem Wunsch entspricht. (The people have spoken, and I accept that, even though it is not what I wanted.) In an open letter to the public, answering those who still demanded that the station not be built, he wrote: Die Bahn darf Stuttgart 21 bauen. (The railway may build Stuttgart 21.) In a democracy, he wrote, politics and he himself as head of government no longer had the legitimacy das Projekt Stuttgart 21 dem Grunde nach immer und immer wieder in Frage zu stellen, to question the project in principle again and again.
School Peace
German politics has a word for an agreement not to reopen a school system: Schulfrieden, school peace. In December 2008, the SPD, the Greens, the CDU and the FDP in Bremen agreed to take no initiatives for ten years that would substantially change the school structure they had just reformed. The Bremen SPD chair argued in March 2018: Es war und ist richtig, den Streit über Schulstrukturen zu beenden. (It was and is right to end the dispute over school structures.) In 2018, the leaders of the SPD, CDU, Greens and Left agreed to continue the agreement. The structure was not to be touched in den kommenden zehn Jahren bis 2028, in the coming ten years, until 2028. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the red-green government and the CDU opposition agreed on a school peace in 2011 that was meant to hold until 2023. In August 2026, the CDU group in Bremen, now in opposition, called for a new agreement after 2028: Nicht der Konsens ist gescheitert – der Senat ist bislang an seinem Vollzug gescheitert. (The consensus has not failed. So far, the city government has failed to carry it out.)
The Coalition Agreement
A German coalition agreement cannot be enforced in court. The first one in the Federal Republic, in 1961, had fewer than ten pages. The agreement of 2018 had 175 pages, and the one of 2021 had 177. On 5 May 2025, CDU, CSU and SPD signed their agreement of 144 pages in Berlin. Before that, the SPD had put it to a vote of its members, and 84.6 percent of those who voted approved. In October 2025, the coalition argued about a pension package. The SPD leader Lars Klingbeil said that Labor Minister Bärbel Bas had implemented was im Koalitionsvertrag steht, what is in the coalition agreement. He said it was the job of the CDU/CSU group leader to make sure dass seine Fraktion das verabredete Paket mitträgt, that his group supports the agreed package. The Bundestag passed it on 5 December 2025.
The Release of the Apprentices
At the end of an apprenticeship, the German crafts hold a ceremony called the Freisprechung, the release. The apprentices are released from their training contracts and receive their journeyman’s certificates. In Spaichingen in 2023, more than 250 apprentices from 33 trades were released together in what the local paper called an ancient tradition. In Dortmund in July 2026, 85 scaffolders were released with three blows of a hammer. Mit dem ersten Schlag wird die Aufnahme in den Gesellenstand besiegelt. (The first blow seals their admission to the rank of journeyman.) The second blow stands for respect and solidarity among journeymen and masters. The third reminds them to stay true to their trade.
Your Apprentice Years Are Over
Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, 1795–96) is the classic German Bildungsroman, the novel of formation. Its sequel is Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, his journeyman years. The titles follow the steps of the crafts. In Book 7, the Abbé hands Wilhelm his Lehrbrief, his certificate of apprenticeship. It begins: Die Kunst ist lang, das Leben kurz, das Urteil schwierig, die Gelegenheit flüchtig. (Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity fleeting.) In the same chapter, Wilhelm hears: Heil dir, junger Mann! deine Lehrjahre sind vorüber; die Natur hat dich losgesprochen. (Hail to you, young man! Your apprentice years are over. Nature has released you.) Losgesprochen, released, echoes the Lossprechung, one name the crafts still use for the ceremony that ends an apprenticeship.
An Apprenticeship Begins With a Trial
The German Vocational Training Act opens the apprenticeship with a trial phase: Das Berufsausbildungsverhältnis beginnt mit der Probezeit. Sie muss mindestens einen Monat und darf höchstens vier Monate betragen. (Vocational training begins with the probationary period. It must last at least one month and at most four months.) During this time, either side can end the training at any moment, without notice. After it, the apprentice faces the years summed up in a common proverb: Lehrjahre sind keine Herrenjahre, the years of apprenticeship are not the years of a gentleman.
The License on Probation
Every first driver’s license in Germany is issued on probation. The Fahrerlaubnis auf Probe lasts two years. During that time, a new driver may not drink any alcohol at the wheel or start a drive under its influence. A driver who is ordered to attend a remedial course after offenses has the probation extended by another two years. Since 2011, federal law has let young people start even earlier, with Begleitetes Fahren ab 17, accompanied driving from age seventeen. The companion must be at least thirty, must have held a license for at least five years, and must be named in the test certificate. Lower Saxony ran a pilot project from April 2004. The scheme was tested in the states from 2004 before it became permanent federal law on 1 January 2011. The federal road research institute found 22 percent fewer accidents in the first phase of driving alone.