Words for Testing a Claim

Hinterfragen
To question what lies behind something. Duden: to ask about the background, conditions and foundations of a thing. The usual phrase is etwas kritisch hinterfragen.

Jemandem auf den Zahn fühlen
To feel someone’s tooth. To examine a person very critically.

Nachhaken, nachbohren
To hook in again, to drill again. To keep asking until the answer is complete.

Wie kommen Sie auf die Zahl?
How did you arrive at that number?

Hand und Fuß haben
To have hand and foot. It is said of a plan or an argument that is well thought through. Der Plan muss aber Hand und Fuß haben.

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.

Dissent on the Record

Since 21 December 1970, a judge of the Federal Constitutional Court may publish the dissenting opinion he or she held in the deliberations. This Sondervotum, separate opinion, is printed with the decision. When it was introduced, it was very controversial, because many feared the court would lose authority. In practice it stays rare. Of 1,714 decisions in volumes 30 to 101 of the court’s official reports, 108 carried a separate opinion. The council of economic experts that advises the federal government, the Wirtschaftsweisen, has the same rule by law. A minority with a different view may state it in the report. Peter Bofinger, a member from 2004 to 2019, often disagreed with his colleagues and wrote minority opinions in several reports. In 2017, he wrote: Im Rat der fünf Wirtschaftsweisen gibt es zu viel Konformismus und zu wenig Minderheitsvoten. (In the council of the five economic sages there is too much conformity and too few minority opinions.)

When the criticism comes back

On 6 September 2003, the German national team drew 0:0 in Iceland in a qualifier for the European Championship. On ARD, Gerhard Delling called the match a new Tiefpunkt, a low point, and Günter Netzer joined in the criticism. National coach Rudi Völler answered live on air. He accused the interviewer Waldemar Hartmann of having had drei Weizenbier, three wheat beers. After the 2014 World Cup match against Algeria, a ZDF reporter asked Per Mertesacker critical questions. He replied: Glauben Sie, unter den letzten 16 ist eine Karnevalstruppe?! Do you think there is a carnival troupe among the last 16? Then he said he would lie in the ice bath for three days.

Both answers turned on the questioner. Völler later apologized for his wording, but he kept his criticism of the coverage.

Keeping to the matter

Sache is the matter, the thing itself. Sachlich means pertaining to the matter and nothing else.

English has no clean equivalent. Objectivity suggests neutrality of the observer. Matter-of-fact is a description of manner. Sachlich is neither — it names a discipline: keeping to the substance and out of everything around it.

A German asking you to be sachlich is not asking you to be calm. They are asking you to talk about the problem.

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