Jürgen Becker is a Kabarett artist and television host from Cologne. In 2017 he wrote an essay on his city for Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, published by the Federal Agency for Civic Education. One sentence reads: Denn im Rheinland hat das Sprechen einen Wert an sich, unabhängig vom Inhalt. In the Rhineland, speaking has a value of its own, whatever the content. Another: Der Rheinländer hört nicht zu. Er redet lieber selbst. The Rhinelander doesn’t listen. He prefers to talk himself. On Brüsseler Platz, he writes, thousands gather zum fröhlichen Quatschen und Trinken, for cheerful chatting and drinking.
Places Set Aside for Chatting
In April 2023 an Edeka supermarket in Buxheim near Memmingen opened a Ratschkasse, a chat checkout, for customers who want to talk while they pay. Bavaria’s health minister, Klaus Holetschek, launched it. It was open four days a week, for two hours each morning. A market in Schweinfurt had set up a Smalltalk-Kasse almost two months earlier. In 2024 a Rewe and an Edeka in Kempten followed with Plauderkassen, chat checkouts on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m..
Towns do the same with benches. In June 2022 the mayor of Esslingen set up a Schwätzbänkle, a bench for chatting, on the Innere Brücke. In July 2026 Nuremberg announced a Blauderbänkla in its southern cemetery. A sign on the bench suggests topics, among them the weather. The press reported the checkouts in Buxheim and Kempten as measures against loneliness.
Small Talk, Better Than Its Reputation
In January 2025 the Goethe-Institut published a language column titled Small Talk – besser als sein Ruf, Small talk, better than its reputation. The author, Christiane Rösinger, begins: Die alte, bewährte Kulturtechnik des Small Talks scheint in der Krise zu sein. The old, proven cultural skill of small talk seems to be in crisis. Many people, especially young people, reject it as superficial, empty and tiring. On social media they complain: Ich hasse Small Talk! I hate small talk! What they want instead, she writes, is Deep Talk. Rösinger herself defends small talk, and she presents the dislike of it as a recent trend among young people.
The Vocabulary of Getting to the Point
mit der Tür ins Haus fallen — to fall into the house with the door. The Duden defines it as bringing up one’s concern without detours, too abruptly.
ohne Umschweife — without detours.
Lange Rede, kurzer Sinn — long speech, short meaning. It is said before a summary.
In der Kürze liegt die Würze. — The spice is in the brevity.
kurz und bündig — short and tied in a bundle: brief and to the point.
The Duden puts one word in brackets in its definition of the first idiom: [allzu] unvermittelt, [too] abruptly. The language also has a limit for getting to the point.
What the Dictionary Calls Small Talk
The Duden lists Small Talk as an educated word for light, casual conversation. A German synonym dictionary lists what else the language calls it. Among the entries:
Seichtgeplauder — shallow chatter.
Banalitätenaustausch — an exchange of banalities.
Geplätscher — splashing, like water.
Gelaber — babble.
Blabla — blah-blah.
The Works Council Chief Before 25,000
On 4 September 2024 the Volkswagen board defended its savings plans before 25,000 employees at a staff assembly in Wolfsburg. At the same assembly, the head of the works council, Daniela Cavallo, said: Volkswagen krankt daran, dass der Vorstand seinen Job nicht macht. Volkswagen is ailing because the board is not doing its job. She called the plans an Armutszeugnis, literally a certificate of poverty, a proof of failure. The chief financial officer told the workforce that the company had one year, perhaps two, to change course. On 20 December 2024 Volkswagen and the IG Metall union reached an agreement.
Moin, Moin Is Already Chatter
Moin! – Moin, Moin ist schon Gesabbel. Moin! Moin, moin is already chatter. Hamburg’s official tourism site quotes the saying and explains it. Ein schlichtes Moin kann einen Hamburger durch den ganzen Tag bringen. A simple Moin can carry a person from Hamburg through the whole day. Lange Begrüßungsfloskeln und große Abschiedsworte gibt es in Hamburg nicht. There are no long greeting phrases and no grand words of farewell in Hamburg.
Whoever Dishes It Out
austeilen — to hand out. Duden gives an informal sense: to criticize sharply, as in sie kann ganz schön austeilen, she can really dish it out.
Wer austeilt, muss auch einstecken können. — Whoever dishes it out must also be able to take it.
einstecken — to pocket: to accept something without fighting back. Duden’s examples include Kritik einstecken, to take criticism.
ein dickes Fell haben — to have a thick hide, to be thick-skinned
keine Kritik vertragen — to be unable to take criticism
unter aller Kritik — beneath all criticism, very bad
Two Levels of a Conversation
die Sachebene — the level of the matter.
die Beziehungsebene — the level of the relationship. The pair is used to say where a problem lies: Das Problem liegt auf der Beziehungsebene. The problem is on the level of the relationship. It is also used to bring a meeting back: Bleiben wir auf der Sachebene. Let’s stay on the level of the matter.
nachtragend — carrying something after you, holding a grudge. People say of themselves Ich bin nicht nachtragend, I don’t hold grudges.
Schwamm drüber! — Sponge over it! Let it be wiped away and forgotten.
A Novel About the Death of a Critic
In 2002 Suhrkamp published Martin Walser’s novel Tod eines Kritikers, Death of a Critic. The critic who is supposedly murdered in the novel was modeled on Marcel Reich-Ranicki of the FAZ. Frank Schirrmacher, an editor of the FAZ, refused to print the novel in advance in his paper. He called it an Exekution, an execution, and a Mordfantasie, a murder fantasy. He wrote that its repertoire of antisemitic clichés was, unfortunately, impossible to overlook. The debate was no longer only about a book. It was about Walser and Reich-Ranicki themselves.