Competence Archives - understand-culture

One Word for Skill and Authority

Duden gives the word Kompetenz two meanings. The first is Sachverstand; Fähigkeiten, expert knowledge and ability. The second is Zuständigkeit, responsibility for an area, and Duden marks it as chiefly legal usage. The adjective inkompetent works the same way. Duden’s example for the legal sense is ein für diese Fälle inkompetentes Gericht, a court that is not competent for these cases. That court may be excellent. The cases are simply not its cases.

Two studies of the word’s history agree that it entered German through legal language, and that the meaning “ability” became common late. They disagree on the dates. Anton Hügli dates the noun meaning jurisdiction to around 1700, and says the meaning ability does not appear before the middle of the twentieth century. Frank Bünning and Hanno Hortsch date both meanings to the nineteenth century.

Beyond Its Competence

On 30 June 2009, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on the Treaty of Lisbon. The Basic Law, it said, forbids the transfer of the Kompetenz-Kompetenz, the power of a body to decide its own powers. The European Union may act only where powers have been conferred on it, one by one. On 5 May 2020, the court applied this to the European Central Bank’s bond purchase program. The headline of its press release called the ECB’s decisions kompetenzwidrig, contrary to its competence. The court also held that a 2018 ruling of the European Court of Justice on the program had been made ultra vires, outside that court’s powers. The Bundesbank received a transition period of no more than three months.

At Most Three Specialties

A German lawyer may call himself a Fachanwalt, a specialist lawyer, in at most three fields of law. The Federal Lawyers’ Act says so in one sentence: Die Befugnis darf für höchstens drei Rechtsgebiete erteilt werden. There are currently 24 such fields. To earn a title, a lawyer completes a course of at least 120 hours and proves a set number of cases in that field. The number runs from 50 cases in tax law to 160 in traffic law. After that, the lawyer must take at least 15 hours of training a year in each field. The title can be withdrawn if the training is not done.

The Specialist Stays in His Field

In 1956, the German Medical Assembly adopted a model professional code with a rule for specialist doctors: Fachärzte müssen sich grundsätzlich auf das Fach beschränken, dessen Facharztbezeichnung sie führen. Specialists must, as a rule, limit themselves to the field whose title they carry. They could also carry only one specialist title. The state medical chambers adopted the rule, Baden-Württemberg among them. On 9 May 1972, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on complaints against these rules. The complaints succeeded, but on a formal ground. The court found that rules of this weight could not be left to the medical chambers alone and needed a basis in law. In 1991, the Federal Social Court summarized what followed from the decision. Limits by specialty can in principle be justified when the fields are drawn in a medically sound way.

Contracts Split by Trade

For public contracts above the EU thresholds, the Act against Restraints of Competition requires that they be divided by trade: Leistungen sind in der Menge aufgeteilt (Teillose) und getrennt nach Art oder Fachgebiet (Fachlose) zu vergeben. When a town builds a large school, for example, the shell, the roof, the electrical work and the painting would normally be awarded as separate lots. Each Gewerk, each trade, owns its part. Combining them is allowed only when economic or technical reasons require it. Since 1 July 2026, the law has had a new exception. For large infrastructure projects paid from the special fund for infrastructure and climate neutrality, and for transport infrastructure, contracts may now also be combined when time requires it.

The Chancellor Uses His Directive Power

In October 2022, the Greens and the FDP in Olaf Scholz’s government disagreed on how long Germany’s last three nuclear plants should run. On 17 October, Scholz settled it in a letter. He invoked his Richtlinienkompetenz, the chancellor’s power to set the guidelines of policy, under § 1 of the federal government’s rules of procedure. He instructed the ministers Habeck, Lemke and Lindner to draft the laws needed to keep Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2 and Emsland running until 15 April 2023 at the latest. A journalist said on Swiss radio that day: Es ist tatsächlich ungewöhnlich, in Deutschland als Kanzler die Richtlinienkompetenz zu ziehen. It is indeed unusual in Germany for a chancellor to use the directive power.

He Does Not Overstep His Competence

In April 2020, few scientists in Germany were listened to as closely as the virologist Christian Drosten. On 27 April, the news site t-online published an opinion piece listing reasons why he had become a hero against his will. Point five read: Er überschreitet seine Kompetenzen nicht. He does not overstep his competence. The author explained that, as Drosten kept saying, science makes no political decisions and has no democratic mandate. Drosten wird nicht müde, das zu betonen, und hält sich daran. Drosten never tires of stressing this, and he keeps to it. Wenn er etwas nicht beurteilen kann, dann scheut er sich nicht, das zuzugeben. When he cannot judge something, he is not afraid to say so.

Ask Your Doctor or Pharmacist

Almost every German who has watched television knows the sentence that ends a drug advertisement: Zu Risiken und Nebenwirkungen lesen Sie die Packungsbeilage und fragen Sie Ihren Arzt oder Apotheker. For risks and side effects, read the package leaflet and ask your doctor or pharmacist. The sentence is required by the law on advertising for medicines. The advertisement must send the viewer to the responsible professional. Since 27 December 2023, the required wording has been fragen Sie Ihre Ärztin, Ihren Arzt oder in Ihrer Apotheke, ask your doctor, female or male, or in your pharmacy.

Only the Specialist’s Work Lasts

On 7 November 1917, Max Weber gave his lecture Wissenschaft als Beruf, Science as a Vocation, in a Munich bookshop. Science, he said, had entered a stage of specialization. Work that reaches into a neighboring field carries a resigned awareness. At best it gives the specialist useful questions, but the work itself must remain highly imperfect. Nur durch strenge Spezialisierung kann der wissenschaftliche Arbeiter tatsächlich das Vollgefühl, einmal und vielleicht nie wieder im Leben, sich zu eigen machen: hier habe ich etwas geleistet, was dauern wird. Only through strict specialization can the scholar have, once and perhaps never again, the full feeling that he has done something that will last. Eine wirklich endgültige und tüchtige Leistung ist heute stets: eine spezialistische Leistung. A truly final and sound achievement today is always a specialist’s achievement.

A License to Teach One Subject

At many German universities, the Habilitation brings with it the venia legendi, the license to teach at a university. The license covers one named field. The habilitation rules of the Technical University of Braunschweig are an example. The candidate must state in the application the field for which the license is sought. The certificate names that field. To extend the license to another area of the subject, the scholar must apply again and show special academic work in the new area.