A German teacher is trained and certified for specific subjects. A lesson taught by a teacher without that certification is called fachfremd, foreign to the subject. The share is counted. In 2016, the education union GEW reported figures from a national school study of 2012, for lower secondary schools other than the Gymnasium. In physics, 18 percent of the teachers taught the subject fachfremd. In mathematics the figure was 15 percent. In biology it was just under 13 percent, and in chemistry 10 percent. In mathematics the states differed widely, from 36.4 percent of teachers in Bremen to 1.9 percent in Thuringia.
Words for the One Who Does Everything
Hansdampf in allen Gassen
Jack Steam in all the lanes. Duden defines a Hansdampf as someone who knows about everything, often only on the surface, and keeps busy with many things.
Wer vil handtwerk kan, der wird zuletzt ein armer man.
Whoever knows many trades will be a poor man in the end. Thomas Murner wrote it in his Schelmenzunft in the early sixteenth century.
Zehn Handwerke, das elfte der Bettelstab.
Ten trades, and the eleventh is the beggar’s staff.
Zwölf Handwerke, dreizehn Unglücke.
Twelve trades, thirteen misfortunes.
Tausendsassa
Roughly a thousand hurrahs, from an old cry of encouragement. Duden defines it as a person of many talents who is admired. It is the one word in the group that praises breadth.
General Education First
Wilhelm von Humboldt, who reformed Prussian education, wrote to the king that certain knowledge must be general to all. Jeder ist offenbar nur dann ein guter Handwerker, Kaufmann, Soldat und Geschäftsmann, wenn er an sich und ohne Hinsicht auf seinen besonderen Beruf ein guter, anständiger, seinem Stande nach aufgeklärter Mensch und Bürger ist. Everyone is clearly a good craftsman, merchant, soldier or businessman only if he is, in himself and without regard to his particular occupation, a good, decent person and citizen, enlightened as befits his station. If school gives him this, Humboldt went on, he will later acquire the special skill of his occupation easily. He will also remain free to move from one occupation to another.
In Humboldt’s plan, the special field comes after a broad base. It does not replace it.
The Competence Team
In German election campaigns, the candidate for chancellor often presents a Kompetenzteam, a competence team. Its members stand for important policy areas. In 2005, Angela Merkel’s team included Paul Kirchhof, a former judge of the Federal Constitutional Court with no party membership. He was meant to become her finance minister. After the election produced a grand coalition, Kirchhof said he was not available. Looking back at such outside experts in 2009, the taz wrote of Kirchhof: Die Rechnung ging nicht auf. The calculation did not work out.