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.
Inform, Do Not Praise
German law sets the terms on which lawyers and doctors may advertise. A lawyer may advertise only soweit sie über die berufliche Tätigkeit in Form und Inhalt sachlich unterrichtet, as far as the advertising informs about the professional work in a factual way, in form and content. It may not aim at obtaining a particular mandate. The model professional code for doctors uses the same word. Doctors may give sachliche berufsbezogene Informationen, factual information about their work. Advertising that breaks professional rules is forbidden. The model code names three kinds in particular: advertising that praises, advertising that misleads, and advertising that compares.
Merkel and the Reproduction Number
On 15 April 2020, after a meeting with the state premiers, Chancellor Angela Merkel explained why most pandemic restrictions would stay in place and easing would be slow. At the end of the press conference, she did it with arithmetic. The reproduction number then stood at about one. If it rose by only a tenth to 1.1, she said, the health system would reach its limit in October. At 1.2 it would reach it in July. At 1.3 it would reach it in June.
Visions and the Doctor
Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen. Whoever has visions should go to the doctor. The sentence is attributed to Helmut Schmidt, and he accepted it. In 2010 he told the ZEITmagazin that he had said it only once, about 35 to 40 years earlier. He called it eine pampige Antwort auf eine dusselige Frage, a cheeky answer to a silly question. But no written record of Schmidt saying it has been found before 1997. In Austria, the philosopher Rudolf Burger dated his own version to 1986, and in 1988 the magazine profil printed a version attributed to Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, who later denied saying it. The sentence may have found its way to the German politician it suited best.
Inconvenient Facts
In Wissenschaft als Beruf, Max Weber set out the first task of a university teacher. Wenn jemand ein brauchbarer Lehrer ist, dann ist es seine erste Aufgabe, seine Schüler unbequeme Tatsachen anerkennen zu lehren, solche, meine ich, die für seine Parteimeinung unbequem sind; und es gibt für jede Parteimeinung – z.B. auch für die meinige – solche äußerst unbequeme Tatsachen. If someone is a useful teacher, his first task is to teach his students to accept inconvenient facts, I mean facts that are inconvenient for his party opinion. And for every party opinion, including my own, there are such extremely inconvenient facts. The prophet and the demagogue, Weber said, do not belong at the lectern.
The Journalists Are the Hosts
The Bundespressekonferenz, the federal press conference, was founded in Bonn in 1949 by the journalists accredited to the Bundestag. It is their association, not a government body. Three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, it holds the government press conference. The spokespeople of the federal government and the ministries come as guests and answer the journalists’ questions. The association’s own description reads: Parlamentskorrespondenten organisieren Pressekonferenzen, bei denen die Bundesregierung regelmäßig zu Gast ist. Parliamentary correspondents organize press conferences at which the federal government is a regular guest.
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.
The Last Trick
Around 1830, Arthur Schopenhauer wrote a short manuscript on the tricks people use to win arguments. It was found among his papers and is known as Die Kunst, Recht zu behalten, The Art of Being Right. The last trick reads: Wenn man merkt, daß der Gegner überlegen ist und man Unrecht behalten wird, so werde man persönlich, beleidigend, grob. When you notice that your opponent is superior and you are going to lose, become personal, insulting and rude. Schopenhauer explains that this means leaving the matter and attacking the person. He calls it an appeal from the powers of the mind to those of the body, or to the animal. His remedy is great composure.