The first sitting of a new Bundestag is opened by the Alterspräsident, literally the president by age. Until 2017 that was the oldest member. On 1 June 2017, the Bundestag changed its rules. Now the member who has belonged to the Bundestag longest opens the sitting. Age decides only when two members have served equally long. The stated reason was parliamentary experience. The change also had a political background. Under the old rule, a member of the AfD, which was about to enter the Bundestag, would have opened the 2017 session. On 25 March 2025, Gregor Gysi opened the new Bundestag after thirty years and nine months as a member. The title is still Alterspräsident.
From Age to Experience
Under the old collective agreement for the German public sector, the BAT, pay rose with age, every two years. The new agreements replaced age steps with Erfahrungsstufen, experience steps. In 2011, the European Court of Justice ruled that the old age steps were age discrimination, and that the move to the new system was lawful. In the agreement for the states’ employees, a new hire with no relevant experience starts at step 1. At least one year of relevant experience with the same employer is credited. At least one year of relevant experience with another employer brings entry at step 2 at most, or at step 3 after at least three years. The steps then rise after one, two, three, four and five years of uninterrupted work in the same pay group with the same employer.
Something to Show
Jürgen Klinsmann came to FC Bayern Munich in 2008 with new concepts and ideas. On 27 April 2009, before the end of his first season, the club let him go. Jupp Heynckes, who had coached Bayern before, took over for the last five matches. Uli Hoeneß, the club’s general manager, explained the choice: Wir brauchen jetzt jemanden, der schon etwas vorzuweisen hat. We now need someone who already has something to show. He added: Jedes Konzept liest sich prima auf dem Papier. Every concept reads well on paper.
The Ox Tour
Ochsentour, the ox tour, is the German word for a slow, laborious career, especially in politics. In 2016, the Weser-Kurier described the career of Christian Weber, president of the Bremen parliament from 1999. He joined the SPD in 1972 and began by collecting membership dues from door to door. He then rose through the local party offices. Weber hat das absolviert, was man gemeinhin die Ochsentour nennt. Weber went through what is commonly called the ox tour. The paper quoted his view of party work: So lernt man das System kennen, man lernt, mit wem man sich anlegen darf. That is how you learn the system, and you learn whom you may pick a fight with. Of newcomers from outside, he said that fully independent minds were not so welcome.
Three Years Before a Judge Is Appointed for Life
Passing both state law exams qualifies a German lawyer to be a judge. It does not make him a judge for life. Under the German Judges Act, a judge can be appointed for life only after at least three years in judicial service. Until then, he usually serves as a judge on probation. Within five years at the latest, a judge on probation must be appointed either a judge for life or a public prosecutor for life, unless he has been dismissed.
Foreign Qualifications Are Checked
A professional qualification earned abroad is not simply accepted in Germany. Since 1 April 2012, the Professional Qualifications Assessment Act has set out how it is checked. The responsible body compares it with the German qualification and declares it equivalent if there are no essential differences. Gaps can be made up by relevant professional experience, but only if that experience is proven. For regulated professions, recognition remains a condition for working. For others, it is voluntary.
The Chief Executive From Inside
In 2019, the headhunting firm Odgers Berndtson studied the boards of the 30 companies in the DAX. Of the chief executives, 80 percent came from inside their own company. Of all board members, 58 percent had spent more than half of their career in the company before their appointment. The trade journal Personalwirtschaft summed it up in its headline: Stallgeruch und Branchen-Know-how zählen immer noch am meisten. The smell of the stable and knowledge of the industry still count most. The pattern differs for women. In 2024, the AllBright Foundation studied the 160 companies in the DAX, MDAX and SDAX. It found that 65 percent of the women newly appointed to their boards had been recruited from outside through headhunters, compared with 42 percent of the men.
Sayings About Masters and Apprentices
Lehrjahre sind keine Herrenjahre.
Apprentice years are not years as a gentleman. The years of training are hard, and the apprentice is not yet his own master. In 2024, a young carpenter from Thuringia who had become European champion told a newspaper: Lehrjahre sind keine Herrenjahre – dieser alte Spruch demotiviert junge Leute. This old saying discourages young people.
Es ist noch kein Meister vom Himmel gefallen.
No master has yet fallen from the sky.
Übung macht den Meister.
Practice makes the master.
Neue Besen kehren gut.
New brooms sweep well. A newcomer starts with great zeal. DWDS notes that the saying is sometimes ironic.
Earn It to Own It
In the scene Nacht, Night, at the start of Goethe’s Faust, Faust speaks two lines that Germans still quote: Was du ererbt von deinen Vätern hast, / Erwirb es, um es zu besitzen. What you have inherited from your fathers, earn it in order to possess it. The next line reads: Was man nicht nützt, ist eine schwere Last. What one does not use is a heavy burden.
Words for Rising Through the Ranks
Von der Pike auf lernen
To learn from the pike up. To start training at the lowest level. Duden explains that it once meant to begin as a common soldier carrying a pike.
Sich die Sporen verdienen
To earn one’s spurs. In the Middle Ages, only a knight could wear golden spurs, and he had to earn them before he was knighted.
Sich hochdienen
To serve one’s way up. To work hard and slowly from a low position to a more important one.
Grünschnabel
Green beak. A young, inexperienced person who is often cheeky.
Lehrgeld zahlen
To pay the apprentice’s fee. To learn by losing something through inexperience.
Alter Hase
Old hare. Someone with a great deal of experience.
Jungfernrede and Hinterbänkler
The maiden speech, a member’s first speech in parliament, and the backbencher, a member who does not stand out and has little influence.