Pace Archives - understand-culture

Compensation for Delay

In September 2010 the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case Rumpf v. Germany. Mr. Rumpf’s case before German courts had taken 13 years and 5 months. The court saw a structural problem and found similar violations in 70 further cases.

Germany responded with a law in force since 3 December 2011. Anyone who suffers a disadvantage from the unreasonable length of a court case receives compensation. For non-material harm it is, as a rule, 1,200 euros for each year of delay. First the party must complain about the delay to the court itself, with a Verzögerungsrüge.

The law treats this kind of waiting as a harm to be paid for.

Wait and See

Abwarten und Tee trinken. — Wait and drink tea. Be patient and let things develop.

Es wird nichts so heiß gegessen, wie es gekocht wird. — Nothing is eaten as hot as it is cooked. Things calm down before anyone has to act.

Forcing a Quick Solution

In April 2026 the German business magazine Business Punk listed eight leadership mistakes that make team conflicts worse. One is Den Richter spielen, playing the judge. Sich auf eine Seite zu schlagen, ohne alle Hintergründe zu kennen, verschärft den Konflikt meist. Taking a side without knowing all the background usually makes the conflict worse.

Another is Schnelle Lösungen forcieren, forcing quick solutions. Doch das funktioniert selten. But that rarely works. Aktives Zuhören braucht Zeit – spart aber langfristig Nerven. Active listening takes time, but it saves stress in the long run.

A Settlement With Time to Think

A settlement reached in a German court can carry a reservation of revocation. It then takes effect only if no party revokes it in writing by a set date. In a labor case from Bamberg, the parties settled on 19 January 2004. Any revocation had to reach the court by 2 February 2004.

The law sets no period for this. The parties agree on it. In 2018 the Federal Court of Justice noted why the time matters. If the parties could not extend the period, many would revoke a settlement as a precaution, a step that ausreichender Überlegungszeit, enough time to think it over, would avoid.

Judgment on Another Day

A German civil court usually does not announce its judgment at the end of the hearing. It sets a separate date for that. Under § 310 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the date may be more than three weeks away only for important reasons, especially the size or difficulty of the case.

A judgment announced right after the hearing has its own name, the Stuhlurteil, the chair judgment. In civil cases the separate date is weit häufiger, far more common. In criminal trials, the judgment at the end of the main hearing is the rule.

To Merkel

In 2015 merkeln, a verb made from the name of Chancellor Angela Merkel, came second in the vote for the Jugendwort des Jahres, the youth word of the year, run by the publisher Langenscheidt. The winner was Smombie. The press explained merkeln as Nichtstun, keine Entscheidungen treffen, keine Äußerungen von sich geben. Doing nothing, making no decisions, saying nothing.

The word is a joke about waiting too long, not praise for patience.

The Judge Who Would Not Rule

In Lessing’s play Nathan der Weise (1779), Nathan tells the parable of the three rings. A father owns one precious ring. He has two perfect copies made and leaves a ring to each of his three sons. When he dies, each son comes with his ring, and each wants to be head of the house. Man untersucht, man zankt, man klagt. They investigate, they quarrel, they sue. The true ring cannot be proven.

The judge will not name a winner. Denkt ihr, dass ich Rätsel zu lösen da bin? Do you think I am here to solve riddles? He offers them his Rat, statt meines Spruches, his advice instead of his verdict.

Then he adjourns the case for a very long time. When the rings’ powers show in their children’s children’s children, he will call them back. So lad’ ich über tausend tausend Jahre sie wiederum vor diesen Stuhl. In a thousand thousand years I will summon them before this seat again. Da wird ein weisrer Mann auf diesem Stuhle sitzen als ich. A wiser man than I will sit on this seat then.

Care Before a Quick Shot

In September 2022, politicians from the opposition and from the governing coalition pressed Chancellor Olaf Scholz to send tanks to Ukraine faster. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann of the FDP, a coalition party, asked: Auf was um Himmels willen warten wir noch? What in heaven’s name are we still waiting for? Scholz described his course as besonnen und entschieden, level-headed and decisive. On 17 February 2023 he explained his approach at the Munich Security Conference: Und bei allem Handlungsdruck, den es ohne Zweifel gibt: In dieser entscheidenden Frage gilt: Sorgfalt vor Schnellschuss, Zusammenhalt vor Solovorstellung. For all the pressure to act, which no doubt exists, this rule applies: care before a quick shot, unity before solo performances. He added that support had to be set up from the start so …, dass wir sie lange durchhalten, so that it can be kept up for a long time. By then, Germany had also agreed to deliver Western battle tanks.

The Year of Separation

A German who wants a divorce must normally wait. Under § 1566 of the Civil Code, a marriage is presumed to have failed wenn die Ehegatten seit einem Jahr getrennt leben, when the spouses have lived apart for one year and both want the divorce or one agrees. If one spouse does not agree, the period is three years. Germans call this the Trennungsjahr, the year of separation. A legal advice site explains its purpose: Das Einhalten des Trennungsjahres soll übereilte Scheidungen verhindern. The year is meant to prevent hasty divorces. Couples can also separate inside one apartment. They must then keep separate households, with no shared bed, meals, shopping or laundry. A divorce before the year is over is possible only in cases of severe hardship, such as violence, and the courts set a high bar for it.

Five Years in Münster and Osnabrück

The Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years’ War. In December 1641 the warring parties agreed in Hamburg to hold peace talks in Münster and Osnabrück. The envoys met there from 1643. Disputes over rank and titles delayed the opening of the congress for a long time. Then the sides took more than a year to exchange their demands. The real peace negotiations began in June 1645. Both treaties were signed in Münster on 24 October 1648. The ratifications were exchanged on 18 February 1649. A separate congress in Nuremberg then worked out how to carry out the peace, until July 1650. The treaty became a fundamental law of the Holy Roman Empire. Sources differ on how many delegations took part. German Wikipedia gives about 110 delegations from 16 European states. The Münster city museum speaks of envoys from more than 150 states and territories.