Die Verhandlungen waren hart, aber fair. The negotiations were hard but fair. German negotiators often say this after a difficult round, sometimes on both sides of the table. The two words do not contradict each other. Hart describes the pressure. Fair describes whether the result can be accepted. After a wage agreement in the mineral water industry of North Rhine-Westphalia in May 2022, the food workers’ union explained its result to members in one sentence: Der gefundene Kompromiss ist fair, weil er die Positionen beider Seiten berücksichtigt. The compromise is fair because it takes the positions of both sides into account.
The Honest Broker
On 19 February 1878, Otto von Bismarck spoke in the Reichstag about the crisis in the Balkans. He described the part he wanted Germany to play in settling it. He did not want Germany to den Schiedsrichter spielen, to play the arbiter, and say So soll es sein, this is how it shall be, with the power of the German Reich behind it. He saw the role as more modest, and he took an example from ordinary life. It would be mehr die eines ehrlichen Maklers, der das Geschäft wirklich zu Stande bringen will, more that of an honest broker who really wants to bring the business about. Four months later, the great powers met in Berlin under his chairmanship.
The phrase is often quoted in a smoother form: Ich will nichts mehr als der ehrliche Makler zwischen uneinigen Klienten sein, der das Geschäft zustande bringt. I want nothing more than to be the honest broker between clients who disagree, who brings the business about. This form is usually placed at the Congress of Berlin, and it has no clear source. The speech as printed in 1878 uses the wording above.
The Mediation Committee
When the Bundestag and the Bundesrat disagree on a law, Article 77 of the Basic Law provides for a joint committee. The Vermittlungsausschuss, the mediation committee, has 32 members. Sixteen come from the Bundestag, and each of the sixteen states has one seat. The members from the states are not bound by instructions from their governments. The sessions are confidential. The Bundestag describes what happens once the committee is called: Es beginnt die Suche nach Kompromissen, um das Gesetz „zu retten“. The search for compromises begins, to “save” the law. The result is an Einigungsvorschlag, a proposal for agreement, and the chambers then decide on it. The committee is needed most when the two chambers have different majorities. It was called 102 times between 2002 and 2005, and three times between 2013 and 2017.
A Peace With a Secret Reservation
In 1795 Immanuel Kant published Zum ewigen Frieden, Toward Perpetual Peace, in Königsberg. The first article reads: Es soll kein Friedensschluß für einen solchen gelten, der mit dem geheimen Vorbehalt des Stoffs zu einem künftigen Kriege gemacht worden. No treaty of peace shall count as one if it was made with the secret reservation of material for a future war. Kant explained that such a treaty would be ein bloßer Waffenstillstand, Aufschub der Feindseligkeiten, nicht Friede. It would be a mere ceasefire, a postponement of hostilities, not peace. Peace means the end of all hostilities. For that reason, Kant wrote, adding the word perpetual to it is already a suspicious repetition.
Withdrawing the Condemnations
On Reformation Day 1999, the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church signed the Gemeinsame Erklärung zur Rechtfertigungslehre, the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. The ceremony took place in the Lutheran St. Anne’s Church in Augsburg. How a person is justified before God had been a central point of dispute in the Reformation. The direct history of the declaration began in Germany. A key step was a study, completed in 1986, that asked whether the old condemnations still divided the churches. The final text states a Konsens in Grundwahrheiten, a consensus in basic truths. Its aim was a differenzierter Konsens, a differentiated consensus, in which each side keeps its own tradition and language where these do not contradict each other. On that basis, the mutual condemnations of the 16th century zurückgenommen werden und heute nicht mehr gelten, are withdrawn and no longer apply today.
The Handover Record
When Germans move into or out of a rented apartment, tenant and landlord usually walk through it together, room by room. They record defects, meter readings and the keys handed over in an Übergabeprotokoll, a handover record, and both sign it. The law does not require it. Once it is signed, it binds. According to the homeowners’ association Haus & Grund in Frankfurt, a record signed by both sides that shows no defects counts as a negatives Schuldanerkenntnis, a negative acknowledgment of debt. The tenant can no longer claim that old damage existed at the handover. In a case reported by the insurer ARAG, a landlady later claimed damage from her tenant’s heavy smoking and kept the deposit. The local court of Leonberg held her to the record both had signed at move-out, which showed no damage.
Report Inside First
Since 2 July 2023 the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Hinweisgeberschutzgesetz, has protected people who report violations at work. Employers with, as a rule, at least 50 employees must set up an internal reporting office. A whistleblower may choose between an internal and an external reporting office. The law adds that whistleblowers should prefer the internal office in cases where the violation can be dealt with effectively inside the organization and they do not fear reprisals. Reprisals against whistleblowers are forbidden.
Piëch Keeps His Distance
On 10 April 2015 Ferdinand Piëch, chair of Volkswagen’s supervisory board, told Der Spiegel: Ich bin auf Distanz zu Winterkorn. I am keeping my distance from Winterkorn. Martin Winterkorn was the company’s chief executive. A week later, the presidium of the supervisory board called Winterkorn the best possible chief executive and proposed extending his contract. According to the news agency dpa, the other five members of the presidium all stood against Piëch. On 25 April Piëch resigned from all his posts at Volkswagen with immediate effect.
Wages Are Not the State’s Business
Article 9 of the Basic Law protects the right to form associations to improve working and economic conditions. From it follows the Tarifautonomie, under which unions and employers set wages free from state interference. A statutory minimum wage arrived only on 1 January 2015, at 8.50 euros an hour. Its adjustments were left to a commission in which unions and employers each have three voting members. In 2022 the Bundestag instead raised the minimum wage by law, to 12 euros from 1 October. When the plan was presented, the president of the employers’ federation BDA, Rainer Dulger, called it a grobe Verletzung der Tarifautonomie, a gross violation of bargaining autonomy. The federation complained that the increase was set without the commission that was actually responsible.
The Serious Will to Agree
Section 74 of the Works Constitution Act sets out how the employer and the works council work together. They should meet at least once a month. On disputed questions they must negotiate “mit dem ernsten Willen zur Einigung,” with the serious will to reach agreement. Both sides must also make proposals for settling their differences.