über den Tellerrand blicken or schauen
To look over the edge of the plate. Duden gives two meanings. One is etwas von einer höheren Warte aus betrachten, to look at something from a higher point of view. The other is über seinen eingeschränkten Gesichtskreis hinausblicken, um etwas richtig einzuschätzen, to look beyond one’s limited horizon in order to judge something correctly.
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.
Untrue Until the Facts Say Otherwise
On 30 July 1999 the Federal Court of Justice set minimum standards for expert reports on whether a witness statement is credible. The expert first assumes that the statement is untrue. The court called this the Nullhypothese, the null hypothesis. The expert keeps to that assumption bis diese Negation mit den gesammelten Fakten nicht mehr vereinbar ist, until it can no longer be reconciled with the facts collected.
The Town Where Products Were Tested
From 1986 to 2021, the town of Haßloch in the Palatinate was a test market. The market research institute GfK, the Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung, used it to test new products for companies under real conditions, with real customers in real shops. In age structure and income distribution, the test households were a smaller copy of all households in Germany. The town was called Mini-Deutschland, Germany in miniature. About 3,000 of its roughly 10,000 households took part voluntarily. The test households had a GfK chip card that was scanned with every purchase. Boxes on the television sets measured how well TV advertising worked. Brands such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and Wrigley tested new products there. If the people of Haßloch bought a product, it went onto supermarket shelves in the rest of the country. Products they rejected were not taken into the range. The test market ended in December 2021. GfK said it would rely more on smartphone apps, online surveys and AI-based software.
The Toll Without a Risk Assessment
After the German car toll failed, the federal government had to pay the operators 243 million euros in damages. In 2023 the Federal Transport Ministry had lawyers examine whether it could make former minister Andreas Scheuer pay. Their opinion looked at how he had decided. He had signed the operator contracts at the end of 2018, noch bevor endgültige Rechtssicherheit beim EuGH bestand, before the European Court of Justice had given final legal certainty. The lawyers found: Es habe keine entsprechende Risikobewertung gegeben, there had been no corresponding risk assessment. A claim would still have needed gross negligence. Einfache Fahrlässigkeit dürfte daher, so das Gutachten, nicht ausreichen, simple negligence would probably not be enough. The burden of proof for gross negligence lay with the federal government. There were no signs of intent. Federal law also has no liability rule for ministers. In December 2023 the ministry decided not to sue. It added: Unabhängig davon bleibt es bei der unbestrittenen politischen Verantwortlichkeit von Bundesminister a.D. Scheuer. Regardless of this, the undisputed political responsibility of former minister Scheuer remains.
Generations, Not Quarters
Boehringer Ingelheim is a pharmaceutical company with revenue of 27.8 billion euros in 2025. It still belongs to the descendants of its founder, Albert Boehringer. A great-grandson of the founder, Hubertus vom Baumbach, led its board until the summer of 2025. In September 2026 the chief executive, Shashank Deshpande, ruled out a stock market listing: Boehringer Ingelheim strebt keine Börsenlistung an. Boehringer Ingelheim does not seek a stock market listing. He also said: Ein Verkauf oder IPO ist nicht geplant. A sale or IPO is not planned. To the magazine Manager Magazin he explained: Wir sind nicht von externen Investoren oder Kapitalgebern abhängig, wir denken in Generationen, nicht in Quartalen. We do not depend on outside investors or lenders. We think in generations, not in quarters.
The Right to a Second Opinion
A German doctor who recommends certain planned operations must tell the patient about a right. It is the right to a Zweitmeinung, an independent second medical opinion from another qualified doctor. The rule is Section 27b of Book V of the Social Code, introduced in 2015. The doctor must, as a rule, give this information at least ten working days before the planned operation. For some operations the period is fifteen working days. The Federal Joint Committee decides which operations are covered. Its guideline, published at the end of 2018, named two in 2019: tonsil operations and hysterectomies. According to the Deutsches Ärzteblatt, the law responded to a rise in the number of certain elective operations that medicine could hardly explain.
Asking Before Buying the Plot
A German who wants to build a house can ask the building authority a binding question before buying the land. This is the Bauvoranfrage, the preliminary building inquiry. The answer is the Bauvorbescheid, a preliminary decision. The city of Hamburg names its use plainly: to have the buildability of a plot checked before buying it. The person asking does not need to own the plot yet. In most state building codes, the preliminary decision is valid for three years. During that time, the authority is bound by it. It does not replace the building permit, which must still be applied for.
Once It Is Decided
Die Würfel sind gefallen. — The dice have fallen. DWDS: a decision has been made, it stands. It is the German form of the Latin alea iacta est.
Augen zu und durch. — Eyes shut and through. DWDS describes it as a call, often to oneself or others, to keep going with a task undeterred, regardless of objections, difficult circumstances or bad consequences.
Hin und her macht Taschen leer. — Back and forth makes pockets empty. It is a well-known stock-market saying. It warns against buying and selling again and again, because each change costs fees and often comes at the wrong moment. Some sources attribute the saying to the investor André Kostolany.
The Business Judgment Rule
A German board member can make a business decision that fails and still have done nothing wrong. Section 93 of the Stock Corporation Act, the Aktiengesetz, says so: Eine Pflichtverletzung liegt nicht vor, wenn das Vorstandsmitglied bei einer unternehmerischen Entscheidung vernünftigerweise annehmen durfte, auf der Grundlage angemessener Information zum Wohle der Gesellschaft zu handeln. There is no breach of duty if the board member could reasonably assume that he was acting on the basis of appropriate information and for the good of the company. The rule goes back to the ARAG/Garmenbeck judgment of the Federal Court of Justice of 21 April 1997. Parliament wrote it into the law with the UMAG of 22 September 2005. The courts give a board einen weiten Handlungsspielraum, a wide room for action. That room includes accepting the danger of Fehlbeurteilungen und Fehleinschätzungen, misjudgments and wrong estimates. In 2022 the Federal Court of Justice applied the same principles to the criminal offense of breach of trust. A court asks what the board knew and how it decided at the time, from the ex ante view. The later outcome is not the test.