Durchleuchten — to illuminate through, to x-ray something.
Auf Herz und Nieren prüfen — to examine heart and kidneys, from the biblical phrase, meaning to test exhaustively.
Unter die Lupe nehmen — to take under the magnifying glass.
Abklopfen — to knock against, the way you test a wall for cavities behind it.
Four ordinary German expressions for examination, and every one of them is physical.
The German phrase is die Entscheidungsgrundlage — the basis for the decision. It is spoken of as a thing that either exists or does not. Uns fehlt noch die Entscheidungsgrundlage — we still lack the basis for the decision — halts a German meeting, and nobody treats it as obstruction.
A German decision of any weight is preceded by a Gutachten — a commissioned written report by a qualified expert, produced on its own timetable and forming a document in its own right.
Building disputes, medical questions, insurance claims, environmental approvals, legislation. The analysis is a deliverable with an author who is answerable for it, not a stage of somebody’s thinking.
Wirtschaftlich — economical, and also simply commercial. One adjective for both.
Haushalten — to keep house, used of managing any resource including time and attention.
Auf Verschleiß fahren — to drive on wear, to run something down without maintaining it, and it is an accusation.
Sich verzetteln — to scatter oneself across too many slips of paper, to fritter effort away.
Nacharbeit — rework. A named cost category in German manufacturing accounting, tracked separately from scrap and from warranty claims. The number exists because somebody decided it was worth knowing what correcting things costs. Once it is measured, the argument for deciding correctly the first time makes itself.
German business education teaches Vollkostenrechnung — costing that carries every overhead through to the product, rather than looking only at the additional cost of one more unit. A decision taken on marginal cost looks better than it is. The German training insists on seeing what the thing actually consumes.
German waste law runs on a hierarchy written into statute: avoidance first, then preparation for reuse, then recycling, then other recovery including energy, and disposal last.
Disposal is the fifth of five options, and the order is the law rather than guidance. A German organisation deciding what to do with anything starts at the top of that list.
Before the applicant writes the report, German law provides for a formal consultation in which the authority tells him the content, extent and depth of detail the report will have to contain — § 15 UVPG.
The scope of the investigation is itself agreed, in advance, with the decision-maker. Nobody discovers halfway through that the wrong question was being answered.
German law requires major projects to be assessed for their effects on a defined list of protected interests — human health, animals, plants, soil, water, air, climate, landscape, cultural heritage — before approval.
The procedure has named stages in statute: screening, scoping to fix the range of what will be examined, the report itself, authority participation, public participation, cross-border participation where relevant, a summary presentation, a reasoned evaluation, and monitoring afterwards.
The assessment is not a separate permission. It runs inside the approval procedure, which means no German authority can decide the project without first having decided the width of the question.
Intuition. Latin intuitio: immediate understanding, recognition, seeing; to understand a situation, problem, dilemma immediately and without discussion or reflection.
“Dein Verlangen nach Intuition blockiert den natürlichen Fluss der Wahrnehmung.” Your desire to be intuitive blocks the natural flow of perception. (Irina Rauthmann, German writer)
“Intuition, sprunghafte Einsicht, deren Schritte nachzuholen sind.” Intuition, sudden and erratic understanding whose steps need to be retaken. (Dr. phil. Manfred Hinrich, German philosopher, professor, journalist, author of childrens books)
“Intuition ist der natürliche Gegenpol zur Konzentration – nutzen sollte man beides, jedes zu seiner Zeit.” Intuition is the natural opposite of concentration. Both should be used, but at the right time. (Rüdiger Keßler, German philosopher)
“Intuition ist Intelligenz mit überhöhter Geschwindigkeit.” Intuition is high speed intelligence. Unknown.