In Daniel Kehlmann’s novel Die Vermessung der Welt, Measuring the World, Alexander von Humboldt cannot pass a hill without measuring its height. He even makes statistics of the lice on women’s heads. The novel appeared in September 2005 and sold more than two million copies.
Kehlmann has called his approach “grundsätzlich ironisch gebrochen”, fundamentally broken by irony.
Before the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, the prosecution under Fritz Bauer asked the Institute for Contemporary History for expert reports. Four historians, Hans Buchheim, Martin Broszat, Helmut Krausnick and Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, analyzed the structures of the SS state. Their reports were to provide indispensable background information for the trial.
The trial began on 20 December 1963. In 1965 the reports were published as a book, Anatomie des SS-Staates, the anatomy of the SS state.
About 1,260 works of art were found in Cornelius Gurlitt’s apartment in Munich. About 240 more were found in his house in Salzburg in February 2014. The federal culture commissioner, Monika Grütters, wanted the origin of every picture in the collection cleared up.
A task force worked on the provenance for about two years, at a cost of about 1.9 million euros. It identified works by Liebermann, Matisse, Spitzweg, Menzel and Pissarro as art looted by the Nazis.
After two years of research, only five works had been clearly identified as looted art.
The Bundeswehr buys its equipment under a fixed procedure for project-based procurement. It begins with an analysis phase. A team analyzes and assesses the possible solutions for a capability gap, and the different options must be compared.
Possible solutions are assessed for performance, time, costs and risks over the whole life of the equipment. The documents include elements of an economic efficiency analysis. The procedure states: “The selection decision concludes the analysis phase.”
When a person in Germany needs long-term care, the level of support depends on a Pflegegrad, a care grade from 1 to 5. The law requires that the grade be determined with a professionally grounded assessment instrument.
The instrument scores six areas of life with fixed weights. Self-care counts for 40 percent, mobility for 10 percent, and everyday life and social contacts for 15 percent. A total of 12.5 to under 27 points means care grade 1. A total of 90 to 100 points means care grade 5.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz hoped that disputes could one day be settled the way accountants settle a sum. In his essay De arte characteristica he wrote that two philosophers would then need no more argument than two accountants. It would be enough to take pens in hand, sit down at the abacus and say to each other: Calculemus. Let us calculate.
In German university theology, the historical-critical method is the leading method of interpreting the Bible. It asks what meaning a biblical text had at the time it was written. Students work through a series of analyses, such as text criticism, form criticism, literary criticism and transmission criticism.
In one university guide, the theological statement about the text comes only as step 12 of 13. Its scholars include Julius Wellhausen and Hermann Gunkel.
The German Bible Society’s lexicon also notes that critics in recent decades have pointed to the limits of the method.
German legal trainees, the Referendare, learn the Relationstechnik, a step-by-step method for preparing a judgment in a civil case. It separates the plaintiff’s account from the defendant’s account. The trainee first works through the plaintiff’s station, then the defendant’s station.
Only then comes the evidence station. “Das Gericht erhebt nämlich nur dann Beweis, wenn die entscheidungserheblichen Tatsachen streitig sind.” The court takes evidence only when the facts that decide the case are disputed. At the end of this stage of their training, they write a complete Relation.
Germany’s Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan rates proposed projects with a benefit-cost analysis. Its central measure is the benefit-cost ratio. “Ist das NKV größer 1, überwiegen die Nutzen des Projektes dessen Kosten.” If the ratio is greater than 1, the benefits of a project outweigh its costs.
For the 2030 plan, more than 1,000 rail proposals were submitted. After duplicates were removed, about 400 projects remained, and the ministry gave each one a first evaluation. A project could rise into the category of urgent need only with a positive economic evaluation, a benefit-cost ratio above 1.
Twice a year, a working group meets to estimate Germany’s tax revenue. The group has existed since 1955. Its members include five economic research institutes, the Bundesbank, the Council of Economic Experts and the Federal Statistical Office.
Eight of the members each make their own estimate for every single tax, independently of the others. The group then discusses the estimates until it reaches a consensus that all members can support. The spring estimate is the basis for the federal budget draft for the following year.