Sustainability is also a German word, and much older than the environmental movement. Hans Carl von Carlowitz set it out in Sylvicultura oeconomica in 1713, writing about forestry: cut no more timber than the forest can regrow.
The idea is prevention stretched across generations. Do not solve this year’s problem in a way that creates one for people not yet born.
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 precautionary principle is a German export. It arose as the Vorsorgeprinzip in German environmental law in the early 1970s and was written into the Federal Emission Protection Act of 15 March 1974.
It reached international law in 1987 at the North Sea conference, and was entrenched in 1992 as Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration, from where it passed into most international environmental conventions.
The principle holds that where serious or irreversible harm is possible, the absence of full scientific certainty is not a reason to wait.
Germany did not adopt an international norm about prevention. It wrote one and the world took it.
Wärmedämmung. German building regulation prescribes insulation standards for new construction and for major renovation, with required values for walls, roofs, windows and doors. The efficiency of the building is regulated at the point of construction, when it is cheapest to achieve.
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.
Sparen means both to save money and to economise on anything. German appliances have Sparprogramme, cars have Spritsparen, buildings have Energiesparen. One verb covers thrift and efficiency, and Germans use it for both without noticing the join.
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.
Eigenkapitalquote. German Mittelstand companies carry notably high equity ratios by international standards, and treat it as a matter of prudence rather than inefficiency. Debt is capacity you have already spent. Equity is the buffer that lets a firm survive a year it did not plan for.