Decision-Making Archives - Page 3 of 29

One Farm, One Heir

In Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, a special inheritance law applies to farms, the Höfeordnung. A farm that falls under this law is never inherited by a group of heirs. One heir takes over the whole farm.

The purpose is to prevent farms from being split up when the owner dies. The other heirs receive compensation based on a low value, since 2025 60 percent of the property tax value. Similar laws exist in Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bremen and Brandenburg.

The Future Needs a Past

Zukunft braucht Herkunft. The future needs origins. The philosopher Odo Marquard (1928–2015) gave this title to a book of essays in 2003. The national biography says the title became a well-known saying.

Marquard argued that people should orient themselves by customs that exist for good reasons, rather than chase what is new. He saw himself as a Berufsskeptiker, a professional skeptic.

The School Satchel Standard

Before their first day of school, German children get a Schulranzen, a school satchel. The standard DIN 58124 requires that 10 percent of the visible surface of a satchel be retroreflective and 20 percent fluorescent.

The German Social Accident Insurance explains the reason: drivers often see people in dark clothing only at less than 25 meters. Stiftung Warentest adds: “Die Schulranzennorm ist allerdings kein Gesetz.” The satchel standard is not a law.

Measles Protection First

Since 1 March 2020, children aged one or older entering a daycare center or a school in Germany must show proof of vaccination against measles or a doctor’s certificate of immunity. Parents who do not comply can be fined up to 2,500 euros.

On 21 July 2022 the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the requirement is proportionate. The legislature had given priority to protecting people at risk, and the court called this a public interest of high rank.

The Maize Ban

In April 2009 Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner had the cultivation of the genetically modified maize MON 810 in Germany banned. The maize had already been approved. She said there was justified reason to assume that it posed a danger to the environment. She called it “keine politische Entscheidung”, not a political decision, but a technical one.

Bavaria’s Minister-President Horst Seehofer said: “Neue Studien zwingen uns dazu, die offenen Fragen erst einmal zu klären.” New studies force us to clarify the open questions first. On 28 May 2009 the Higher Administrative Court in Lüneburg upheld the ban.

Drinking Water Before Gas

On 24 June 2016 the Bundestag decided to ban unconventional fracking for commercial purposes. Only four test drillings for scientific purposes were to be allowed, with the consent of the state concerned. In 2021 the Bundestag was to review the ban on the basis of scientific findings.

The SPD explained the decision in a leaflet: “Wir stellen die Gesundheit und den Schutz des Trinkwassers an erste Stelle – vor wirtschaftliche Interessen.” We put health and the protection of drinking water first, before economic interests.

Every Euro Guaranteed

The Riester pension is private retirement saving with state subsidies. Its providers are required to guarantee 100 percent of the contributions paid in.

In the years of negative interest rates, the fund company DWS stopped selling new Riester contracts from 1 July 2021. A reform planned for 2027 keeps the full guarantee but adds a product with an 80 percent guarantee and a retirement depot without any guarantee.

Safe Enough for a Ward

Mündelsicher, safe enough for a ward. The word comes from the law on guardianship. In everyday German it means an investment that is completely safe.

Today a court-appointed carer who manages another person’s money should invest it in an interest-bearing account at a bank that belongs to an adequate deposit protection scheme. Shares, funds and bonds need the approval of the court or a court exemption.

In 2021 the state justice ministers discussed the rule. In years of low interest, they saw a conflict between the duty of safety and the goal of preserving the value of the money.

The Pension Reform of 1957

On 21 January 1957, after four days of debate, the Bundestag passed a pension reform with a large majority. 397 of 439 members voted for it. From then on, pensions were tied to the development of wages and salaries. Pensioners’ incomes rose by more than 60 percent on average.

The reform rests on the Generationenvertrag, the contract between generations. The young pay for the pensions of the old with their contributions. A sentence of Konrad Adenauer is often quoted in this context: “Kinder kriegen die Leute immer.” People always have children. It has not been documented to this day that he said it.

Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard and Finance Minister Fritz Schäffer considered the system risky, because it depended on a growing population.

Fast Aid, Then Years of Disputes

In spring 2020 the German states paid emergency aid to small firms and the self-employed. The money went out sehr unbürokratisch und oftmals ohne große Vorprüfung, very unbureaucratically and often without much prior checking. In April 2020 North Rhine-Westphalia stopped payments for a time, after fraud attempts with fake application websites. Later the state demanded part of the money back. In March 2023 the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia ruled the repayment notices unlawful. The court found it had remained unclear what the aid was meant to replace: lost sales, payment problems or living costs. The state could also have recalculated about 220,000 further cases, but said it did not plan to.