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.
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.
Risks Into the Budget
In June 2015, the federal reform commission on the construction of large projects presented its final report. It explained why such projects so often cost more than planned. Cost estimates neglect existing risks and are often well below the costs that can really be expected. The regular underestimation of costs and time is often politically motivated. Even where risks were assessed, they usually did not enter the budget approved for the project. A study it cited of 170 large projects found an average cost increase of 73 percent, although the report noted that the study was not representative. Its third recommendation is titled Risikomanagement und Erfassung von Risiken im Haushalt, risk management and recording risks in the budget. Risks should be named when funds are requested. Identifying and assessing them, and planning countermeasures, should be a condition for receiving money. Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt summed it up: risk buffers and professional risk management make cost and time plans more reliable.
The Permanent Forest
In 1922 the forest scientist Alfred Möller of Eberswalde published Der Dauerwaldgedanke, the idea of the permanent forest. Its core is the Stetigkeit des Waldwesens, the continuity of the forest as a living whole, above all by giving up clear-cutting. Möller’s example was the Bärenthoren estate, where Friedrich von Kalitsch had managed a pine forest this way since 1884. Von Kalitsch said: Ich mache niemals Kahlschläge und durchforste meinen ganzen Wald persönlich auszeichnend. I never clear-cut, and I personally mark the trees for thinning in my whole forest. Möller called clear-cut forestry Holzackerbau, timber farming. Under the German Empire, the usual practice was to plant single-species stands of spruce and pine and to harvest them after a few decades. A presentation on the website of the Brandenburg forest administration puts the idea in one line: Stetigkeit ist das Gegenteil von Plötzlichkeit. Continuity is the opposite of suddenness.
The Zero Must Stand
Die Null muss stehen! The zero must stand, which means: keep a clean sheet. Before the 1997 UEFA Cup final against Inter Milan, Schalke 04 coach Huub Stevens said: “‘Die Null muss stehen!’ Das ist unser Wahlspruch.” The zero must stand. That is our motto. Schalke won the cup on 21 May 1997.
The phrase became Stevens’s trademark. When he returned to Schalke in December 2020, a fan’s message called it “der ewige Spruch”, the eternal saying. Stevens is Dutch, but the saying became part of German football.
Stones You Can Build On
Auf diese Steine können Sie bauen. You can build on these stones. The building society Schwäbisch Hall has used this slogan since 1962, with its logo of four building blocks from 1956. The company says the blocks stand for security, trust, competence and reliability.
The fox has been the brand’s mascot since 1975. According to the company, 89 percent of people connect the slogan with the brand.
How a Coming Generation Is to Live
At Christmas 1942 the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an essay for a small circle, Nach zehn Jahren, After Ten Years. It was meant for his parents, his friend Eberhard Bethge and his resistance colleagues Hans von Dohnanyi and Hans Oster. In it he wrote: “Die letzte verantwortliche Frage ist nicht, wie ich mich heroisch aus der Affäre ziehe, sondern [wie] eine kommende Generation weiterleben soll.”
The ultimate responsible question is not how I heroically extricate myself from the affair, but how a coming generation is to go on living. Bonhoeffer called talk of heroic downfall unheroic, because it did not dare to look into the future.
The Full-Coverage Mentality
die Vollkaskomentalität
the full-coverage mentality. Vollkasko is fully comprehensive car insurance. The word describes the expectation that someone should cover every risk in life.
Germans use the word to criticize themselves. In 2023 Marcel Fratzscher, president of the German Institute for Economic Research, wrote: “Diese Vollkaskomentalität ist heute die größte Gefahr für die Zukunftsfähigkeit Deutschlands.” This full-coverage mentality is today the greatest danger to Germany’s future.
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.