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Judgment on Another Day

A German civil court usually does not announce its judgment at the end of the hearing. It sets a separate date for that. Under § 310 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the date may be more than three weeks away only for important reasons, especially the size or difficulty of the case.

A judgment announced right after the hearing has its own name, the Stuhlurteil, the chair judgment. In civil cases the separate date is weit häufiger, far more common. In criminal trials, the judgment at the end of the main hearing is the rule.

The Right to a Second Opinion

A German doctor who recommends certain planned operations must tell the patient about a right. It is the right to a Zweitmeinung, an independent second medical opinion from another qualified doctor. The rule is Section 27b of Book V of the Social Code, introduced in 2015. The doctor must, as a rule, give this information at least ten working days before the planned operation. For some operations the period is fifteen working days. The Federal Joint Committee decides which operations are covered. Its guideline, published at the end of 2018, named two in 2019: tonsil operations and hysterectomies. According to the Deutsches Ärzteblatt, the law responded to a rise in the number of certain elective operations that medicine could hardly explain.

Care Before a Quick Shot

In September 2022, politicians from the opposition and from the governing coalition pressed Chancellor Olaf Scholz to send tanks to Ukraine faster. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann of the FDP, a coalition party, asked: Auf was um Himmels willen warten wir noch? What in heaven’s name are we still waiting for? Scholz described his course as besonnen und entschieden, level-headed and decisive. On 17 February 2023 he explained his approach at the Munich Security Conference: Und bei allem Handlungsdruck, den es ohne Zweifel gibt: In dieser entscheidenden Frage gilt: Sorgfalt vor Schnellschuss, Zusammenhalt vor Solovorstellung. For all the pressure to act, which no doubt exists, this rule applies: care before a quick shot, unity before solo performances. He added that support had to be set up from the start so …, dass wir sie lange durchhalten, so that it can be kept up for a long time. By then, Germany had also agreed to deliver Western battle tanks.

The Year of Separation

A German who wants a divorce must normally wait. Under § 1566 of the Civil Code, a marriage is presumed to have failed wenn die Ehegatten seit einem Jahr getrennt leben, when the spouses have lived apart for one year and both want the divorce or one agrees. If one spouse does not agree, the period is three years. Germans call this the Trennungsjahr, the year of separation. A legal advice site explains its purpose: Das Einhalten des Trennungsjahres soll übereilte Scheidungen verhindern. The year is meant to prevent hasty divorces. Couples can also separate inside one apartment. They must then keep separate households, with no shared bed, meals, shopping or laundry. A divorce before the year is over is possible only in cases of severe hardship, such as violence, and the courts set a high bar for it.

Decisions Are Found

die Entscheidungsfindung
the finding of a decision, the process of deciding

die Urteilsfindung
the finding of a verdict, the deliberation of a court

die Wahrheitsfindung
the finding of the truth

die Findungskommission
the finding committee, the search committee that selects a university president or a broadcasting director

Voluntary for Now

On 5 December 2025 the Bundestag passed a new military service law. 323 members voted for it and 272 against. Young men must fill out a questionnaire, and medical screening at 18 becomes compulsory again. The service itself remains voluntary.

https://youtu.be/GsGyTWphqeE

Compulsory service would need a separate law. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that if too few volunteers came forward or the situation stayed the same or became worse, partial compulsory service could not be avoided.

Parliament decided the first step and left the second step to a later decision.

The Olympic Decision Postponed

In April 2025 the German Olympic Sports Confederation postponed its choice of a German candidate for the Olympic Games. The decision had been planned for its regular assembly on 6 December. It moved to an extraordinary assembly by the end of September 2026 at the latest.

The interested regions received time until June 2026 “um die Bewerbung gesellschaftlich abzusichern”, to secure public support for the bid. Board member Volker Bouffier said: “Fit machen muss mehr bedeuten als ein Bekenntnis, dass wir Olympische Spiele wollen.” Getting fit must mean more than declaring that we want the Olympic Games.

The assembly met in Baden-Baden in September 2026. By then Hamburg’s bid had failed in a referendum, and Berlin had withdrawn.

No Clock in the Quiz

In Wer wird Millionär?, the RTL quiz show hosted by Günther Jauch, there is no time limit for answering a question.

In May 2026 one contestant took so long that Jauch joked about dragging him through five shows. A woman waiting for her turn complained: “Ich bin nicht mehr die Jüngste, so viel Zeit hab ich nicht.” I am not the youngest anymore, I don’t have that much time.

Parents Choose the School Year

Bavaria used to have a fixed cut-off date for starting school. For the 2019/20 school year it introduced a corridor. Parents of children who turn six between 1 July and 30 September decide whether their child starts school now or one year later.

In the first year, 14,171 of the 32,216 children in this group were not enrolled. That is about 44 percent. A Munich kindergarten head explained the thinking: “Ich sage immer, die Kinder sollen lieber überreif in die Schule gehen.” I always say children should rather go to school overripe.

Every Undertaking Has Its Hour

Alles hat seine Zeit. Everything has its time. Germans use the phrase in everyday speech. It comes from Ecclesiastes 3 in the Luther Bible: Ein jegliches hat seine Zeit, und alles Vorhaben unter dem Himmel hat seine Stunde. Everything has its time, and every undertaking under heaven has its hour.

The passage continues with pairs: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, a time to be silent and a time to speak.