In March 2021, during the pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the state premiers agreed overnight on an Osterruhe, extra days of rest over Easter. On 24 March 2021, Merkel withdrew it. She explained that the idea hatte ihre guten Gründe, war aber in der Kürze der Zeit nicht gut genug umsetzbar, had good reasons, but could not be carried out well enough in the short time available. The open questions concerned pay for the lost working days and the situation of shops and businesses. They could not be answered in time. She added: Dennoch war die Idee der sogenannten Osterruhe ein Fehler. (Nevertheless, the idea of the so-called Easter rest was a mistake.)
Thinking From the End
In the Chancellery under Angela Merkel, her method had a name: Die Dinge vom Ende her denken, thinking things through from the end. Her biographer Ursula Weidenfeld described the steps. Merkel commissioned reports, called ethics councils, watched public opinion and kept her own intentions to herself. Weidenfeld summed it up as Warten, Schweigen und dann erst Handeln, waiting, silence, and only then action. Merkel herself tells a story from school. In a sports lesson, she stood on the three-meter diving board and jumped only when the school bell had already ended the lesson.
Too Little Time to Deliberate
In early July 2023, the Bundestag was about to pass a major change to the law on heating systems in buildings, in the last week before the summer break. A CDU member of parliament, Thomas Heilmann, asked the Federal Constitutional Court to stop the vote, because members had too little time to study the final text. On 5 July 2023, the court issued an interim order by five votes to two, and the vote was postponed. The court weighed the risk of an irreversiblen Verletzung der Beteiligungsrechte, an irreversible violation of the member’s right to take part, against the cost of a delay. The Bundestag passed the law on 8 September 2023. In July 2026, the court decided the main case. It ruled Heilmann’s application inadmissible and found that the deliberations had been very compressed, but neither exceptionally short nor empty of content.
Twelve Hours to Comment
When a federal ministry prepares a draft law, it is to send it möglichst frühzeitig, as early as possible, to the states, the associations of local governments and the national associations whose interests it affects. The rule is old. Its predecessor from 1924 already asked ministries to bring in the representatives of the professional groups concerned in good time. In October 2019, an unusual alliance of employers’ associations and unions wrote an open letter of protest. They included the industry federation BDI, the energy association BDEW, the union federation DGB and the services union ver.di. A ministry had sent a draft over a weekend and wanted comments by Monday at 6 p.m. The letter said this left weniger als 12 Stunden, less than twelve hours, to prepare a position, and that it was not the first time.
Care Before Speed
In December 2020, Klaus Reinhardt, president of the German Medical Association, said that a review period of four weeks for a Covid vaccine was too long. A spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Health answered that the care and reliability of the vaccine had oberste Priorität, top priority. The headline in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt on 4 December 2020 was Bei Impfstoffzulassung gilt Sorgfalt vor Schnelligkeit. In vaccine approval, care comes before speed.
Words for not hurrying
Gut Ding will Weile haben — a good thing wants time.
Eile mit Weile — hurry with leisure, a German rendering of festina lente.
Übers Knie brechen — to break something over the knee. The German phrase for forcing a hasty resolution, and it names what happens to the thing.
Erst mal eine Nacht drüber schlafen — sleep a night over it first. Said in German meetings, and acted on.
Planning lead-time
Planungsvorlauf. Planning lead-time. German projects allocate a named period before execution begins, and it appears in the schedule as a phase with its own duration. Starting work before it has elapsed is a departure from the method, not an acceleration of it.
Time to think it over
Bedenkzeit. Time to think it over. A German negotiating and mediating convention: a party may ask for it, and asking is not read as weakness or delay. The request is granted as a matter of course, and often proposed by the mediator.
The court-appointed expert
Der Sachverständige. German disputes over technical matters routinely go to a court-appointed expert, who produces a written report on a timetable measured in months. The court waits. The report arrives when it is finished.
“Yes or No“
If confronted with a yes-no question too early, Germans react instinctively with a no. They reject any form of pressure to commit to something.
Even after having provided in-depth information and advice to a potential customer the German salesperson will be careful not to ask the closing question "Do you want to buy?".
Instead they will state their continued availability to answer any and all additional questions. Germans are allergic to any form of direct selling. Hard selling has a particularly bad reputation.
German consumers avoid the pressure applied by direct sales by seeking out expertise in their network of personal and professional contacts, including using online social networks. Germans want to take their time before making decisions. An intelligent sales approach respectfully gives them that time.