In 1997 one of the largest cases of falsified research in German medicine came to light. In response, the German Research Foundation, the DFG, wrote a memorandum on good scientific practice in 1998 and appointed an ombudsman in 1999. In 2019 the memorandum was replaced by a code of 19 guidelines. Every university must turn the code into its own binding rules. The code states plainly: Einrichtungen, die die Leitlinien nicht umsetzen, erhalten keine Fördermittel. (Institutions that do not implement the guidelines receive no funding.) The University of Potsdam, for example, announced that it had to adapt its statute on Selbstkontrolle in der Wissenschaft, self-control in science.
The Analysis of Possible Failures
In the car and aerospace industries, and often elsewhere, a new product or process goes through an FMEA, a Fehlermöglichkeits- und Einflussanalyse, an analysis of possible failures and their effects. A team from different departments lists what could fail, where and how. For each possible failure it describes the consequences and identifies the causes. The aim is to avoid failures from the start rather than to find and correct them later. A general German standard for the method appeared in 1980 as DIN 25448. In 1996 the German Association of the Automotive Industry, the VDA, published an improved version. Since 2019 the car industry has used a common handbook of the VDA and its American counterpart, the AIAG.
The Train That Only Ran in Shanghai
The Transrapid maglev train was developed in Germany. Its only line in regular service opened at the end of 2002 in Shanghai. In Germany, three planned lines were abandoned after years of planning. In September 2006 a Transrapid on the test track in Emsland ran into a maintenance vehicle, and 23 people died. The cause was found to be human error. On 27 March 2008 the federal transport minister, Wolfgang Tiefensee, and the Bavarian premier, Günther Beckstein, ended the planned line to Munich airport. Its estimated cost had risen from 1.85 to 3.4 billion euros. Beckstein said: Damit hat sich das Thema leider erledigt. (With that, the matter is unfortunately closed.) The test track in Emsland was shut down at the end of 2011.
Expert Standards in Nursing
German nursing has its own written standards. The German Network for Quality Development in Nursing was founded in 1992. Its first Expertenstandard, on preventing pressure sores, came out of a pilot project from 1998 to 2001. Others followed, on discharge from hospital, on preventing falls, on mobility and, in 2023, on the health of the skin. Each standard goes through a process in six steps. It is developed by experts, agreed at a consensus conference and then introduced on a trial basis in care facilities. The printed standard serves as the binding basis for this trial.
So That the Market Accepts the Standard
The German standards institute DIN explains why it works by consensus: Damit der Markt die Normen akzeptiert, sind eine breite Beteiligung, Transparenz und Konsens Grundprinzipien bei DIN. (So that the market accepts standards, broad participation, transparency and consensus are basic principles at DIN.) All groups with an interest in a topic can take part. Before a standard is adopted, the draft is published, and the professional public can comment on it through an online portal. All participants then revise the draft on the basis of the comments. Applying a DIN standard is in principle voluntary. It becomes binding only when a contract or a law requires it.
The Life Journey of a German Inventor
Carl Benz filed a patent for a vehicle with a gas engine on 29 January 1886. It was granted on 2 November 1886. On 3 July 1886 he made the first public test drive in Mannheim. In 2011 UNESCO added the patent to its Memory of the World register. Benz’s three-wheeler is described as the world’s first practical motor car with a combustion engine. Steam vehicles had been in use long before. In August 1888 his wife Bertha drove it from Mannheim to Pforzheim with their two teenage sons, without her husband’s knowledge. A pharmacy in Wiesloch, where she bought fuel, is considered the world’s first filling station. Her experiences on the drive fed into later cars, among them a low gear for steep hills and leather linings for the brakes. In 1925 Benz’s memoirs appeared under the title Lebensfahrt eines deutschen Erfinders, The Life Journey of a German Inventor. They were written by his son-in-law and authorized by Benz.
A Guideline for Writing Guidelines
In German medicine, accepted good practice is written down in Leitlinien, clinical guidelines. Since 1995 the umbrella body of the medical scientific societies, the AWMF, has coordinated their development. Each guideline is graded by how it was made. An S1 guideline comes from an expert group in informal consensus. An S3 guideline has gone through every step of systematic development. Guidelines are not law, but in a given case they can define the care a doctor owes a patient. Even the method of writing a guideline is itself written down. The AWMF calls its rule book die Leitlinie zur Erstellung und Publikation of guidelines, the guideline for writing and publishing them.
Training Rules Made by Consensus
When Germany creates or modernizes a training occupation, the new rules are drafted by experts from practice. The employers’ organizations and the unions nominate them. A procedure starts only when the employers and the unions of the industry agree. Without major disagreements it takes about two years. The employers’ federation BDA sums it up: Ordnungsarbeit ist Konsensarbeit – und zwar auf allen Ebenen. (Regulation work is consensus work, at every level.) The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training writes that this consensus principle has proven itself over decades. Once the regulation is issued, it binds every company in the country. The Vocational Training Act says: Für einen anerkannten Ausbildungsberuf darf nur nach der Ausbildungsordnung ausgebildet werden. (For a recognized training occupation, training may follow only the training regulation.)
The Greatest Germans
In 2003 the public broadcaster ZDF asked viewers to choose the greatest German in a series called Unsere Besten, Our Best. The result was broadcast on 28 November 2003. The top ten were Konrad Adenauer, Martin Luther, Karl Marx, Sophie and Hans Scholl, Willy Brandt, Johann Sebastian Bach, Goethe, Johannes Gutenberg, Otto von Bismarck and Albert Einstein. In the list of results, Gutenberg, in eighth place, appears as the Erfinder des Mobilletterndrucks, the inventor of printing with movable type. German Wikipedia is more precise. It says Gutenberg is considered the inventor of modern printing with movable metal type and of the printing press. Around 1040 a Chinese smith, Bi Sheng, had already made movable type from ceramic, and in 1377 a Korean book was printed with metal type.
The Right to Award Doctorates
In Germany, the right to award doctorates belongs to universities and to institutions of equal status. Hesse found a way to extend it. Under its higher education law, a university of applied sciences can receive a time-limited right to award doctorates, but only in a field where it has proven enough research strength. In 2016 the criteria included at least 12 research-strong professors in the field and, in non-technical fields, at least 150,000 euros of external research funding over three years. In the same year, Hochschule Fulda became the first university of applied sciences in Germany to receive the right. At first it applied to one doctoral center in the social sciences. Other fields were added later.