Wendelstein 7-X in Greifswald is a fusion experiment of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. Its design rests on an optimization concept calculated in advance. The largely worked-out application for EU support was submitted in August 1990. Construction of the new institute building began in 1997. The machine produced its first plasma on 10 December 2015. Because of the long construction phase, the total cost of the Greifswald site was more than double the original estimate. One experimental phase in 2018 had a clearly stated aim: die Richtigkeit der berechneten Optimierung experimentell zu überprüfen, to check by experiment that the calculated optimization was correct.
Research That May Fail
The German Research Foundation funds Reinhart Koselleck-Projekte for besonders innovative und im positiven Sinne risikobehaftete Forschung, particularly innovative research that carries risk in a positive sense. A project receives between 500,000 and 1.25 million euros for five years. Only researchers with an outstanding academic record may apply.
Gymnastics Written Down
On 19 June 1811 Friedrich Ludwig Jahn began public gymnastics in Berlin. This counts as the birth of the German gymnastics movement, Turnen. Jahn introduced many pieces of apparatus, among them the horizontal bar and the parallel bars. In 1816 he published, with Ernst Eiselen, Die deutsche Turnkunst, zur Einrichtung der Turnplätze dargestellt, German gymnastics, set out for the establishment of gymnastics grounds. According to German Wikipedia, the book came from practice for practice. It contains a model description of a gymnastics ground and its apparatus, the exercises, and the order and laws of gymnastics, down to the conduct and dress of gymnasts and teachers.
In Praise of Doubt
Around 1939 Bertolt Brecht wrote a poem called Lob des Zweifels, In Praise of Doubt. It begins: Gelobt sei der Zweifel! Ich rate euch, begrüßt mir / Heiter und mit Achtung den / Der euer Wort wie einen schlechten Pfennig prüft! (Praised be doubt! I advise you, greet cheerfully and with respect the one who tests your word like a bad coin.) He goes on: Ich wollte, ihr wäret weise und gäbt / Euer Wort nicht allzu zuversichtlich. (I wish you were wise and did not give your word too confidently.)
The Business Plan Competition
Since 1995 the Businessplan-Wettbewerb Berlin-Brandenburg, a competition of written business plans, has supported new founders. Two independent jurors review each plan confidentially against fixed criteria, and every participant receives individual feedback. In the 2025 competition there were 557 submissions, and 213 jurors wrote 1,114 evaluations. According to the organizers, 12,577 business concepts have been submitted since the competition began, and 2,370 companies have come out of it. Participants can now submit a Business Model Canvas instead of, or alongside, a full plan. Each phase also includes a pitch event, where teams receive direct feedback from the jury.
The Vocabulary of Failure
der Rohrkrepierer
A shell that bursts inside the gun barrel. An initiative that harms the person who launched it.
die Bruchlandung
A crash landing.
Schiffbruch erleiden
To suffer shipwreck. To fail with a plan.
etwas in den Sand setzen
To drive something into the sand. To ruin a project, usually with money lost.
ein Schuss in den Ofen
A shot into the stove. An effort that achieved nothing.
sich die Finger verbrennen
To burn one’s fingers. To get hurt by a risky venture.
Gebranntes Kind scheut das Feuer.
A burnt child avoids the fire.
etwas unter den Teppich kehren
To sweep something under the carpet.
The Press Code
German journalism has a written code of good practice, the Pressekodex of the German Press Council. It was handed to Federal President Gustav Heinemann on 12 December 1973. By tradition, every later change is also handed to the sitting Federal President. One of its most debated rules concerns whether to mention the ethnic or national group of a suspect. In 2016 several editors called for this guideline to be deleted. The Council did not delete it. On 22 March 2017 it rewrote guideline 12.1. It now says that membership of a group soll in der Regel nicht erwähnt werden, es sei denn, es besteht ein begründetes öffentliches Interesse, should as a rule not be mentioned unless there is a justified public interest.
Children’s Football Without League Tables
The German Football Association, the DFB, changed the game for its youngest players. In the youngest age groups there are no more championship tables. Children play in small teams at festivals. The new formats were first tested in a pilot phase over two years. In January 2022 the DFB’s youth assembly confirmed the recommendation of its youth committee, and on 11 March 2022 the association’s general assembly adopted it. In September 2023 Hans-Joachim Watzke, a vice-president of the DFB, called the plans unfassbar, unbelievable, and announced a “reform of the reform”. DFB officials defended the decision. Since the 2024/25 season, the new rules have been binding throughout Germany.
Set Theory in Primary School
On 3 October 1968 the conference of West German education ministers decided to introduce the “New Mathematics” in all types of school from the 1972/73 school year. The most spectacular change was in primary school. Mathematics no longer began with counting and arithmetic, but with set theory, the Mengenlehre. Parents and teachers resisted, and the reform was withdrawn after a few years. Der Spiegel headlined Große Verwirrung, great confusion, in 1972, and Mengenlehre: 3+5=5+3 in 1974.
A Handbook That Grew to 2,550 Pages
In 1995 the German federal office for information security, the BSI, published its first IT-Grundschutzhandbuch, a handbook of standard security measures for computer systems. It began with 18 modules and 200 measures. At the end it had 58 modules and 720 measures, and it had grown from 150 to 2,550 pages. In 2006 it was split up into standards and catalogues, and in October 2017 the catalogues were replaced by a new compendium. Organizations can be certified on the basis of these written measures.