Kampfabstimmung, a battle vote, is the German word for a vote in which both sides have roughly equal chances. The best-known example came at the SPD party congress in Mannheim on 16 November 1995. For the first time in the party’s history, a chairman who stood for re-election was voted out. In a battle vote, the delegates chose Oskar Lafontaine, who had declared his candidacy only on the day of the vote, over the incumbent, Rudolf Scharping. Scharping was elected deputy chairman and remained leader of the SPD group in the Bundestag.
Respectless Reporting
On 19 October 2018, the leaders of Bayern Munich held a press conference against the media’s criticism of their team. The chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, cited the first article of the Basic Law, that human dignity is inviolable. Wir werden uns diese herabwürdigende, hämische Berichterstattung nicht mehr bieten lassen. We will no longer put up with this degrading, gloating reporting. The president, Uli Hoeneß, said: Wir werden keine respektlose Berichterstattung weiterhin akzeptieren. We will not accept respectless reporting any longer. The public answered with mockery. The trade magazine Horizont headlined Mia san Mimimi, a play on the club motto Mia san mia.
Kontra and Paroli
jemandem Kontra geben — to contradict someone, to resist. DWDS traces it probably to Skat, where Kontra is the opponents’ announcement that they expect the soloist to lose.
jemandem Paroli bieten — to stand up to someone with equal or greater force. DWDS: originally a term from card games, especially Pharao.
Keine Widerrede! — No answering back! DWDS: do it without objecting.
The Dispute of Opinions
German law students learn to write exam answers in a fixed form. Where legal scholars disagree on a question, the answer sets out the Meinungsstreit, the dispute of opinions. First the individual opinions are presented, and the case is tested against each of them. If they lead to different results, the student must decide the dispute, with arguments for and against each opinion. A guide in a legal training journal warns: Auslegung meint Auslegung und nicht das Niederschreiben auswendig gelernter Meinungsstreitigkeiten. Interpretation means interpretation, not writing down disputes learned by heart.
The Hot Seat
Der heiße Stuhl, the hot seat, first ran on RTL on 15 January 1989 and was produced until 1994. Each episode began with one guest and his or her usually very provocative thesis. The guest sat on the hot seat, facing five people who held a completely different opinion. The source that describes the show also notes its weakness. Oft wurde die sachliche Diskussionsebene schnell verlassen und es wurde laut, polemisch und zum Teil auch persönlich. The discussion often left the factual level quickly and became loud, polemical and partly personal.
The Counter-Motion
A shareholder of a German stock corporation who disagrees with a proposal of the management can send a Gegenantrag, a counter-motion, with reasons. If it arrives at least 14 days before the annual general meeting, the company must make it available to the shareholders, with the shareholder’s name and the reasons. An umbrella association of critical shareholders was founded in 1986 by groups that criticize large companies. Its members attend general meetings, put counter-motions and speak to the shareholders.
Pluck at My Wreath
In the first part of Also sprach Zarathustra, published in 1883, Friedrich Nietzsche’s Zarathustra says to his disciples: Man vergilt einem Lehrer schlecht, wenn man immer nur der Schüler bleibt. One repays a teacher badly if one always remains only the pupil. Und warum wollt ihr nicht an meinem Kranze rupfen? And why will you not pluck at my wreath?
The Electric Chair
From 1947 to 1967, the writer Hans Werner Richter invited authors to the meetings of the Gruppe 47. Authors read unpublished texts aloud, and the others criticized them on the spot. The reader sat on the free chair next to Richter, which was jokingly called the elektrischer Stuhl, the electric chair. Zur wichtigen Maxime wurde, dass der Vortragende sich nicht verteidigen durfte, sowie dass die Kritik der konkreten Texte im Mittelpunkt stand. It became an important rule that the reader was not allowed to defend himself, and that the criticism focused on the actual texts. In 1958 Günter Grass read the first chapter of his still unpublished novel Die Blechtrommel at a meeting in the Allgäu and won the group’s prize.
A Vote of Conscience
The Basic Law says that members of the Bundestag are an Aufträge und Weisungen nicht gebunden und nur ihrem Gewissen unterworfen, not bound by orders and instructions, and subject only to their conscience. On some questions, the party leaders ask every member to decide freely. In the week before 30 June 2017, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the vote on marriage for same-sex couples should be such a decision of conscience. On 30 June the Bundestag passed the law by 393 votes to 226, with 4 abstentions. At least 70 members of Merkel’s own CDU/CSU group, almost one in four, voted yes. Merkel herself voted no. Für mich ist die Ehe im Grundgesetz die Ehe von Mann und Frau. For me, marriage in the Basic Law is the marriage of a man and a woman.
The Freedom of Those Who Think Differently
In the autumn of 1918, in prison in Breslau, Rosa Luxemburg wrote a critique of the Russian Revolution. It was published in 1922. She wrote that freedom only for the supporters of the government, or only for the members of one party, is no freedom. In a note in the margin stands her best-known sentence: Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der Andersdenkenden. Freedom is always the freedom of those who think differently. The sentence circulates in several variants. This is the wording of her collected works. On 17 January 1988, civil rights activists and people who wanted to leave East Germany tried to join the state’s yearly march in honor of Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in East Berlin, with their own placards. More than 100 were arrested before they reached it.