In the approval procedure for Tesla’s factory in Grünheide, near Berlin, 414 people and associations filed objections. The public hearing on them began on 23 September 2020 in the civic hall of Erkner. On the first day it did not get beyond questions of procedure.
Three days had been planned. The hearing went on for eight days. Even so, critics said that it was ended too early, under pressure from the state environment ministry, and that not everyone had been heard.
Mut zur Lücke — courage to leave a gap. Students say it before an exam, when they decide not to learn everything. At work it means accepting an incomplete solution on purpose.
die Goldrandlösung — the gold-rimmed solution. It is a critical word for a solution made perfect at any cost. It is often used in the debate about slow equipment purchases for the Bundeswehr.
The first phrase asks for courage, which shows that completeness is the normal expectation.
entscheidungsreif — ripe for decision. Duden lists it as an example of the suffix -reif, for something developed far enough to qualify for something.
beschlussreif — ripe for a resolution.
kabinettsreif — ready for the cabinet.
Das ist noch nicht spruchreif. — That is not yet ripe for announcement.
nicht ausgereift — not fully ripened, said of a proposal that has not been thought through.
Wir haben noch Beratungsbedarf. — We still need to discuss this. The sentence stops a decision.
Der Teufel steckt im Detail. — The devil is in the detail.
Germany’s Patient Safety Alliance recommends a Team-Time-Out before every operation or other invasive procedure. It takes place immediately before the skin incision. A designated moderator leads the whole team through a checklist. The surgeon names the procedure and the site and side of the body.
The cut may be made only when every point on the checklist has been completed. All members of the team count as equals, and each is called on to speak up as soon as he or she notices an error.
At the Federal Constitutional Court, one judge prepares each case as rapporteur. He or she writes a Votum, a draft decision with the supporting material, and sends it to the other judges before they deliberate. A judge told the political scientist Uwe Kranenpohl: mehr als hundert Seiten ist durchaus normal, more than a hundred pages is quite normal.
When the judges have reached their decision, they meet again to read the draft judgment. Kranenpohl writes: So ist mitunter die Leseberatung intensiver und länger als die eigentliche Entscheidungsberatung. The reading session is sometimes more intensive and longer than the deliberation on the decision itself.
Before the Bundestag votes on the federal budget, its budget committee holds a final session, the Bereinigungssitzung, literally the clean-up session. In der Sitzung wird jeder Einzelplan erneut aufgerufen. In it, every section of the budget is called up again, as a rule with the minister present.
The Bundestag’s news service says the session usually lasts into the early hours of the next morning. On 4 September 2025, the session for the 2025 budget ended after eleven hours. Budget politicians called it the shortest they could remember, and the news headline was Bundesetat-Sitzung in Rekordzeit, budget session in record time.
The explanatory memorandum of every federal bill must state its consequences. The joint rules of procedure of the federal ministries define them in one sentence. Sie umfassen die beabsichtigten Wirkungen und die unbeabsichtigten Nebenwirkungen. They include the intended effects and the unintended side effects. The memorandum must also say whether other solutions exist.
Before a federal bill goes to the cabinet, the joint rules of procedure of the federal ministries require it to be sent to the Ministry of Justice. The ministry checks it in rechtssystematischer und rechtsförmlicher Hinsicht, for its fit with the legal system and for correct legal form. In July 2024, a pharmacy reform from Health Minister Karl Lauterbach did not reach the cabinet.
According to Lauterbach, the legal-form check by the Ministry of Justice had not been finished, and he pointed to the justice minister’s vacation. The Ministry of Justice replied: Die Urlaubsplanungen der Bundesminister haben darauf keinen Einfluss. The ministers’ vacation plans have no influence on it. In August 2024, the bill again missed the cabinet agenda. The Health Ministry said that internal government deliberations were still going on.
When Germans move into or out of a rented apartment, tenant and landlord usually walk through it together, room by room. They record defects, meter readings and the keys handed over in an Übergabeprotokoll, a handover record, and both sign it. The law does not require it. Once it is signed, it binds.
According to the homeowners’ association Haus & Grund in Frankfurt, a record signed by both sides that shows no defects counts as a negatives Schuldanerkenntnis, a negative acknowledgment of debt. The tenant can no longer claim that old damage existed at the handover. In a case reported by the insurer ARAG, a landlady later claimed damage from her tenant’s heavy smoking and kept the deposit. The local court of Leonberg held her to the record both had signed at move-out, which showed no damage.
In the TV debate with Peer Steinbrück on 1 September 2013, Chancellor Angela Merkel said: Mit mir wird es keine PKW-Maut geben! With me there will be no car toll. On 27 November 2013, the CDU, CSU and SPD agreed in their coalition agreement to introduce one. On 27 March 2015, the Bundestag passed it.
That day the SPD member Lothar Binding explained in a written statement why he voted yes. Fair dealing with agreements, including coalition agreements, required it. He added: Deshalb wird mit Angela Merkel heute die PKW-Maut in Deutschland eingeführt. That is why the car toll is introduced in Germany today, with Angela Merkel.
The spoken promise gave way. The signed agreement held.