The Matter Archives - understand-culture

Words Built on the Matter

Kommen Sie bitte zur Sache! — Please come to the point, literally to the matter.

Das tut nichts zur Sache. — That is beside the point. Duden’s example: von wem ich es weiß, tut nichts zur Sache, who told me is beside the point.

bei der Sache sein — to be fully concentrated on the task.

Sachdienliche Hinweise nimmt jede Polizeidienststelle entgegen. — Any police station will accept information relevant to the case. Duden gives it as its example for sachdienlich.

der Sachbearbeiter — the official who handles a case.

die Sachpolitik — policy on the substance.

Zur Sache, Schätzchen — To the point, darling. The title of May Spils’s film of 1968.

At the Humboldt-Schule in Kiel, pupils in the seventh grade learn to write an Inhaltsangabe, a summary of a text. The school’s curriculum sets the rules. Pupils render the content sachlich, knapp und präzise, factually, briefly and precisely, in a sachlicher, nüchterner Stil, a factual and sober style. They write in the present tense and use no direct speech and no quotations. The test checks that the summary is complete and correct, and it grades the language: present tense, factual style, indirect speech.

Speak Well of Him

Luther’s Small Catechism of 1529 is still often used in confirmation classes. It explains the eighth commandment, Du sollst nicht falsch Zeugnis reden wider deinen Nächsten, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Wir sollen Gott fürchten und lieben, daß wir unsern Nächsten nicht belügen, verraten, verleumden oder seinen Ruf verderben, sondern sollen ihn entschuldigen, Gutes von ihm reden und alles zum besten kehren. We should fear and love God, so that we do not lie about our neighbor, betray him, slander him or ruin his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him and put the best construction on everything.

A Hundred Authors Against Einstein

In 1931 a pamphlet appeared in Leipzig under the title Hundert Autoren gegen Einstein, A Hundred Authors Against Einstein. The physicist Hans Reichenbach called it an astonishing accumulation of naive errors. Einstein’s reply is often quoted: if he were wrong, a single author would have been enough to refute him. The quotation collection The Ultimate Quotable Einstein gives as its source Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, more than fifty years later.

The Critic Who Left

From 1988 to 2001, ZDF’s Das Literarische Quartett showed critics arguing about new books, dominated by Marcel Reich-Ranicki and known for his devastating verdicts. In June 2000 the critics discussed Haruki Murakami’s novel Gefährliche Geliebte. Reich-Ranicki accused the critic Sigrid Löffler of always complaining about novels about love, and said she regarded love as something anstößig Unanständiges, offensively indecent. On air, Löffler rejected this as a persönliche Unterstellung, a personal insinuation. After the episode she announced that she would leave the program.

The Hair Sample

In 2000 it was agreed that Christoph Daum, coach of Bayer Leverkusen, would become national coach in the summer of 2001. On 1 October 2000, the Bayern manager Uli Hoeneß hinted in a newspaper that Daum used drugs. On 9 October Daum gave a hair sample of his own accord. Ich tue das, weil ich ein absolut reines Gewissen habe. I am doing this because I have an absolutely clear conscience. On 20 October he was told the result from the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the University of Cologne. It showed cocaine. Leverkusen dismissed him without notice, and Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, then acting head of the DFB, declared: Der Handschlag-Vertrag mit Daum ist gegenstandslos. The handshake contract with Daum is void.

Compare, but Do Not Disparage

For a long time, comparative advertising was in principle forbidden in Germany. The Federal Court of Justice gave up this line in 1998, after a European directive of 1997. Today the law allows an ad to name a competitor, under conditions. The comparison must relate objectively to essential, relevant, verifiable and typical features, or to the price. It is unfair if it herabsetzt oder verunglimpft, disparages or denigrates, the competitor’s goods, activities or circumstances. In 2009 the court judged a TV spot for the newspaper taz. In it, a man at a kiosk asks for a paper, and the owner hands him a BILD from under the counter. The spot ends: taz ist nicht für jeden. Das ist OK so. The taz is not for everyone. That’s OK. The court allowed it. Humor is disparagement only if it exposes the competitor to mockery or ridicule, or if viewers take it literally as a put-down.

On the Person, Then on the Matter

A German criminal trial begins with two kinds of questions. First the presiding judge questions the defendant on his personal circumstances. Then the defendant is told that he is free to comment on the charge or nicht zur Sache auszusagen, not to testify on the matter. Only if he is willing is he questioned zur Sache, on the matter.

Sides Drawn by Lot

Jugend debattiert, Youth Debates, is a school debating competition, an initiative of the federal president and under his patronage. It grew out of a Hamburg school debate first held in 1999. In each debate two speakers argue for a proposition and two against it. Die Positionen, Pro und Contra, werden den Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmern kurz zuvor zugelost. The positions, for and against, are assigned to the participants by lot shortly before. The jury scores four things: Sachkenntnis, Ausdrucksvermögen, Gesprächsfähigkeit und Überzeugungskraft, knowledge of the matter, power of expression, ability to engage in discussion, and persuasiveness. In the closing round a debater may change position, but only on the basis of the debate just held.

The Curtain at the Audition

Musicians who apply for a post in a German orchestra play an audition, the Probespiel. In the 1970s a curtain was introduced. Die Leistung im Probespiel wurde durch Einführung des Vorhangs – zumindest in der ersten Runde – anonymisiert. With the curtain, the playing in the audition became anonymous, at least in the first round. In 1971, women made up just under six percent of the musicians in German orchestras. A survey in 2020 of all 129 publicly funded orchestras in Germany found 39.6 percent women.