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.
No Car Toll
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.
The Table Has Its Right
The international rules of Skat were adopted at the German Skat Congress in Halle in 1998. A card counts as played when it lies fully on the table. Eine (aus)gespielte Karte darf nicht zurückgenommen werden. A card that has been played may not be taken back. Bidding, passing and the announcement of the game cannot be withdrawn either. Chess has the same principle. A player who deliberately touches one of his own pieces must move it, if it can be moved. In German this is the Berührt-geführt-Regel, the touched-moved rule. The card players’ version is the saying Tisch hat sein Recht, the table has its right.
Agreed in Fourteen Articles
From 27 September to 4 October 1529, Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli and other reformers met at Marburg, at the invitation of Landgrave Philipp of Hesse. During the debate on the Lord’s Supper, Luther pulled back the tablecloth to show the words Das ist mein Leib, this is my body, which he had written in chalk on the table beforehand. The result was the Marburg Articles. In 14 articles the theologians recorded what they agreed on. The 15th article, on the Lord’s Supper, listed further points of agreement and then recorded in writing the one point on which they did not agree. They had not agreed dißer Zeit, at this time, whether the true body and blood of Christ are bodily present in the bread and wine. Both sides still promised each other Christian love, so fer yedes gewiessen ymmer leyden kann, as far as each conscience can bear. Ten theologians signed it, Luther and Zwingli among them. The document is dated 3 October 1529.
The Vocabulary of Decisions
der Beschluss — a decision made together, the result of a deliberation. Duden’s examples include einen Beschluss ausführen, to carry out a decision. Duden also lists an older meaning, now obsolete: end, conclusion.
die Beschlusslage — the decisions in force. Das ist Beschlusslage, that is what has been decided.
Halten wir fest — let us record that. The chair says it to fix a result.
etwas zu Protokoll geben — to put something on the record.
die Wiedervorlage — resubmission, a date on which a file comes back to the desk for checking.
abhaken — to tick off.
unter Vorbehalt zusagen — to agree subject to a reservation. A yes that is not yet firm often comes with this phrase.
vorbehaltlich der Zustimmung der Gremien — subject to the approval of the committees.
Councils Ask Where Their Decisions Went
Council decisions are not always carried out, and German councils have asked for ways to check. In Braunschweig in 2018, a council inquiry noted: Eine öffentliche Liste mit Ratsbeschlüssen und deren Umsetzungsstand gibt es in Braunschweig leider nicht. Unfortunately, Braunschweig has no public list of council decisions and the state of their implementation. In Leipzig, a motion from the migrants’ advisory council, reported in January 2020, proposed a body with one member from each council group to monitor how decisions are carried out. In Lüneburg in November 2025, a motion asked for public reports on the state of implementation. Its example was a decision from 2023 to set up a register of empty buildings.
Read Aloud, Approved, Signed
Germans who buy an apartment, found a limited company or sign a marriage contract go to a notary. There the whole deed is read aloud. The Notarization Act requires it. Der Inhalt der Niederschrift muss in Gegenwart des Notars den Beteiligten vorgelesen, die Niederschrift von ihnen genehmigt und eigenhändig unterschrieben werden. The content of the record must be read aloud to the parties in the presence of the notary, approved by them and signed by them in their own hand. Maps and drawings are shown to them instead. Before the appointment, a consumer who buys land from a company must as a rule receive the draft 14 days in advance. The Federal Court of Justice confirmed this in 2015.
Bound by Handshake
In many German municipalities, the members of a new council, and sometimes the mayor, are formally committed to their duties with a handshake. The rules of procedure of Holm, in Schleswig-Holstein, say that the newly elected mayor must commit his deputies and all other members auf die gewissenhafte Erfüllung ihrer Obliegenheiten durch Handschlag, to the conscientious performance of their duties by handshake. At the session of 3 May 2019 in Modautal, in Hesse, the council chair committed the new mayor durch Handschlag auf die gewissenhafte Erfüllung seiner Aufgaben, by handshake to the conscientious performance of his duties.
Who Does What by When
German guides to meetings distinguish two kinds of minutes. The Verlaufsprotokoll records the course of the discussion. The Ergebnisprotokoll records only the results. For items about who handles which task, the Haufe Academy’s glossary puts it in four words: Wer macht was bis wann? Who does what by when? Its model table has columns for the person responsible, the deadline and the status. The office consultancy Büro-Kaizen adds a rule. Deshalb ist der erste Tagesordnungspunkt bei jeder Besprechung stets das Ergebnisprotokoll der letzten Sitzung. The first agenda item of every meeting is therefore always the results minutes of the last one.
The Class Council Looks Back
A procedure sheet from the Bavarian state school institute shows how a primary-school class council works. The pupils take the roles of chair, minute-taker, rule-keeper and timekeeper. The second step of every session looks back at the last one. Das letzte Protokoll wird verlesen. The last minutes are read aloud, and the children consider how the decisions were carried out. At the end, the new decisions are summed up. A supplier of school materials describes the same review: Die Klasse prüft, ob Aufgaben und Beschlüsse aus dem letzten Klassenrat umgesetzt wurden. The class checks whether the tasks and decisions of the last class council were carried out.