On 28 January 1919, Max Weber gave his lecture Politik als Beruf, Politics as a Vocation, in Munich. In it he described the true civil servant. The official should not engage in politics. He should administer, and above all he should be impartial. Sine ira et studio, „ohne Zorn und Eingenommenheit“ soll er seines Amtes walten. He should carry out his office without anger and without bias. The Latin phrase comes from the opening of the Annals of Tacitus. Weber then named what belongs to the politician instead: Parteinahme, Kampf, Leidenschaft. Taking sides, struggle, passion.
Make the Opponent Angry
Around 1830, Arthur Schopenhauer began a manuscript on the tricks people use to win an argument. It was published after his death, in 1864, and is known as Eristische Dialektik or Die Kunst, Recht zu behalten, The Art of Being Right. Trick number 8 reads: Den Gegner zum Zorn reizen: denn im Zorn ist er außer Stand, richtig zu urteilen und seinen Vorteil wahrzunehmen. Make your opponent angry, because in anger he cannot judge correctly or protect his own interests. Schopenhauer explains how it is done. Man bringt ihn in Zorn dadurch, daß man unverhohlen ihm Unrecht tut und schikaniert und überhaupt unverschämt ist. You treat him unfairly in the open, you harass him, and you are generally insolent. Trick number 27 also uses anger. If the opponent suddenly becomes angry at an argument, press that argument hard. The anger suggests that you have touched the weak side of his thinking.
Rhetoric Deserves No Respect
In 1790, Immanuel Kant published the Kritik der Urteilskraft, the Critique of Judgment. In section 53 he ranks the arts, and he separates two things. Speaking well and beautifully belongs to the fine arts. The art of the orator, ars oratoria, does not. Kant defines it as the art of using people’s weaknesses for one’s own purposes, even when those purposes are well meant or really good. Rednerkunst … ist … gar keiner Achtung würdig. It deserves no respect at all. Kant explains why. Such an art moves people to a judgment in important matters als Maschinen, as machines, and it takes away their freedom. He wrote that reading the best speech of a Roman orator, a member of parliament or a preacher was always mixed for him with an unpleasant feeling of disapproval of a deceitful art.
The Compass Needle in the Storm
Carl von Clausewitz’s Vom Kriege, On War, was published after his death, from 1832 to 1834. In the chapter on military genius he defines a strong mind. Ein starkes Gemüt ist nicht ein solches, welches bloß starker Regungen fähig ist, sondern dasjenige, welches bei den stärksten Regungen im Gleichgewicht bleibt. A strong mind is not one that is merely capable of strong emotions. It is one that stays in balance during the strongest emotions. Clausewitz gives an image for it. Despite the storms in the chest, insight and conviction keep their free movement, like the needle of a compass on a ship in a storm. He calls the power behind it Selbstbeherrschung, self-control. It is the power to submit to reason even in moments of the most violent emotion.
Borrowed from the stage
Along with Theater, Schauspiel, Inszenierung. German dismissals of a negotiating performance. All four are borrowed from the stage, and all four mean the same thing: what you are watching was arranged in advance to produce an effect on you.
Emotional blackmail
Emotionale Erpressung. Emotional blackmail. A German term applied to a negotiator who invokes the relationship, the history, or personal difficulty in order to move a position. The word names it as coercion rather than as persuasion.
Collective bargaining by sequence
Tarifverhandlungen. German collective bargaining runs through a defined sequence — rounds, a declared failure, then Schlichtung, arbitration by an agreed neutral, before any industrial action. The procedure is designed to keep a dispute that is genuinely felt inside a form that is not.
Counsel at the table
German companies bring legal counsel into commercial negotiations early and as a matter of course, not as an escalation. The lawyer’s presence changes the register. It is difficult to appeal to a relationship across a table with a Justiziar at it, and that is part of why they are there.
The negotiation record
Das Verhandlungsprotokoll. German negotiations produce a written record of what was proposed, what was objected to, and what was agreed, circulated afterwards and corrected. Whatever was felt in the room does not survive into the document. Only the positions do.
The honourable merchant
Der ehrbare Kaufmann. The honourable merchant — a German commercial tradition with roots in the Hanseatic League, still taught by the chambers of commerce and written into their codes. The merchant’s standing rests on conduct: keeping to what was said, dealing straight, not exploiting an advantage. Charm is not on the list.