To pull someone across the table. The German phrase for getting the better of a counterpart in a way that is not legitimate. The image is physical and one-sided. Someone has been moved from their position by force rather than by argument, and the table — the place where the negotiation happened — is what they were dragged over.
At eye level
At eye level. The German phrase for a relationship between parties of equal standing, and the standard description of how a negotiation ought to be conducted. It is a physical claim about posture. Neither party is looking up or down.
Co-determination
Mitbestimmung. German law gives employees seats on the supervisory boards of large companies — half the seats in firms over two thousand employees. The structure assumes that an outcome reached without one side represented is not a legitimate outcome, and builds that into company law.
The principle of equivalence
Das Äquivalenzprinzip. The principle of equivalence — that what each side gives should correspond to what each side receives. It is not an aspiration in German law. It is a working concept that courts apply, and a disturbed equivalence is a ground for intervention.
When the basis falls away
Störung der Geschäftsgrundlage. Section 313 BGB allows a contract to be adjusted where the circumstances that formed its basis have changed so severely that holding a party to it would be unreasonable. The remedy is adjustment rather than release. The law’s instinct is to restore the balance rather than to end the relationship.
Review of standard terms
AGB-Kontrolle. German courts review standard terms and conditions for fairness and strike out clauses that unreasonably disadvantage the other side — and they do it between businesses, not only against consumers. A German company cannot rely on having got a hard clause into its own paperwork. A court will read it and may simply remove it.
Usury as a crime
Wucher. Usury is a criminal offence in Germany, not only a civil one. Taking grossly disproportionate advantage of someone’s weakness is prosecuted. The state treats an imbalanced bargain as a matter for the criminal courts.
Contrary to good morals
Sittenwidrigkeit. Section 138 BGB voids a legal transaction that offends good morals, and specifically one where a party exploits another’s predicament, inexperience or weakness to obtain a conspicuously disproportionate advantage. A German contract can be void because the bargain was too one-sided. Not misrepresented, not coerced — just too unequal.
Good faith
Treu und Glauben. Section 242 of the German Civil Code requires performance according to good faith, with regard to common usage. One sentence, and it is among the most heavily used provisions in German law.
Courts apply it to strike down conduct that is formally within a contract but unacceptable in substance. The agreement being signed does not settle whether it is enforceable.
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin (1929). Franz Biberkopf, an ex-convict, becomes entangled with a criminal gang led by Reinhold, who attempts to manipulate Franz into criminal activities, framing it as a mutually beneficial arrangement. Franz initially tries to assert his autonomy, but Reinhold’s manipulative, transactional approach overwhelms him. The emphasis on reciprocal obligations and maintaining one’s word, even in criminal dealings, underscores the cultural weight given to agreements and commitments in German culture.