Acquisition. The German word for a significant purchase, and it carries weight — eine Anschaffung fürs Leben, an acquisition for life. Buying is treated as an event with consequences, not as consumption.
Symptom-fighting
Symptom-fighting. A German word that exists in order to criticize.
Das ist reine Symptombekämpfung — that is pure symptom-treatment — is a standard charge in German political and business argument. It means: you have not understood the problem, and what you are doing will not last.
A culture builds a word like that only when it needs to make the accusation often.
The individual conversation
Das Einzelgespräch. The individual conversation. German managers handling a dispute speak to each party alone first, and the sequence is expected. Bringing both into a room before that has happened is read as poor handling, not as directness.
Without a plan
Ohne Plan — without a plan, meaning aimless. Planlos — plan-less, an adjective applied to people, and an insult.
Er hat keinen Plan — he has no plan — is colloquial German for he has no idea. The word for a plan became the word for understanding.
The chamber
Die Kammer. German professions organise into chambers — of crafts, of industry and commerce, of engineers, of architects, of physicians. The chamber examines, certifies, registers and disciplines. Membership is often compulsory. Your standing in a field is held by an institution, not by your employer.
Proportionality
A constitutional principle in German law with a defined three-part test: suitability, necessity, and appropriateness in the narrow sense. Judgment is required, and the structure within which it must be exercised is itself specified.
Honesty lasts longest
Honesty lasts longest. A German proverb, and the argument in it is about duration rather than virtue. It does not say honesty is right. It says honesty is what survives — which is the same argument the culture makes about agreements, prices and partnerships.
The inherited piece
Erbstück. German households pass down furniture, tools, kitchenware and machines across generations, and the word for such a piece marks it as inherited rather than merely old. The object was bought once, by somebody else, and is still working.
Cause-research
Cause-research. German has a single ordinary word for the activity of investigating why something happened, and it appears in news reports as a matter of course. Die Ursachenforschung läuft — the investigation into causes is running.
There is no English equivalent that is not a phrase. Root cause analysis is consultant’s language. Ursachenforschung is what a newsreader says.
The confidentiality duty
Verschwiegenheitspflicht. German works council members, company officers and many employees are under statutory confidentiality duties covering internal matters. A conflict cannot be resolved by making it public, because making it public is itself a breach.