Germany has an unusually loaded relationship with the word, given the twentieth century, and Planwirtschaft is used as a criticism of excessive central planning. The suspicion attaches to planning as an economic system. It does not attach to planning as professional practice, and Germans hold both views without difficulty.
The cross-entrant
Cross-entrant. The German word for somebody who has moved into a field from outside it. It is not hostile, but it is never neutral either. The word marks the person as having arrived by a side door, and it stays attached to them.
The master decides
A German Meister is trained and examined in the trade and then exercises judgment within it — which materials, which method, when to stop. The qualification is the licence to depart from the obvious procedure.
The jug and the well
The jug goes to the well until it breaks. A German proverb about repeated advantage-taking. The jug does not break because of any single trip. It breaks because the trips continued past the point where they should have stopped, and nobody was counting.
The master’s workshop
Die Meisterwerkstatt. German repair businesses are led by a Meister, registered with the chamber, and the qualification is a condition of operating independently in many trades. The person who mends the thing is certified to the same standard as the person who made it.
The original matter
Ur, primal or original. Sache, the matter. The cause is the original matter — the thing that was there first.
English took cause from the Latin causa, which also gave us accuse and because. The German word contains its own instruction: go back to the thing underneath.
The closed session
Die nichtöffentliche Sitzung. German works council meetings are held in private by statute, and the duty of confidentiality binds the members afterwards. The law removes the audience before the discussion begins.
Planning lead-time
Planungsvorlauf. Planning lead-time. German projects allocate a named period before execution begins, and it appears in the schedule as a phase with its own duration. Starting work before it has elapsed is a departure from the method, not an acceleration of it.
The work reference
Das Arbeitszeugnis. Every German employee is legally entitled to a written reference on leaving, and it must describe the work performed and assess performance and conduct. It is a document about the substance of the job — the tasks, the responsibilities, the specialism — not a character reference.
Years in the field
German job advertisements specify years of Berufserfahrung in the relevant field, and it is what the culture treats as the source of judgment. Discretion is granted to people who have been formed, not to people who are clever.