Where both parties are merchants, German commercial law requires the buyer to examine goods immediately on delivery and to report any defect immediately — § 377 HGB.
Obvious defects must be reported within a day or two. Hidden ones immediately on discovery. Miss the deadline and the goods count as approved, and the buyer loses his warranty rights entirely.
The German customer is under a legal obligation to be attentive.
Die Hauptuntersuchung. Every German car over three years old is inspected every two years. Roughly 30 million passenger cars pass through it. It has been mandatory since 1951.
The TÜV Report 2026, drawn from 9.5 million inspections between July 2024 and June 2025, found that 21.5 percent of vehicles had significant or dangerous defects.
Read that number the German way. One car in five was on the road with a serious fault, and the system found it before the fault found a person.
Durchleuchten — to illuminate through, to x-ray something.
Auf Herz und Nieren prüfen — to examine heart and kidneys, from the biblical phrase, meaning to test exhaustively.
Unter die Lupe nehmen — to take under the magnifying glass.
Abklopfen — to knock against, the way you test a wall for cavities behind it.
Four ordinary German expressions for examination, and every one of them is physical.
Germans carry insurance that has no obvious equivalent elsewhere. Haftpflichtversicherung, personal liability, held by a large majority of households. Rechtsschutzversicherung, legal expenses. Berufsunfähigkeitsversicherung, occupational disability. None of these is compulsory. All of them are normal.
Das Dienstjubiläum. German companies formally mark ten, twenty-five and forty years of service — with a ceremony, a certificate, often a payment provided for in the collective agreement. Forty years with one employer is a milestone the institution is organised to celebrate.
Aus Prinzip — on principle. Said in German as a complete justification for a position.
Grundsätzlich — fundamentally, as a matter of principle. It opens a great many German sentences, and signals that what follows is derived rather than improvised.
Das ist so vorgesehen — that is how it is provided for. Not how it is done. How it was laid down in advance.
For monetary claims, a German debtor falls into default at the latest thirty days after the debt becomes due and the invoice arrives — without any reminder being sent. The provision is § 286 Abs. 3 BGB. The creditor is not required to chase. The obligation runs on its own clock.
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.
Freie Hand lassen — to leave a free hand.
Das ist Sache des Fachmanns — that is the specialist’s affair.
Da rede ich ihm nicht rein — I don’t talk into that.
Machen lassen — to let someone get on with it.
Four ordinary German expressions, all approving, all describing a client who has stepped back.
German waste law establishes a hierarchy: avoidance first, then reuse, then recycling, then energy recovery, then disposal. Disposal is the last of five options, and the law names the order.