A German decision of any weight is preceded by a Gutachten — a commissioned written report by a qualified expert, produced on its own timetable and forming a document in its own right.
Building disputes, medical questions, insurance claims, environmental approvals, legislation. The analysis is a deliverable with an author who is answerable for it, not a stage of somebody’s thinking.
Der Wissensträger — the knowledge carrier. A German term for the person in whom a body of expertise sits.
Wissen ist Macht — knowledge is power, said in German with no irony and no particular objection.
The team’s knowledge is spoken of as something held, carried and accumulated, rather than as something that circulates.
German construction runs on the VOB — a standard set of contract terms, technical conditions and award rules, maintained by a permanent committee of public clients, contractors and professional bodies. Most German building work is performed under the same document.
Where performance is late, a German creditor generally cannot simply withdraw from the contract. He must first set a reasonable further period and let it run — § 323 Abs. 1 BGB. The law builds a second chance into lateness. What is not tolerated is the failure that survives the second chance.
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.
German suppliers ask for one person on the client side who can answer questions and make decisions, and the arrangement is often written into the contract. The information flows through a defined channel rather than through whoever happens to be available.
Kraft-Wärme-Kopplung. Combined heat and power. German plants capture the heat that electricity generation would otherwise waste and pipe it into district heating networks. The waste from one process is the input to another, by design.
A word for someone with deep command of a narrow field and no grasp of anything beyond it.
It is used with contempt, and it is reserved for the genuinely expert. You cannot be a Fachidiot without first being a Fachmann.
A culture that needs a word for the excess of a virtue has thought hard about the virtue.
Wirtschaftlich — economical, and also simply commercial. One adjective for both.
Haushalten — to keep house, used of managing any resource including time and attention.
Auf Verschleiß fahren — to drive on wear, to run something down without maintaining it, and it is an accusation.
Sich verzetteln — to scatter oneself across too many slips of paper, to fritter effort away.
The employer’s statutory duty to report to the works meeting on the establishment’s financial position carries an express limitation: only as far as there is no risk of disclosing trade or business secrets. Even the most sweeping German information duty stops at the point where knowledge becomes an asset that could leave.