Federführung — the quill-leading. The German term for which department holds the pen on a document, a project or a negotiation. It is contested openly, because whoever drafts determines what is discussed.
At any price
At any price. Used in German almost exclusively as a warning. Er wollte es um jeden Preis — he wanted it at any price — describes someone who has lost their judgment, not someone who is determined.
David Hilbert
In lectures given in 1922 at Göttingen, Hilbert launched his Beweistheorie — proof theory. The aim was to take the proofs of mathematics and make them themselves the object of investigation, to establish that no contradiction could ever be derived within the system.
As he put it, we move to a higher level of contemplation, from which the axioms, formulae and proofs of the mathematical theory are themselves the objects of investigation.
Not: are these results correct. But: is this way of reaching results sound at all.
The specialist track
Die Fachlaufbahn. The specialist career track. Larger German companies maintain a technical progression path running parallel to the management one, with equivalent grades and equivalent pay. The existence of the structure is the evidence. It concedes that a valuable person may not want to manage anybody, and builds a way for them to rise anyway.
Whose competence
Zuständigkeit — competence, jurisdiction, the area for which one is responsible. German organisations and public bodies define it precisely, and disputes about it are real disputes. Dafür bin ich nicht zuständig is not an evasion. It is a statement about where the authority sits.
The price is right
The German title of the television show known in English as The Price Is Right, in which contestants guess the retail price of consumer goods. The premise only works if prices are knowable — if there is a right answer to guess. The show is built on the assumption that every item has one correct price.
The conduct of a proof
Proof-leading. German separates the Beweis, the proof, from the Beweisführung, the conducting of it.
You can be right and have your Beweisführung attacked. The two are assessed separately, and the second is where the argument usually happens.
Words for not wasting
Verschwendung — squandering. A strong word in German, applied to time, money, materials and talent alike.
Sparsam — thrifty, and it is praise. Applied to a person, an engine or a design.
Aus wenig viel machen — to make much from little.
Wer den Pfennig nicht ehrt, ist des Talers nicht wert — who does not honour the penny is not worthy of the thaler.
The shortage of skilled workers
Fachkräftemangel is a permanent topic in German public debate, with its own government programmes, its own immigration legislation, and its own annual statistics. The noun refers to a shortage of Fachkräfte specifically — not of workers, and not of graduates.
The works agreement
A Betriebsvereinbarung between employer and works council binds both and governs how work is organised. Negotiating one is a genuine contest, and its terms determine daily working life more directly than most management decisions.