Planning Archives - understand-culture

The Vocabulary of Changing Course

Zickzackkurs — a zigzag course. It is said of a policy that keeps changing direction.

Hü und hott — the calls of a carter telling his horses to go one way and then the other. It describes contradictory instructions.

Kehrtwende — an about-turn.

Wendehals — the wryneck, a bird that can turn its head far around. It is an old insult for a turncoat. In 1989, demonstrators in East Germany used it against Egon Krenz. On 18 October 1989, Krenz had announced that the party would bring about a Wende, a turn.

Kurs halten — to hold course. It is said in praise.

durchziehen — to pull through, to see a plan through to the end.

nachsteuern, nachjustieren — to steer again, to readjust. These are the approved words for a correction that keeps the course.

Firing the Coach

In 2011, the University of Münster announced a study by the physicist Andreas Heuer and the sport psychologist Bernd Strauß of coaches dismissed during the season. They examined 46 Bundesliga seasons, from 1963 to 2008/09, with 361 dismissals. At the time of dismissal, the teams were typically six points below expectation. The researchers could not show any effect of the dismissal on the team’s later results.

The Money Targets

From 1974 to 1998, the Bundesbank announced a target for the growth of the money supply every year. It missed the target as often as it met it. The targets ranged from at least 3 to at most 7 percent. The Bundesbank tolerated short-term deviations as long as the private sector saw them as temporary. It never lost sight of its long-term goal of price stability.

The Substitution Plan

In Lower Saxony, a decree of 20 December 2019 requires every school to develop a Vertretungskonzept, a substitution concept, to avoid lost lessons as far as possible. Lessons that cannot be avoided must not be lost one-sidedly at the expense of particular classes or subjects. A school in Dortmund sets an order for absences of medium length. First comes a teacher of the same subject, then a teacher of the same class, and only then general cover. Its teachers are told to check the Vertretungsplan, the substitution plan, several times a day, for example through push messages from the school’s app.

The Special Report

When something unforeseen and of special urgency happens, and the ARD’s editors-in-chief see a need for fuller coverage, the ARD broadcasts a Brennpunkt, a focal point, after the main evening edition of the Tagesschau. The first Brennpunkt aired on 6 January 1971. From 1989, the title was also used for reports on crises and disasters that were arranged at short notice and without long advance announcement.

No Plan B

On 28 February 2016, Chancellor Angela Merkel was interviewed on the talk show Anne Will about her refugee policy. The question was Wann steuern Sie um, Frau Merkel?, when will you change course, Mrs. Merkel? She replied that she was deeply convinced that the path she had taken was right. An English-language report quoted her as saying: “I have no plan B.” German reports give the remark only in indirect speech: Einen Plan B habe sie nicht, she had no plan B.

It Turns Out Differently

Erstens kommt es anders, und zweitens als man denkt. First, it turns out differently, and second, than you think. Duden’s dictionary of famous quotations does not credit the saying to Wilhelm Busch. It treats it as a humorous saying, closely related to a real line from Busch’s Plisch und Plum of 1882: Aber hier, wie überhaupt, kommt es anders, als man glaubt. (But here, as everywhere, it turns out differently than one believes.)

Man Proposes, God Disposes

Der Mensch denkt, Gott lenkt. Man thinks, God steers. The proverb has the same sense as a sentence in The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, from the early fifteenth century: Nam homo proponit, sed Deus disponit, for man proposes, but God disposes. The Kempis sentence echoes Proverbs 16:9, which in Luther’s translation reads: Des Menschen Herz erdenkt sich seinen Weg; aber der HERR allein lenkt seinen Schritt. (A man’s heart devises his way, but the Lord alone directs his steps.)

The Timetable Change

The German rail timetable changes once a year, at the Fahrplanwechsel in December. The date is set by European law: the second Saturday in December, at midnight. Requests for train paths close up to twelve months before the change. Deutsche Bahn usually publishes the next year’s timetable in mid-October. A second change in June is possible where an adjustment is needed after the winter. When storms or strikes disrupt service across regions, Deutsche Bahn runs an Ersatzfahrplan, a substitute timetable.

Changing an Approved Plan

Section 76 of the Administrative Procedure Act deals with plans for roads, rail lines and similar projects that have been approved by Planfeststellung, formal plan approval. It states: Soll vor Fertigstellung des Vorhabens der festgestellte Plan geändert werden, bedarf es eines neuen Planfeststellungsverfahrens. (If the approved plan is to be changed before the project is completed, a new plan approval procedure is required.) For changes of minor importance, the authority may do without a new procedure, but only if the interests of others are not affected or if those affected have agreed.