After the Berlin Blockade of 1948 to 1949, the three Western city commandants ordered West Berlin in 1950 to keep stocks, the Senatsreserve. The goal was to keep normal life going for at least 180 days in case of a new blockade. The reserve held staple foods, medicine, coal, fuel, raw materials and everyday goods, among them 189,000 tonnes of grain and four million light bulbs. At one point there were more than 700 storage sites, most of them secret. The goods were rotated, and old stock was sold cheaply to Berliners. The reserve was dissolved in 1990.
The Compulsory Fire Brigade
In Germany, fire protection is a duty of the municipality. According to the German Fire Brigade Association, there are volunteer fire brigades in all municipalities. If too few people volunteer, state law has a next step. In Schleswig-Holstein, for example, the municipality must then set up a Pflichtfeuerwehr, a compulsory fire brigade, and residents aged 18 to 50 can be required to serve. In 2018, the Baltic Sea resort of Grömitz decided to set one up, after its active members had fallen from 210 to 150.
The Warning Day That Failed
On 10 September 2020, Germany held its first nationwide warning day. The alarm was planned for 11 a.m. The warnings in the apps NINA and KATWARN arrived on phones more than half an hour late. Many connected control centers had triggered warnings on their own, alongside the central one, and the system was overloaded. The agreed concept had provided for activation by the federal government only. Christoph Unger, president of the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance for 16 years, was replaced. The warning day of 2021 was canceled, while the office built a full test environment.
Required in Every Car and Every Home
Every car in Germany must carry a warning triangle and a first aid kit, and since 1 July 2014 a safety vest as well. Since a change in the rules in 2015, every applicant for a driver’s license must complete a first aid course of at least nine teaching units of 45 minutes. Smoke detectors are also required by law. Rhineland-Palatinate required them in new buildings from 2003, earlier than any other state. Today the duty applies in all 16 states. The last deadline for fitting them in existing homes ended in Saxony on 31 December 2023.
No Removal Without a Successor
Under Article 67 of the Basic Law, the Bundestag can remove a chancellor only by electing a successor at the same time, with an absolute majority. This is the constructive vote of no confidence. It answers the Weimar Constitution, which allowed parliament to bring down a government without electing a new one. The vote has been tried twice. In 1972, Rainer Barzel failed against Willy Brandt. Ten years later, Helmut Kohl replaced Helmut Schmidt.
A License for Next Season
Every German professional football club must pass a licensing or admission procedure before each season. In the third division, the procedure checks the club’s economic and technical-organizational capacity. Clubs from the regional leagues and the third division normally file their documents by 1 March. In the third division, a club whose personnel costs for the playing operation reach 80 percent of its total revenue must deposit an additional liquidity reserve of one million euros. On 31 March 2020, because of the pandemic, the German Football League decided to waive the liquidity check for the 2020/21 license. It also cut the penalty for insolvency from nine points to three. The regular procedure was to return for the 2021/22 season.
The Hundred-Year Flood, Plus Fifteen Percent
German flood protection is planned around a defined flood, the HQ100. It is a flood that occurs at a given place statistically once in a hundred years. Under the Water Resources Act, the states must designate by regulation the areas such a flood would cover. In 2004, Bavaria introduced a Klimaänderungszuschlag, a climate change surcharge, for planning flood defenses. It is a flat 15 percent added to the HQ100.
The Vocabulary of Plans
Stundenplan — the hour plan, the school timetable.
Dienstplan — the duty plan, the work roster.
Speiseplan — the food plan, the weekly menu of a canteen.
Lehrplan — the teaching plan, the curriculum.
Fahrplan — the travel plan, the train or bus timetable. In politics, a Fahrplan is also a roadmap, as in der Fahrplan für den Ausstieg, the timetable for the exit.
Schlachtplan — the battle plan. It is said with a smile of any strategy, even one for a family outing.
planmäßig — according to plan. A train arrives planmäßig. An außerplanmäßiger Halt is an unscheduled stop.
Pläne schmieden — to forge plans.
A Song Against Plans
Die Dreigroschenoper, The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, opened on 31 August 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin. One of its songs is the Lied von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Strebens, the song of the inadequacy of human striving. It is also listed under the title Ballade von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Planens, the ballad of the inadequacy of human planning.
When the Future Seemed Plannable
Willy Brandt formed his first government in 1969. The head of his Chancellery, Horst Ehmke, and the head of its planning staff, Reimut Jochimsen, wanted a Rationalisierung der Politik, a rationalization of politics, built on modern data processing. The civil service increasingly rejected the planners, and part of the public mocked them. The historian Andreas Rödder describes the new Chancellery building, commissioned by Ehmke in 1970, as a product of the era’s technocratic belief that the future could be planned and shaped. Around 1973 that belief collapsed. Contemporaries called the shift the Tendenzwende, the change of trend.