Germany, Problem-Solving, Ownership

The Yodeling Diploma

In a sketch by Loriot, first broadcast on 7 December 1978, Frau Hoppenstedt attends a yodeling school. She wants her yodeling diploma so that she has was Eigenes, something of her own. The word Jodeldiplom entered the language, and the dictionary DWDS lists it.

It is used for a superfluous or worthless qualification. Die Zeit wrote in 2006: “Das ist jetzt, ohne Drachen im Land, kaum mehr wert als ein Jodeldiplom.” Now, with no dragons in the land, that is hardly worth more than a yodeling diploma.

One Ministry for Digital Affairs

In May 2025 the new federal government created the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and State Modernization. It received departments or responsibilities from six existing ministries and offices: the Chancellery and the ministries of the interior, transport and digital affairs, economy, finance and justice.

It also received a right of approval over all essential IT spending in the direct federal administration. Security and tax administration are exempt. The aim, according to ZDF, is to speed up digitalization in Germany massively.

Everyone Must Help in an Emergency

Under § 323c of the German Criminal Code, anyone who does not help in an accident, a common danger or an emergency commits a crime.

This applies when help is necessary and can reasonably be expected. The penalty is up to one year in prison or a fine. As a rule, every applicant for a German driver’s license must take a first-aid course of at least nine lessons of 45 minutes.

Words for the Expert

der Sachverstand — understanding of the matter. The word for expertise is built on Sache, the matter itself.

vom Fach sein — to be of the subject, to work in the field. Er ist vom Fach carries weight in an argument.

der Fachmann, die Fachfrau — the specialist.

Fragen Sie den Fachmann. — Ask the specialist.

Da müssen Sie den Experten fragen. — You will have to ask the expert about that.

Das kann ich nicht beurteilen. — I cannot judge that.

der Fachidiot — the specialist idiot, someone with deep knowledge of a narrow field and no grasp of anything beyond it.

Of the subject

To be vom Fach. Of the subject.

Said of someone who genuinely knows the field, as distinct from someone who has an opinion about it. Er ist vom Fach ends an argument.

There is no comfortable English equivalent. “He knows his stuff” is about the person. Vom Fach is about belonging to a body of knowledge.

Cobbler, stay with your lasts

Cobbler, stay with your lasts.

The story is from Pliny the Elder. A shoemaker criticized the sandal in a painting by Apelles, and the painter corrected it. When the cobbler went on to criticize the leg, the painter told him to stop.

The German use of the phrase is not an instruction in modesty. It asserts the opposite of what it appears to say: within your last, your judgment outranks anyone’s.

The specialist idiot

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.

Understanding of the matter

Sache, the matter. Verstand, understanding. Sachverstand is understanding of the matter itself.

English took expertise from the Latin expertus, tried and tested by experience. The English word points at what has happened to the person. The German word points at the subject.

Two cultures locating the same quality in different places.

Asking the right person

Fragen Sie den Fachmann — ask the specialist.

Da müssen Sie den Experten fragen — you’ll have to ask the expert about that.

Das kann ich nicht beurteilen — I can’t judge that, said as a complete and unembarrassed answer.

A German declining to give an opinion outside his field is not being modest. He is observing a boundary he expects others to observe too.

Apprentice, journeyman, master

Guilds were abolished in Germany. The ranks of Lehrling, apprentice, Geselle, journeyman, and Meister, master craftsman, were retained.

The institution went. The ladder stayed.