Aus Prinzip — on principle. Said in German as a complete justification for a position.
Grundsätzlich — fundamentally, as a matter of principle. It opens a great many German sentences, and signals that what follows is derived rather than improvised.
Das ist so vorgesehen — that is how it is provided for. Not how it is done. How it was laid down in advance.
A German Tarifvertrag sets pay grades, hours, holiday and conditions for an entire industry, and firms apply it rather than negotiate individually. The framework is written above the firm and the firm works within it.
The Musterbauordnung is drafted nationally and then adopted, with variations, by each state. The template is written first and the local rule derives from it.
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.
Das Regelwerk — the work of rules. A German compound naming the whole structure of rules governing a field as a single object, used in engineering, sport, finance and administration. The rules are understood as a system rather than as a collection.
German regulation is issued as a Verordnung derived from an enabling statute, which is itself derived from constitutional competence. Every rule can be traced upward to the provision that authorised it. The chain of derivation is formal and checkable.
German legal method teaches a formal syllogism, called Subsumtion: state the rule, establish the facts, apply the one to the other. Law students are drilled in it, and examination answers are marked on whether the structure was followed. Deduction is taught as a procedure with a name.
German law is codified. The Civil Code of 1900 set out general principles from which particular cases are decided, and a German judgment reasons downward from the statute to the facts. The rule exists first, in writing, and the case is measured against it.
A German standard is written before the work, by a committee, from first principles and agreed requirements — and then applied. DIN maintains tens of thousands of them. The standard is not a record of what has been found to work. It is a specification of what shall be done, issued in advance.
To deduce is to infer certain consequences from general premises (assumptions, propositions). Infer means to form an opinion, to reach a conclusion based on facts. Stated simply, to apply the general to the specific. This is a central part of how Germans think.
Deductive thinking is in German commercial law. What work processes should look like are very specifically defined. They should, for example, be based on German laws governing safety, but be shaped by overall knowledge of the respective company.
Work process, therefore, are based both on theory (safety laws) and on practice (knowhow developed over years).
The renowned German dual vocational training is based on this logic. The students in vocational schools learn at the same time theory and practice (or application). The so-called gray theory – classroom learning – is a requirement.