A building put up without the required permit is a Schwarzbau, a black building. The building authority can forbid its use and can demand that the owner apply for a permit. For that, the missing permit is enough. Tearing the building down is another matter. Under the Bavarian building code, for example, the authority may order removal only if lawful conditions cannot be restored in any other way. In German administrative law, that requires that the building also could not have been approved. A sound building that only skipped the procedure must go through it afterwards.
Legitimacy Through Procedure
In 1969, the sociologist Niklas Luhmann published Legitimation durch Verfahren, legitimacy through procedure. Luhmann argued that people do not accept decisions by the state because of ideas about what is right. They accept them because they believe in the procedure that produced them, while the outcome is still open, and because they took part in that procedure.
The Voting Computers
In the 2005 Bundestag election, voting computers were used in some constituencies. Two complaints were filed against the election. On 5 October 2006, the Chaos Computer Club and a Dutch group showed on Dutch television that the same type of machine could be manipulated without anyone noticing. The club examined the devices for the Federal Constitutional Court and published its report in June 2007. On 3 March 2009, the court ruled that the federal regulation on voting machines was unconstitutional. Because elections are public, the court said, the essential steps of voting and counting must be open to checking by citizens zuverlässig und ohne besondere Sachkenntnis, reliably and without special expert knowledge. The 2005 election was not repeated, because there was no sign of error or manipulation.
Recognized Rules of Technology
German construction contracts measure work against the allgemein anerkannte Regeln der Technik, the generally recognized rules of technology. Work counts as free of defects only if it has the agreed quality and follows these rules. A rule counts as recognized only when the great majority of technical experts hold it. It must also have proven itself in practice, not only in science: sich auch praktisch bewährt. For this reason, the standard takes up new methods late. A builder who departs from it carries the risk, because a departure is generally treated as a defect. A new building product with no recognized rule behind it needs a general approval from the German Institute for Building Technology before it may be used.
In November 2024, the federal cabinet approved a draft law for a Gebäudetyp E, a building type for simple and experimental building. Under the draft, in contracts between expert businesses, a departure from the recognized rules would no longer count as a defect under three conditions. It must be disclosed to the client before the work starts. The client must not object at once. And the building must remain safe and fit for use over time. A new government draft went to the Bundestag on 8 June 2026.
Sloppy
Sloppy. And the judgment is aimed at the method, not the outcome.
Schlampig gearbeitet — worked sloppily — can be said of something that came out fine. It means the result cannot be relied on, because the way it was produced would not reliably produce it again.
The duty of care
Sorgfaltspflicht. The duty of care. In German liability law, what is examined is whether the required care was exercised in the process — not only what happened as a result.
A person who followed the proper procedure and still caused harm stands differently from one who caused no harm but skipped the procedure.
The process carries legal weight in its own right.
The calculation path
The calculation path. In German schools the Rechenweg is marked, not only the answer. A correct result with no working shown earns little or nothing, and a wrong result reached by sound method earns partial credit.
Every German adult sat through years of this. The habit of asking how you got there is taught before the age of ten.
Quality assurance
Qualitätssicherung. German manufacturers run quality assurance as a function with its own department, its own reporting line and its own authority to stop production. The person who can halt the line does not report to the person responsible for output.
Maintenance
Wartung. German equipment comes with a maintenance schedule, and service contracts covering it are normal for machinery, lifts, heating systems and vehicles. Reliability is not treated as a property of the object. It is treated as something maintained.
Only as good as the route
A German commonplace in engineering and quality discussion: the result is only as good as the route to it. The claim is not moral. It is that an outcome produced by an uncontrolled process cannot be relied on to recur.