A retired man in the district of Osterode in Lower Saxony reported more than 10,000 illegally parked cars to the authorities. The press called him Knöllchen-Horst, after Knöllchen, the everyday word for a parking ticket. In a decision of September 23, 2013, the Higher Administrative Court of Lower Saxony refused him any right to have his reports pursued. It called regular reporting as a hobby a denunziatorische Tätigkeit, an activity of denunciation.
The Correction After the Test
When a class test comes back in a German school, pupils write a Berichtigung, a correction of their own mistakes. A 2006 guidance letter for English teachers from Berlin’s education administration says: In der Regel sollten Schülerinnen und Schülern die Berichtigung ihrer Arbeiten selbstständig vornehmen. As a rule, pupils should correct their work themselves. The aim is to build Eigenkorrektur, the ability to correct oneself.
The Vocabulary of Mistakes
der Fehler — the error, the mistake.
der Patzer — a slip, a blunder.
der Schnitzer — a gaffe.
der Lapsus — a slip, from Latin.
der Druckfehlerteufel — the misprint devil, blamed in jest for typing errors.
einen Bock schießen — to shoot a billy goat. To make a mistake. Duden traces it to the shooting guilds, which gave the worst marksman a billy goat as a consolation prize.
Mein Fehler. — My mistake.
Da muss ich Sie korrigieren. — I have to correct you there.
We Ask You to Excuse the Error
In September 2024 a contestant on Wer wird Millionär? faced this question. Who did Germans google even more often than Taylor Swift in 2023, in the category of international personalities? None of the four answers was correct. She dropped from 32,000 to 500 euros. The broadcaster RTL reviewed the question and admitted the mistake. Wir bitten, den Fehler zu entschuldigen. We ask you to excuse the error. The contestant was given the chance to play again in a later special edition.
A List of Errors
On March 8, 1819, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote from Vienna to Ferdinand Ries in London. With the letter he sent a Fehlerverzeichnis, a list of errors, for the copy of his String Quintet op. 104. He added that the copy of the sonata op. 106 also contained many errors. He blamed the faulty copies on time pressure and on the age of his copyist, Wenzel Schlemmer. The autograph letter is held by the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn.
Lessing Against Gottsched
In 1759 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing published the 17th of his Briefe, die neueste Litteratur betreffend, letters concerning the newest literature. In it he attacked Johann Christoph Gottsched, who had led the reform of the German theater. Lessing wrote: Es wäre zu wünschen, dass sich Herr Gottsched niemals mit dem Theater vermengt hätte. It would have been better if Mr. Gottsched had never involved himself with the theater.
The Overload Notice
Section 16 of the German Occupational Safety and Health Act obliges employees to report, without delay, every immediate and significant danger they notice and every defect in the safety systems. Especially in nursing and health care, staff use a related notice, the Überlastungsanzeige, the overload notice. They write it when the work can no longer be done properly and harm is threatened. No set form is needed. Der Beschäftigte muss darin nur klar darstellen, warum die Situation so gefährlich ist. The employee only has to state clearly why the situation is so dangerous. After the notice, responsibility lies with the superior, and as a rule the employee cannot be held liable. The notice never permits the employee to work improperly.
We Accuse Ourselves
On October 19, 1945, the council of the Protestant Church in Germany presented a declaration in Stuttgart. Durch uns ist unendliches Leid über viele Völker und Länder gebracht worden. Through us, endless suffering has been brought upon many peoples and countries. The church then named its own failure. The text says that wir klagen uns an, dass wir nicht mutiger bekannt, nicht treuer gebetet, nicht fröhlicher geglaubt und nicht brennender geliebt haben. We accuse ourselves that we did not confess more courageously, did not pray more faithfully, did not believe more joyfully and did not love more ardently. Hans Christian Asmussen, Otto Dibelius and Martin Niemöller drafted the text. By 1946 only four regional churches had adopted it. Later critics said that it did not name the Holocaust.
Four Wrong Calls
In September 2022 the German Football Association admitted four wrong decisions by its referees in the Bundesliga in one statement. Peter Sippel, the referees’ sporting director for the Bundesliga, went through the cases one by one. A penalty against Cologne for an alleged handball by Luca Kilian, in the game against Union Berlin, was klar und offensichtlich falsch, clearly and obviously wrong. In the game between Hertha and Leverkusen, the video assistant should have intervened after the clear images and recommended an on-field review. The news site t-online called the statement kurios, curious.
The Tenant Must Speak Up
Section 536c of the German Civil Code obliges a tenant to report a defect in the rented home unverzüglich, without delay. Mold, a broken heating system and water damage are typical cases. Tenants are advised to send the Mängelanzeige, the notice of defects, in writing. A tenant who says nothing must pay the landlord for the damage that results. If the landlord could not repair the defect because it was not reported, the tenant also loses the right to reduce the rent, to claim damages and to terminate without notice.