Anyone who wants to fish in Bavaria needs a Fischereischein, a fishing license. To get one, the angler must pass the state Fischerprüfung, the fishing exam. The preparatory course lasts at least 30 hours. The exam takes 60 minutes and has 60 questions. A candidate who gets more than a quarter of them wrong fails. In Lower Saxony, anyone who takes on a first dog after July 1, 2013, needs a Sachkundenachweis, proof of expert knowledge. The owner passes a theory test before getting the dog and a practical test within the first year. Only recognized examiners may hold the tests. The hunting exam is popularly called the grünes Abitur, the green high-school diploma.
A License to Train
Anyone in Germany who wants to train apprentices must first prove the necessary teaching aptitude. The Ausbilder-Eignungsverordnung, the ordinance on trainer aptitude of January 21, 2009, sets the exam. It has a written part, which should last three hours, and a practical part of at most 30 minutes in most trades. It covers four fields, from checking the conditions for training and planning it to concluding it. Germans call the certificate the Ausbilderschein, the trainer’s license.
The Good Form
The German cabinetmakers’ trade holds a federal design competition for young journeymen called Die Gute Form, the good form. Each entry is a Gesellenstück, the piece a cabinetmaker builds for the journeyman’s exam. In 2009, for example, every piece in the federal final had already won a prize at state level. The jury looked for ein zeitgemäßer Entwurf, die eigenständige Idee, gutes Design, a contemporary design, an original idea, good design. The 2021 winner, Beatrice Borggreve from North Rhine-Westphalia, built a side table of maple. The jury praised it as a moderne Interpretation eines klassischen Gesellenstücks, a modern interpretation of a classic journeyman’s piece.
Words for the Impostor
der Hochstapler — the impostor. Duden: a person who pretends to a high social position in betrügerischer Absicht, with intent to deceive. The word comes from thieves’ cant, from hoch, genteel, and stapeln, to beg.
tiefstapeln — to stack low. To understate one’s own abilities.
der Scheinriese — the apparent giant. Duden: an overrated person or thing deren Bedeutung bei näherer Betrachtung geringer erscheint, whose importance seems smaller on closer inspection. The word comes from a figure in Michael Ende’s children’s book Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer. Herr Tur Tur looks huge from far away and smaller the closer one comes.
gefährliches Halbwissen — dangerous half-knowledge. Said with irony of a little knowledge presented with confidence.
Sayings About Mastery
Übung macht den Meister. — Practice makes the master.
Es ist noch kein Meister vom Himmel gefallen. — No master has yet fallen from the sky. Said to comfort a beginner.
Handwerk hat goldenen Boden. — A craft has a golden floor. A trade gives a secure living.
Reporting as a Hobby
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.
Disproved in Two Weeks
On April 25, 1983, the magazine Stern presented what it said were Hitler’s diaries. Its editor-in-chief Peter Koch declared: Ab sofort muß die Geschichte des Dritten Reiches in weiten Teilen neu geschrieben werden. From now on, the history of the Third Reich must be rewritten in large parts. The publisher Gruner + Jahr had paid 9.3 million marks in cash. The Federal Institute for Materials Research, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Archives examined the volumes. On May 6, 1983, the Archives announced that they were forged. The paper could not date from the Nazi period. In 1985 the forger Konrad Kujau and the reporter Gerd Heidemann were sentenced to prison. The affair is remembered as the biggest media flop in the history of the Federal Republic. In 1992 Helmut Dietl turned it into the film Schtonk!
A Pigment From 1935
In November 2006 the Lempertz auction house in Cologne sold Rotes Bild mit Pferden, Red Picture with Horses, for 2.4 million euros. It was said to be a work of 1914 by Heinrich Campendonk. In fact it was a forgery by Wolfgang Beltracchi. The paint contained traces of titanium white, a pigment first developed in 1935. Beltracchi had used a ready-made tube of zinc white that contained it. In October 2011 he was sentenced to six years in prison and his wife to four. The police identified 100 paintings that he had most likely forged.
For decades his forgeries had passed recognized experts and auction houses. A material analysis exposed them.
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.