In 2022 the Allensbach Institute asked Germans whether they agree with this statement: Jeder ist seines Glückes Schmied. Wer sich heute wirklich anstrengt, der kann es auch zu etwas bringen. Everyone is the smith of his own fortune. Whoever really makes an effort today can achieve something. 51 percent of the population agreed. Among people aged 16 to 29, almost two thirds agreed. In the population as a whole, just under a third held the opposite view.
Words for Using Connections
Beziehungen spielen lassen — to let one’s connections play, to use contacts to get something
Beziehungen schaden nur dem, der sie nicht hat. — Connections only harm the person who does not have them. The saying is meant ironically.
die Vetternwirtschaft — the cousins’ economy, nepotism
die Spezlwirtschaft — the buddies’ economy, from the Bavarian Spezl, a buddy
A Recommendation Is No Guarantee
Programs in which employees recommend new hires are called Mitarbeiter werben Mitarbeiter, employees recruit employees. The manufacturer Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen pays 1,500 euros gross for most successful recommendations, according to its rules of March 2024. The same rules state: Es gilt zu beachten, dass eine Empfehlung keine Garantie für ein Interview bzw. eine Einstellung ist. It must be noted that a recommendation is no guarantee of an interview or a job. Applicants without a recommendation have die gleichen Chancen wie empfohlene Bewerber, the same chances as recommended applicants. The manager who makes the hire cannot receive the bonus.
Nominated by the School
The Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes takes in about 2,500 new scholarship holders each year. Traditionally, students were vorgeschlagen, nominated, by their school. Since 2010 every first-year student can also apply directly by taking a test. The foundation said that the new route ergänzt das bisherige Vorschlagssystem, supplements the existing nomination system. More than half of those who registered for the first test came from non-academic and needy families.
A Promotion Annulled
On 4 November 2010 the Federal Administrative Court annulled an appointment to the presidency of a higher regional court. The minister had chosen another candidate. He handed over the certificate of appointment right after the higher administrative court’s decision, before the passed-over candidate could turn to the Federal Constitutional Court. The court set the appointment aside and required a new selection. The candidate was entitled to eine sachgerechte, allein an Leistungsgesichtspunkten orientierte Entscheidung, a proper decision based on performance alone. A passed-over applicant in the public service can bring a Konkurrentenklage, a competitor’s lawsuit, against such a selection. Until this ruling, an appointment once made was generally treated as final.
Is Having Friends a Disgrace?
Max Streibl, the minister-president of Bavaria, had to admit in the state parliament that he had twice gone on holiday in Brazil at the expense of the aircraft manufacturer Burkhart Grob. At the Political Ash Wednesday in Passau in 1993, he greeted his supporters with Saludos Amigos! He asked: Freunde zu haben, ist das eine Schande bei uns in der CSU? Is having friends a disgrace with us in the CSU? He resigned in May 1993. Since then Amigo has been a German word for affairs that entangle politics and business.
A Bond for Life
A particularly old value of German student fraternities is the Lebensbundprinzip, the principle of a bond for life. Members who finish their studies become Alte Herren, old gentlemen, and remain members. In a 2015 report by Legal Tribune Online, a member rejected the word Seilschaft, a rope team of people who pull each other up. A fraternity, he said, is eher um ein Netzwerk, rather a network. Another called membership eine Art gemeinsame Geschäftsgrundlage, a kind of shared basis for doing business. A critic described the social pressure to stay in, weil man ja Vorteile genossen hat, because one has enjoyed advantages. According to one member, most fraternities refuse contact with the media for fear of bad press.
The Best Man Affair
In 2023, Patrick Graichen was state secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs. He and two other members of a selection committee voted for Michael Schäfer to lead the German Energy Agency. Schäfer was Graichen’s friend from school and the best man at his wedding. Germans called it the Trauzeugenaffäre, the best man affair. Minister Robert Habeck first defended his state secretary. After a further breach came to light, Habeck called it der eine Fehler zu viel, the one mistake too many. Graichen was sent into temporary retirement.
Vitamin B
Vitamin B is the joking German term for connections. The B stands for Beziehungen, relationships. The DWDS dictionary of the German language marks it as colloquial and humorous. It means personal contacts through which someone gets preferential treatment in a career. The contacts are common too. A survey by the Institute for Employment Research found that 32 percent of all new hires in Germany in 2016 came about through personal contacts. In small companies, the share was 47 percent.