Bundesliga clubs in danger of relegation talk about the 40-Punkte-Marke, the 40-point mark. The league’s own website calls it magic. The record shows how much room it leaves. Since the three-point rule began in 1995–96, the team with the most points ever to be relegated was Karlsruher SC in 1997–98. It went down in 16th place with 38 points. So, as the league wrote in March 2022, 39 points had always been enough to stay up. Since 2008–09, an average of 32 points was enough for the relegation playoff place. Hamburger SV once stayed up with only 27 points, through the playoff.
Risks Into the Budget
In June 2015, the federal reform commission on the construction of large projects presented its final report. It explained why such projects so often cost more than planned. Cost estimates neglect existing risks and are often well below the costs that can really be expected. The regular underestimation of costs and time is often politically motivated. Even where risks were assessed, they usually did not enter the budget approved for the project. A study it cited of 170 large projects found an average cost increase of 73 percent, although the report noted that the study was not representative. Its third recommendation is titled Risikomanagement und Erfassung von Risiken im Haushalt, risk management and recording risks in the budget. Risks should be named when funds are requested. Identifying and assessing them, and planning countermeasures, should be a condition for receiving money. Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt summed it up: risk buffers and professional risk management make cost and time plans more reliable.
Six Months of Medicine
In 2023, many medicines were hard to get in Germany. In the Bundestag, the CDU/CSU opposition said that fever syrups, antibiotics, insulin and cancer drugs were hardly available anywhere. The government answered with a law against drug shortages, known as the ALBVVG. Its draft required manufacturers to keep three months of stock of drugs sold under discount contracts with the health insurers. The final law doubled this to six months. Wholesalers must keep four weeks of medicines for children. Hospital pharmacies must increase their stocks of intravenous drugs and antibiotics for intensive care. An early warning system for coming shortages was also set up. The Bundesrat approved the law in July 2023.
Words for a Second Option
Zwei Eisen im Feuer haben — To have two irons in the fire. Duden: to have more than one possibility, a way out in any case. Also mehrere Eisen or noch ein Eisen im Feuer haben.
Ein zweites Standbein — A second standing leg. A second line of work or income beside the main one.
Die Rückfallebene — The fallback level. A planned position to fall back to if a system fails. Technical texts number them, as in Rückfallebene 3.
Alles auf eine Karte setzen — To put everything on one card. Duden: to risk everything.
The Pension Fund’s Floor
The German statutory pension insurance must keep a reserve, the Nachhaltigkeitsrücklage, sustainability reserve. Until 2004, it was called the Schwankungsreserve, the fluctuation reserve. The law ties the contribution rate to it. If the reserve falls below its floor, the contribution must rise. If it holds more than 1.5 months of spending, the contribution must fall. For years the floor was 0.2 months of spending. In 2022, the pension insurer told the Bundestag that this was not enough. Within a single year, it wrote, the money on hand at the end of October was already 0.2 to 0.3 months of spending below the level at year’s end. The pension package of 2025 raised the floor to 0.3 months. It expected the reserve to stand at 41.5 billion euros at the end of 2025, or 1.39 months of spending.
Power Plants That May Not Close
Some German power plants no longer produce electricity for the market, but they are not allowed to shut down for good. They are system-relevant and form the Netzreserve, the grid reserve. They run only when the operators of the transmission grid call for them. The cost of keeping them ready, and of using them, is paid through grid fees. In May 2026, the Federal Network Agency confirmed a need of 7,407 megawatts of reserve plants for the winter of 2026 to 2027. German plants cover 4,742 megawatts. The remaining 2,665 megawatts are to come from plants in neighboring countries. The agency’s president, Klaus Müller, said that the reserve is needed until the grids are better expanded.
Three Months’ Rent as Security
When Germans rent an apartment, the landlord usually asks for a Mietkaution, a rental deposit. Section 551 of the Civil Code limits it to three times the monthly rent, without the operating costs. The tenant may pay a cash deposit in three equal monthly installments. The first is due at the start of the tenancy. The landlord must keep the money separate from his own assets, and the interest belongs to the tenant. The deposit protects the landlord, and the separate account protects the tenant’s money.
Emergency Power Within 15 Seconds
German hospitals must provide part of their electricity as a safety supply, under the standard DIN VDE 0100-710. If the grid fails or is disturbed, the emergency supply must take over within 15 seconds. The fuel stored for it must last at least 24 hours. In 2022, the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was asked in parliament how long its hospitals could last in a long blackout. It answered that further measures, such as larger tanks, could make supply possible beyond 24 hours. It also said that it had no information about individual hospitals.
The Shelters That Were Given Up
Germany originally had 2,000 public air-raid shelters. In 2007, the federal government decided, in agreement with the states, to give up the shelter concept and stop maintaining the shelters. In January 2025, the government told the Bundestag that 579 shelters with about 478,000 places were still formally dedicated to civil protection. None of them was functional or ready for use. The head of the Federal Office of Civil Protection, Ralph Tiesler, said there had never been shelters for more than three percent of the population. The process of giving them up was stopped in March 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. Planning for a national shelter concept is under way.
The shelters were given up in calm times. Planning began again only when the worst case looked realistic.
The Bridge on the Tay
On 28 December 1879 the new railway bridge over the Firth of Tay in Scotland collapsed under a train. In the first days of January 1880 Theodor Fontane wrote the ballad Die Brück’ am Tay, The Bridge on the Tay. In it Johnie, the bridge keeper’s son on the train, trusts his engine: Ein fester Kessel, ein doppelter Dampf, / Die bleiben Sieger in solchem Kampf. (A solid boiler, a double steam, they will win in such a fight.) Three witches frame the poem, and one of them has the last word: Tand, Tand / Ist das Gebilde von Menschenhand! (A trinket, a trinket is the work of human hands.) Today the ballad is a classic of German lessons in school. German Wikipedia calls it a warning against a hubris that believes in technology.