In early 2006, the teachers of the Rütli school, a secondary school in the Neukölln district of Berlin, wrote to the education authorities. They described Aggressivität, Respektlosigkeit und Ignoranz uns Erwachsenen gegenüber, aggression, lack of respect and ignorance toward the adults. They wrote: Wir sind ratlos. We are at a loss. They asked for more teachers in the short term. In the longer term, they wrote, the Hauptschule in its current makeup had to be dissolved in favor of a new type of school. The public soon called it a Brandbrief, a fire letter. Duden defines the word as a very urgent letter of appeal or warning. Leading newspapers printed it, and it started a national debate on integration and on the Hauptschule, the lowest track of secondary school. The school was rebuilt as a combined all-day school under the name Campus Rütli. Of its first upper-school class, 18 of 23 students passed the Abitur, the university entrance exam, in July 2014.
The Red Hand Letter
When a drug company learns of a new, important risk in one of its medicines, it sends doctors and pharmacists a Rote-Hand-Brief, a red-hand letter. A red hand is printed on the envelope and on the letter. The duty rests on the German Medicines Act. The company sends the letter on its own responsibility, but the federal drug authority agrees its content and its recipients first. The letter may report a new reason not to use a drug or a new warning. One such letter, in February 2024, concerned the drug valproate. It warned of a possible risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in children whose fathers had taken it. Letters that bring no new risk are called Informationsbriefe. They do not carry the red hand.
Forest Dieback
In 1981 the news magazine Der Spiegel ran a series on acid rain under the title Das stille Sterben – Säureregen zerstört den deutschen Wald, the silent death: acid rain is destroying the German forest. A soil scientist from Göttingen was quoted as saying the first great forests would die within five years. A new word entered German, and French as well: das Waldsterben, the dying of the forest. Policy followed. The ordinance on large combustion plants came into force on 1 July 1983. Unleaded petrol and the catalytic converter followed. In 2004 a forestry economist noted that the forecasts of that time had proved untenable. Environmental groups answer that the forest survived because of what was done. In 2013 the Bund Naturschutz in Bavaria called it fatal to deny these successes.
Sayings About Seeing the Danger
Gefahr erkannt, Gefahr gebannt. — Danger seen, danger banned. A danger that is recognized in time can be kept away.
den Finger auf die Wunde legen or den Finger in die Wunde legen — To put one’s finger on, or into, the wound. Duden: to point clearly to an ill.
den Kopf in den Sand stecken — To stick one’s head in the sand. Wiktionary: not to want to see a threatening danger, and so to ignore it. Its example: Man kann doch jetzt nicht den Kopf in den Sand stecken und so tun, als ob nichts Entscheidendes passiert wäre! We can’t stick our heads in the sand now and act as if nothing important had happened!
Painting the Devil on the Wall
den Teufel an die Wand malen — To paint the devil on the wall. Duden: to bring about a misfortune by talking about it. It comes from a practice used when calling up the devil.
die Unke and unken — The Unke is a fire-bellied toad. In everyday speech it is also a person who keeps predicting bad things. Duden gives the example er ist eine alte Unke, he is an old toad.
der Schwarzmaler, die Schwarzmalerei — The black-painter and black-painting. Duden lists Pessimist and Unke as synonyms, and gives Endzeitstimmung and Weltuntergangsstimmung, an end-of-the-world mood, among the synonyms for the habit.
These words mock habitual gloom. None of them is aimed at a single, specific objection.
Risks in the Annual Report
A German company that must publish a Lagebericht, a management report, cannot fill it with good news only. The Commercial Code states: Ferner ist im Lagebericht die voraussichtliche Entwicklung mit ihren wesentlichen Chancen und Risiken zu beurteilen und zu erläutern. The report must also assess and explain the expected development with its main opportunities and risks, and give the assumptions behind it. At companies whose securities trade on a regulated market, the members of the board must add a written statement to the report. In it, they confirm to the best of their knowledge that it gives a true picture and describes the main opportunities and risks.
Ask Your Doctor or Pharmacist
Almost every German who has watched television knows the sentence that ends a drug advertisement: Zu Risiken und Nebenwirkungen lesen Sie die Packungsbeilage und fragen Sie Ihren Arzt oder Apotheker. For risks and side effects, read the package leaflet and ask your doctor or pharmacist. The sentence is required by the law on advertising for medicines. The advertisement must send the viewer to the responsible professional. Since 27 December 2023, the required wording has been fragen Sie Ihre Ärztin, Ihren Arzt oder in Ihrer Apotheke, ask your doctor, female or male, or in your pharmacy.
The Göttingen Eighteen
On 5 April 1957, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer told the press that tactical nuclear weapons were only a Weiterentwicklung der Artillerie, a further development of artillery. A week later, on 12 April, eighteen nuclear scientists published a declaration. Among them were the Nobel laureates Otto Hahn, Max Born and Werner Heisenberg. It began: Die Pläne einer atomaren Bewaffnung der Bundeswehr erfüllen die unterzeichnenden Atomforscher mit tiefer Sorge. (The plans to arm the Bundeswehr with nuclear weapons fill the undersigned nuclear researchers with deep concern.) They explained why they spoke: Deshalb können wir nicht zu allen politischen Fragen schweigen. (That is why we cannot stay silent on all political questions.) None of them, they wrote, would take part in making, testing or using nuclear weapons. Adenauer was outraged and rejected the scientists’ interference in politics. He met them on 17 April. The German Wikipedia states that public pressure led Adenauer to give in, and that the Federal Republic renounced nuclear weapons.
Concerns in Writing
The standard German terms for construction contracts, the VOB/B, set out what a contractor must do with a doubt. If he has concerns about the planned method, the materials supplied or another firm’s work, he must tell the client unverzüglich – möglichst schon vor Beginn der Arbeiten – schriftlich: without delay, if possible before work begins, and in writing (§ 4(3)). This document is the Bedenkenanzeige. A contractor whose work is obstructed must also report it in writing without delay (§ 6(1)). If he does not, he can claim the obstruction later only if the client clearly knew about it anyway. The contractor must also prove that he gave notice.