The German Alpine Club, DAV, has ten rules for indoor climbing. The second is Partnercheck vor jedem Start!, a partner check before every climb. The two partners check each other mit Augen und Händen, with eyes and hands: the knot and tie-in point, the belay carabiner, the belay device, the harness and its buckles, and the knot at the end of the rope. Since 2015 the DAV and its partner KLEVER have published accident statistics for climbing gyms every year. The report for 2025 covered 341 reported accidents in Germany and Austria. In all five ground falls with automatic belay devices, the climber had not clipped in. Julius Kerscher of DAV safety research: Viele schwere Unfälle beim Klettern wären vermeidbar. Many serious climbing accidents could be avoided. The report concludes: Der Partnercheck vor dem Losklettern ist eine der wichtigsten Sicherheitsmaßnahmen. The partner check before climbing is one of the most important safety measures.
The First Steps at a Dangerous Scene
German fire brigades and rescue services use the GAMS-Regel, a memory aid for the first measures at a dangerous incident.
Gefahr erkennen — recognize the hazard.
Absperren — cordon off the area.
Menschenrettung durchführen — rescue people.
Spezialkräfte nachfordern — call in specialist units.
The aim, says the medical encyclopedia DocCheck Flexikon, is not to endanger oneself, the team or others. To recognize the hazard, crews use a second scheme, called 4A-1C-4E. Its letters stand for Atemgifte (toxic gases), Angstreaktion (panic), Ausbreitung (spread), Atomare Strahlung (radiation), Chemische Stoffe (chemicals), Elektrizität, Explosion, Einsturz (collapse) and Erkrankung/Verletzung (illness or injury). In June 2025 a Cologne fire officer wrote a paper on water rescue. He noted that drowning and being swept away cannot be captured by the classic scheme. He cited a proposal to extend it with one more E, for Ertrinken/Wassergefahren, drowning and water hazards.
The Cockpit Rule That Was Withdrawn
In March 2015 a Germanwings co-pilot deliberately crashed his aircraft in the French Alps. 150 people died. Three days later, on Friday 27 March 2015, the German aviation industry association BDL announced a provisional procedure. Two authorized crew members must always be in the cockpit. In April 2017 the BDL announced that the large German airlines would drop the rule by 1 June. Die Evaluierung hat gezeigt, dass die Zwei-Personen-Regelung keinen Sicherheitsgewinn bringt. The evaluation has shown that the two-person rule brings no gain in safety. Opening the cockpit door more often, the BDL said, created additional risk that unauthorized people would get in.
A rule written in three days stayed only until it had been evaluated.
Three Letters Against a Virus
During the coronavirus pandemic, German public health advice was condensed into three letters, AHA: Abstand, Hygiene, Alltagsmaske, distance, hygiene, everyday mask. Indoors an L was added, for Lüften, airing the room. After the meeting of the chancellor and the state premiers in October 2020, the federal government’s website showed the AHA+A+L-Formel. The second A stood for the Corona warning app. The Society for the German Language placed AHA fifth among its Words of the Year 2020.
The Lane Rescue Workers Taught First
West German road rules have required a free lane for rescue vehicles, today called the Rettungsgasse, since 1971. For a long time, however, the rules did not say clearly where to form it on a road with four lanes. Most rescue services already taught a simple rule. Drivers in the far-left lane move to the left, and everyone in the lanes to the right moves to the right. In 2016 this practice was written into the road traffic regulations. Since 14 December 2016, § 11 says that the lane is formed zwischen dem äußerst linken und dem unmittelbar rechts daneben liegenden Fahrstreifen, between the far-left lane and the lane directly to its right. Higher fines followed in October 2017.
Recipes Tested, Then Printed
The Dr. Oetker Schulkochbuch, the school cookbook, was written in 1910 by Emilie Henneking, a home economics teacher in Bielefeld. It first appeared in 1911. Her aim was to pass knowledge on to the next generations. By 1927 it was already the standard work in millions of households and in cooking schools. The edition of 2018 contains 455 recipes. They were developed in the Dr. Oetker test kitchen and tested under different household conditions. More than 19 million copies have been sold.
The Pause Before the First Cut
Germany’s Patient Safety Alliance recommends a Team-Time-Out before every operation or other invasive procedure. It takes place immediately before the skin incision. A designated moderator leads the whole team through a checklist. The surgeon names the procedure and the site and side of the body. The cut may be made only when every point on the checklist has been completed. All members of the team count as equals, and each is called on to speak up as soon as he or she notices an error.
Recognized Rules of Technology
German construction contracts measure work against the allgemein anerkannte Regeln der Technik, the generally recognized rules of technology. Work counts as free of defects only if it has the agreed quality and follows these rules. A rule counts as recognized only when the great majority of technical experts hold it. It must also have proven itself in practice, not only in science: sich auch praktisch bewährt. For this reason, the standard takes up new methods late. A builder who departs from it carries the risk, because a departure is generally treated as a defect. A new building product with no recognized rule behind it needs a general approval from the German Institute for Building Technology before it may be used.
In November 2024, the federal cabinet approved a draft law for a Gebäudetyp E, a building type for simple and experimental building. Under the draft, in contracts between expert businesses, a departure from the recognized rules would no longer count as a defect under three conditions. It must be disclosed to the client before the work starts. The client must not object at once. And the building must remain safe and fit for use over time. A new government draft went to the Bundestag on 8 June 2026.
The standards body
The Deutsches Institut für Normung maintains tens of thousands of standards. DIN A4 is the famous one. Most of the rest govern things nobody outside the trade has heard of.
A standard is a problem somebody already solved, written down so that nobody solves it again. It is prevention in its most literal form: the mistake is designed out before the work begins.