On a German building site, each trade works under its own contract and its own employer. When employees of several employers work on one site, the client must appoint a safety and health coordinator, the SiGeKo. The rule has applied since the building site ordinance took effect on 1 July 1998. The coordinator draws up the safety plan and coordinates how the firms work together. He is not their boss. The Bavarian model contract for public building projects gives him no power to issue instructions. Except in imminent danger, he reports problems: In allen anderen Fällen sind der Objektüberwacher und der Auftraggeber auf kurzem Wege zu informieren. In all other cases, the site supervisor and the client are to be informed directly.
The Fan Officer
Every club in the top two German football divisions must have a Fanbeauftragter, a fan officer, as the supporters’ named contact. The rules have required a fan contact since 1992. The league’s handbook for fan officers marks out the role. He is the face of the club to the fans and follows the club’s instructions. But he leistet ausdrücklich keine soziale Arbeit, explicitly does no social work. That belongs to the independent fan projects, which are youth welfare bodies. Security belongs to stewards, security officers and the police. In December 2025 the league decided that Bundesliga clubs will have six fan officers instead of three.
Lost on the Train
Things left on most German trains go to the DB Fundservice, whose central office is in Wuppertal. Its page says it accepts reports only for items lost on trains of the railway companies it lists. For any other railway, setzen Sie sich bitte mit der jeweiligen Bahn in Verbindung, please contact that railway.
Only Your Own Landlord
In a German building divided into owner-occupied apartments, a manager looks after the shared property: roof, facade, stairwell. A tenant who rents one of these apartments has a contract only with its owner. That holds even when the defect is in the shared property. Professor Florian Jacoby, in a paper published by the German Tenants’ Association, states: Der Mieter kann nur seinen Vermieter in Anspruch nehmen. The tenant can make claims only against his landlord.
The Caretaker Is the Wrong Address
A German apartment building often has a Hausmeister, a caretaker, on site and a Hausverwaltung, a property management firm, in an office. The caretaker is the person tenants see. He is usually not the person who can receive a valid notice of defects. The Munich tenants’ association advises that the notice must go to the landlord or the landlord’s authorized representative, in writing if possible. Ein Anruf bspw. beim Hausmeister ist daher regelmäßig gerade keine ausreichende Mängelanzeige. A phone call to the caretaker, for example, is as a rule not a sufficient notice.
116117 or 112
Germany has two medical phone numbers with separate owners. 112 reaches the emergency rescue service. 116117 reaches the out-of-hours doctors’ service run by the associations of statutory health insurance doctors. The number started in large parts of Germany on 16 April 2012. It is for plötzlich auftretende, jedoch nicht lebensbedrohliche Erkrankungen, sudden illnesses that are not life-threatening. For life-threatening cases, 112 still applies.
Barking Dogs at 9:42 p.m.
Noise from neighbors in Germany is a matter for the municipal Ordnungsamt, the public order office, not automatically for the police. Berlin tells residents which office owns which noise. For neighbors, parties and animals, Zuständig ist das Ordnungsamt des jeweiligen Bezirks, the public order office of the district is responsible. In Cologne, police had a locksmith open a door at 9:42 p.m. to take away dogs that had been barking for a long time. They had not contacted the city’s public order service, which could be reached until after midnight. In 2010 the administrative court of Cologne ruled the action unlawful. Only when the public order office could no longer be reached would responsibility have passed to the police. The police had to pay the locksmith themselves.
The Yellow Bag
In Germany, packaging waste goes into the Gelber Sack, the yellow bag. It is collected for private recycling systems, not by the city’s waste service. The city of Würzburg says so plainly: Der Gelbe Sack fällt nicht in die Zuständigkeit der Stadtreiniger. The yellow bag is not the responsibility of the city cleaners. A private firm is commissioned to collect it, and complaints go to that firm. When yellow bags were left lying on Stuttgart’s streets in January 2023, the city explained that it was nicht Auftraggeber der Abholung, not the party that had ordered the collection.
When the Lights Go Out
German households choose their electricity supplier freely, but the wires belong to someone else. In a power cut the supplier can do nothing. A comparison portal tells the customers of one supplier: Bei einem Stromausfall ist nicht GMX Strom, sondern Ihr Netzbetreiber zuständig. In a power cut, your network operator is responsible, not GMX Strom. The next line runs through the house. Under the ordinance on low-voltage connections, the owner is responsible for the electrical installation hinter der Hausanschlusssicherung, behind the main house fuse.
The Seller, Not the Manufacturer
Under German warranty law, the seller answers for defects. The consumer advice center in Lower Saxony puts it plainly: Bei Mängeln ist der Verkäufer Ihr erster Ansprechpartner – nicht der Hersteller. For defects, the seller is your first contact, not the manufacturer. A customer reported a faulty fridge-freezer to the online shop of the electronics chain Media Markt. The shop replied by email that he should contact the manufacturer directly. The Federal Consumer Organization sued. In July 2026 the regional court of Ingolstadt held that customers could read the email als habe Media Markt mit der Reklamation selbst nichts mehr zu tun, as if Media Markt no longer had anything to do with the complaint. Further violations can cost up to 250,000 euros.