In July 1991, Radio Bremen’s comedy show Total normal aired a hidden-camera prank by Hape Kerkeling. Kerkeling played a Polish tenor, and Achim Hagemann played his pianist. Before an audience that suspected nothing, they performed an excerpt from a so-called progressive opera. A recited text with atonal piano was broken again and again by a squeaked Hurz! Some listeners could not hide their amusement. Others then sought, seriously and with feeling, a dialogue with the fake artists about the meaning of the work.
Anyone Can Be a Management Consultant
The title Unternehmensberater, management consultant, is not protected in Germany. The chamber of commerce for the Palatinate says it plainly: jeder – ob qualifiziert oder nicht – kann sich als „Unternehmensberater” bezeichnen. Anyone, qualified or not, may use it. The chamber in Wuppertal tells firms to obtain and check references in every case, to compare at least three consultants, and to check whether the consultant’s experience fits the problem.
No Exam for Estate Agents
Since 2018, German real estate agents and residential property managers must complete 20 hours of further training every three years. The government draft had also planned a Sachkundenachweis, a proof of expertise, before anyone could enter the trade. Parliament dropped it entirely during its deliberations. The agents’ own association, the IVD, said the result fell well short of its expectations.
Testing the Advice in the Store
The German Institute for Service Quality in Hamburg sends hidden testers into retail chains to rate the advice they receive. For a study of furniture stores published in May 2026, testers made 140 visits to 14 chains. The criteria included advisory competence. The institute praised das Fachpersonal in der Beratung, the trained staff, for answers that were always correct, easy to understand and friendly. The criticism was also plain: Über ein Drittel der Bedarfsanalysen fällt zu oberflächlich aus. More than a third of the needs analyses were too superficial.
“How, Where, What: OBI Knows”
For years the German home-improvement chain OBI advertised with crowds of eager staff and the slogan Wie, wo, was, weiß Obi. How, where, what: OBI knows. In 2015 the agency Jung von Matt replaced the slogan with a new campaign. The trade paper Horizont wrote that the slogan had long defined the brand.
Words for Saying “I Don’t Know”
Da bin ich überfragt. — That question goes beyond what I know.
Da muss ich passen. — I have to pass. The phrase comes from card games.
Das ist nicht mein Fachgebiet. — That is not my field.
Da kenne ich mich nicht aus. — I don’t know my way around that.
Davon verstehe ich nichts. — I understand nothing about that.
Eighty-Four Million National Coaches
During football tournaments, Germans say the country has as many Bundestrainer, national coaches, as it has inhabitants. In July 2026 a Berliner Zeitung columnist recalled the saying that 84 Millionen Bundestrainer sat in front of screens and in pubs and joined the discussion. During the Covid pandemic the saying moved into medicine. In May 2020 the comedian Carolin Kebekus mocked the 80 Millionen Hobby-Virologen, the 80 million amateur virologists, in a video released ahead of her ARD show.
The Minister on Insolvency
In September 2022, during the energy crisis, Economics Minister Robert Habeck was asked on the ARD talk show Maischberger whether bakeries and other small firms faced insolvency. He answered: Und dann sind die nicht insolvent automatisch, aber sie hören vielleicht auf zu verkaufen. Then they are not automatically insolvent, but they may stop selling. The trade paper Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung wrote of the Unkenntnis, the lack of knowledge, that the minister partly showed. Two days later the president of the Leipzig chamber of crafts said the minister was not familiar nicht einmal mit dem kleinen Einmaleins der Betriebswirtschaftslehre, not even with the basic times table of business administration. The chamber offered to put together a training course in insolvency law for him.
The Referral
German doctors are bound by the professional codes of their medical chambers. The code of the medical chamber of North Rhine says that where diagnosis and treatment require it, doctors must call in other doctors in good time, oder ihnen die Patientin oder den Patienten zur Fortsetzung der Behandlung zu überweisen, or refer the patient to them to continue the treatment. Patients know the result as the Überweisung, the referral slip from the family doctor to the specialist.
The Tax Adviser’s Exam
In Germany only certain persons may give tax advice on a business basis. Section 5 of the Tax Advisers Act limits it to those named in the preceding sections: tax advisers, lawyers, auditors and a few others. The tax adviser’s exam has three written papers of six hours each and an oral exam of up to 90 minutes. A candidate may retake it at most twice. In the exam year 2024/25, 52.1 percent of candidates passed nationwide.