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 Contractor at the Next Desk
When outside specialists work at a client’s site in a German engineering project, they still belong to their own firm. The engineering-services company FERCHAU Automotive sets out the rules in a guide for the external contractors it engages. Instructions on tasks, working hours, overtime and absences do not come from the client. The contractor does not stand in for the client’s employees during illness or holiday. As a rule, he receives no client e-mail address and is not placed in the client’s organization chart. His badge names him as a supplier. The reason lies in the law on temporary agency work. A worker who is integrated into the client’s operation and follows its instructions can be treated by law as the client’s employee.
The Solo Trumpeter and the Posthorn
A German symphony orchestra employed a musician as 1. und Solo-Trompeter, first and solo trumpet. The employer also wanted him to play the piccolo trumpet, the cornet, the flugelhorn, the natural trumpet and the posthorn, against an extra allowance under the orchestras’ collective agreement. The question went to the Federal Labor Court. On 18 January 2012 the court ruled against the trumpeter. His title describes his function in the orchestra, but it does not fix the instruments he plays. Der Kläger kann nicht frei entscheiden, ob er mit diesen Instrumenten mitwirkt. The plaintiff cannot decide freely whether he plays these instruments.
Who Empties the Dishwasher
In 2018 the news agency dpa asked who must tidy the Teeküche, the office kitchenette. The answer: In der Regel kann niemand gezwungen werden, die Teeküche aufzuräumen. As a rule, nobody can be forced to tidy it. Cleaning is not among the contractual tasks of office employees. The boss cannot order them to do it. He can only make the use of the kitchen depend on its being kept in order. The better way, the article advises, is to agree clearly who is responsible. The duty can pass from one employee to the next, for example every week or every month.
The Chair as a Principality
At many German universities the basic unit is the Lehrstuhl, the chair. A professor holds it, and its staff work in dependence on that professor. In 2018 the sociologist Peter Ullrich described the system in the Tagesspiegel as Feudalverhältnisse, feudal relations, in which resources are divided between konkurrierenden Fürstentümern, competing principalities. On 28 January 2026 the Bundestag’s research committee held a hearing on department structures. One expert said that in Germany the chair model often applies. Another said that his institute had already left it behind. A third warned that department structures must not be imposed from above.
TEAM: Great, Someone Else Does It
A German joke reads the word TEAM as an acronym: Toll, ein anderer macht’s. Great, someone else is doing it. In 2014 a book on teamwork appeared with the title Team: Toll, ein anderer macht’s! Die Wahrheit über Teamarbeit, the truth about teamwork. In the same year a German media-studies journal turned the joke around in the title of a review: Teamwork. Toll, wir machen es tatsächlich gemeinsam. Great, we actually do it together.
The Keepers of the Club
der Wart — the keeper, the warden. Duden: a person who is responsible for something specific or supervises it. The word comes from wahren, to keep or to guard. On its own it is old-fashioned. It lives on in compounds, and every German club has several of them.
der Kassenwart — the keeper of the cash box, the club treasurer
der Zeugwart — the keeper of the kit
der Platzwart — the keeper of the grounds
der Gerätewart — the keeper of the equipment
der Turnwart — the keeper of gymnastics, who organizes training and looks after the apparatus
der Jugendwart — the person in charge of the youth section
der Torwart — the keeper of the goal, the goalkeeper
One Defender, One Opponent
On 7 July 1974 in Munich, West Germany beat the Netherlands 2:1 in the World Cup final. Berti Vogts had been told to attack Johan Cruyff only 30 meters in front of his own goal. Vogts received a yellow card. Shortly afterwards he ran to the sideline and told the coach, Helmut Schön: Ich mach’ das jetzt auf meine Art. I will do it my way now. The German Football Association explains what that meant: konsequente Manndeckung, strict man-marking. Schön agreed, unwillingly. Under man-marking, each defender marks one opponent rather than a zone.
Not Authorized, but Right
In February 1962 a storm flood struck the North Sea coast and Hamburg. The city’s senator for the interior, Helmut Schmidt, called in army engineers with rubber boats. The Bundeswehr’s own history of disaster relief notes that he did so obwohl verfassungsrechtlich dazu nicht befugt, although not authorized to under the constitution. In 1968 an amendment to the Basic Law closed the gap. A state may now request the armed forces in a natural disaster or a particularly serious accident.
Two Leaders, Two Areas
Shared leadership, two people in one job, is becoming more popular in German organizations. In 2024 the trade magazine Computerwoche asked two co-heads of a department at the Fraunhofer Institute IESE for advice. One of their warnings: Beide machen alles – das funktioniert nicht. Both doing everything does not work. Schließlich bleibt dann auch unklar, an wen von beiden man sich mit einem Anliegen wenden kann. After all, it then remains unclear which of the two one should turn to with a request. Their advice is to divide the areas of responsibility as clearly as possible and to tell the team.