In Germany’s volunteer and professional fire brigades, a squad works under service regulation FwDV 3. Die Mannschaft einer Gruppe gliedert sich in group leader, machinist, messenger, attack team, water team and hose team. Each has its own tasks. The attack team nimmt in der Regel das erste einzusetzende Strahlrohr vor, as a rule takes up the first nozzle. The water team stellt die Wasserversorgung vom Löschfahrzeug zum Verteiler und zwischen Löschfahrzeug und Wasserentnahmestelle her, sets up the water supply from the engine to the distributor and between the engine and the water source. Before anyone leaves the vehicle, everyone knows whose hose it is.
The Vocabulary of Someone Else’s Area
jemandem ins Handwerk pfuschen — to botch around in someone’s trade. Duden defines it as sich in einem Bereich betätigen, für den ein anderer zuständig ist, to be active in an area for which someone else is responsible.
Viele Köche verderben den Brei. — Many cooks spoil the porridge.
das Kompetenzgerangel — a scramble over who is responsible
Zuständigkeitsbereiche abstecken — to stake out areas of responsibility, as one marks out ground with pegs
Each Specialist Owns a Field
A patient in a German hospital is owed treatment at the standard of a specialist. The Civil Code requires treatment according to the generally recognized professional standards. In 1993 the Federal Court of Justice ruled on a doctor in training to become an anesthetist. If he does not yet have enough experience of a particular risk, he may not conduct the anesthesia without the direct supervision of a specialist, at least during that phase of the operation. The patient, the court said, has a right to medical care that meets the standard of a specialist.
In 1999 the same court described how the operating doctor and the anesthetist share an operation. Each must deal with the dangers that arise in his own area. Each may trust that the colleague from the other field does his work with due care, and there is no duty to watch each other. This holds only for dangers that belong to one field alone. Where the risk comes from the combination of the two fields, the doctors must coordinate their measures.
The Vocabulary of Territory
Das ist nicht meine Baustelle. — That is not my construction site. It is not my area.
über jemandes Kopf hinweg — over someone’s head, without asking or informing that person
hineinregieren — to govern into something, to interfere from outside in an unwanted way
federführend — holding the pen, having the lead responsibility, as in das federführende Ministerium
der Zuständigkeitsbereich — the area of responsibility
das Silodenken — silo thinking
der Bereichsegoismus — departmental selfishness
Words for Whose Job It Is
Dafür bin ich nicht zuständig — I am not responsible for that. It is the standard sentence for saying that a matter belongs to someone else.
Es fühlte sich niemand zuständig — nobody felt responsible. Duden gives this as an example sentence for the word.
Das ist nicht mein Bier — that is not my beer. In everyday speech it means “that is not my business.”
Das fällt in mein Ressort — that falls into my department. Duden defines a Ressort as a firmly outlined area of tasks and responsibility.
Kompetenzgerangel and Zuständigkeitsgerangel — wrangling over competence, wrangling over responsibility. Duden marks Kompetenzgerangel as colloquial and disapproving.
Zuständigkeitshalber — for reasons of responsibility. The word belongs to the German of official letters.
Each Minister’s Own Portfolio
Article 65 of the Basic Law lets the Chancellor set the guidelines of policy. Then it says: Innerhalb dieser Richtlinien leitet jeder Bundesminister seinen Geschäftsbereich selbständig und unter eigener Verantwortung. Within these guidelines, each federal minister runs his portfolio independently and on his own responsibility. German government calls this the Ressortprinzip, the portfolio principle. When two ministers disagree, the federal government as a whole decides. The principle goes back to the Prussian reforms. They abolished the old cabinet system and created a state ministry nach dem Ressortprinzip klar gegliedert, clearly organized by portfolio. The ministers for the interior, foreign affairs, finance, justice and war each answered to the king.
Claims Department M to Z
The comedy series Stromberg ran on ProSieben from 2004 to 2012. Most of it takes place in the claims department Schadensregulierung M–Z, which Bernd Stromberg runs. Claims from A to L belong to another department, Schadensregulierung A–L. Its head, Sinan Turçulu, competes with Stromberg for the management of the whole department.
Board Portfolios
Under § 77 of the German Stock Corporation Act, the members of a management board run the company together: sämtliche Vorstandsmitglieder nur gemeinschaftlich. The articles or the board’s own rules may provide otherwise, and in practice they assign portfolios to individual members. The member who holds a portfolio is then fully liable for the decisions in it.
The other members keep their part. In the words of one law firm, the principle of overall responsibility nicht durchbrochen, sondern vielmehr modifiziert, is not broken but rather modified.
Love Parade Duisburg
On July 24, 2010, 21 people died in a crowd crush at the Love Parade in Duisburg. Afterward, the city, the organizer and the police blamed one another. The head of the state police of North Rhine-Westphalia said at a press conference: Der Veranstalter und nur der Veranstalter war für die Sicherheit der Menschen auf dem Veranstaltungsgelände zuständig. The organizer, and only the organizer, was responsible for the safety of the people on the site. An interim report by lawyers commissioned by the city concluded, provisionally, that the city had not been responsible for safety on the site. The trial began on December 8, 2017, at the regional court in Duisburg. On May 4, 2020, the proceedings against the last three defendants were discontinued, partly because of the restrictions expected from the Corona crisis. The trial ended without a verdict.
Wirecard and the Gap Between Supervisors
Wirecard filed for insolvency on June 25, 2020. Three days earlier, the company itself had said that balances of 1.9 billion euros in trust accounts most probably did not exist. A committee of inquiry of the Bundestag then asked who had been responsible for supervision. The financial supervisor BaFin is responsible for banks, insurers and financial holding companies. In BaFin’s view, Wirecard was ein Unternehmen aus dem Bereich Informationstechnik und keine Finanzholding, an information technology company and not a financial holding. For money-laundering supervision of other companies, the state authorities are responsible. In Wirecard’s case, the authority in Lower Bavaria took up its responsibility only when suspicion grew. An official of the finance ministry told the committee: Wenn keine Zuständigkeit vorliegt, gibt es auch nichts zu koordinieren. Where there is no responsibility, there is nothing to coordinate.