On 3 March 2009 the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne collapsed into the pit of a new subway station. Two young residents died. A court-appointed expert found the cause in a defect, a Fehlstelle, in an underground concrete wall. In 2005 workers had left a block of rock in the excavation. According to the indictment, they dug on anstatt das Hindernis zu melden, instead of reporting the obstacle. The criminal courts then examined each person’s duty of care one by one. Two construction managers were acquitted in 2018. The court found breaches of their duty of care but held that these had not caused the collapse. A senior site manager received one year on probation in 2019. The judge said the eindeutige Warnsignale, clear warning signs, in a construction record should have led him to check more closely. The Federal Court of Justice overturned the judgments in 2021. In 2024 the court provisionally closed the cases against the four remaining defendants, against payments of money. In 2020 the construction consortium agreed to pay the city 600 million euros. At the time, it still disputed the cause.
The Hunt Leader
Bei Gesellschaftsjagden muss der Unternehmer einen Jagdleiter bestimmen, wenn er nicht selbst diese Aufgabe wahrnimmt. At a group hunt, the organizer must appoint a hunt leader, unless he takes on the role himself. The rule is in the accident prevention regulation for hunting, VSG 4.4. Die Anordnungen des Jagdleiters sind zu befolgen. The hunt leader’s orders must be followed. Before the hunt starts, he instructs the shooters and the beaters. This briefing is called die Jagdansprache, the hunt address. In a drive hunt, he assigns each shooter a stand. He also marks exactly the area into which that shooter may fire. A shooter may not move or leave his stand before the drive is over, unless the hunt leader decides otherwise. In April 2026 the agricultural social insurance SVLFG and the Lower Saxony hunting association announced joint seminars for hunt leaders.
Eight of Fifteen Missing
In August 2013 the signal box at Mainz main station could not be fully staffed. Of its 15 employees, five were sick and three on holiday, according to Bild am Sonntag. For about two weeks, trains had to be rerouted or were canceled. A labor lawyer explained to the legal portal LTO: Eine rechtliche Verpflichtung der Mitarbeiter, vorzeitig aus dem Urlaub zurückzukommen, gibt es aber nicht. There is no legal duty for employees to return early from holiday. Deutsche Bahn’s chief executive, Rüdiger Grube, apologized in public. A railway spokesman said: Zusätzliche personelle Kapazitäten gibt es nicht. There are no additional staff.
The Helper Shuttle in the Ahr Valley
After the floods of July 2021 in the Ahr valley, tens of thousands of volunteers came to help. Within days, local people set up the Helfer-Shuttle, the helper shuttle. Buses collected volunteers at points on the heights and took them down into the valley. The Bavarian fire-service journal brandwacht later called it probably the most important institution of the spontaneous helpers. It estimated that about 50,000 such helpers came by September. The chair of an expert commission said: die Einbindung in den Stab hat nirgends funktioniert, the integration into the crisis staff worked nowhere. The main criticisms were poor coordination of the helpers and poor communication by the authorities.
Words for Going Around
kungeln — to settle something in a secret arrangement. Duden marks it as colloquial and derogatory. One of its examples is um Posten kungeln, to bargain secretly over posts.
die Kungelei — secret dealing
der Alleingang — the solo walk. Duden: acting on one’s own strength while doing without, often deliberately, the help or consent of others, as in ein nationaler Alleingang. In football the same word means a solo run by one player with the ball.
sich abstimmen — to coordinate with each other
Rücksprache halten — to check back with someone before acting
The Weekly Plan by Thursday at 2 p.m.
In German public theaters, the week of the whole ensemble is fixed in advance. Since 1 August 2025, the collective agreement for stage artists, the NV Bühne, requires the Wochenplan, the weekly plan, to be published inside the theater by 2 p.m. on the Thursday of the week before. A non-binding preview of the following week is attached. Each member must inform himself about the plan. Most changes must be announced by 2 p.m. on the day before. Later ones need the member’s consent. A rehearsal or performance can be canceled at any time.
The Holiday List
The career site Karrierebibel advises German teams to settle at the start of the year who will take leave when, and suggests a public holiday list on the notice board or the intranet. The law sets the order of priority. Under Section 7 of the Federal Leave Act, the employer must follow the employee’s wishes, unless urgent operational needs stand in the way, or the wishes of colleagues who deserve priority on social grounds, such as parents of school-age children. A works council has a say over the principles of holiday planning. In 2021 the Federal Labor Court confirmed that an employee who takes leave that was not granted can in principle be dismissed without notice.
The Team Writes Its Fines
In German amateur football, a team agrees its Strafenkatalog, its catalog of fines, before the season. A guide by the sports retailer Decathlon describes the custom. The catalog is set jointly within the team. Missing training without an excuse is an absolute no-go. The Kassenwart, the team’s treasurer, fixes the amounts together with the coach. The money in the team kitty pays for the losers’ pizza, the team party or the end-of-season trip. Professional teams keep such lists too. In Borussia Dortmund’s catalog for 2023–24, young players named on a list paid 100 euros if they did not help the kit manager with bags and equipment. A red card for violent conduct, complaining or a deliberate foul was left to the Mannschaftsrat, the team council, to judge case by case.
The Club Constitution
A German club cannot be registered without a written constitution, the Satzung. Under Section 57 of the Civil Code, it must state at least the club’s name, seat and purpose. Section 58 adds rules on members and dues, on how the board is formed, on when the members’ assembly is called and on how its decisions are recorded. It should be signed by at least seven members before the club is first entered in the register of associations. The register counts more than 600,000 registered clubs. A common saying goes: Treffen sich drei Deutsche, gründen sie einen Verein. When three Germans meet, they found a club. The saying is anonymous.
Every Unit Signs for Its Part
In a German federal ministry, every matter has one lead unit. The Joint Rules of Procedure of the Federal Ministries give the lead to the unit that is mainly responsible under the distribution of business. In case of doubt, the ministry’s organization division decides. The lead unit then decides which other units take part. Co-signing, the Mitzeichnung, is reserved for matters of importance. Durch Mitzeichnung wird die fachliche Verantwortung für den vertretenen Aufgabenbereich übernommen. By co-signing, a unit takes professional responsibility for its own area. The file must show which units worked on the matter, co-signed it and signed it. If ministries still disagree after a personal attempt to settle the matter, the cabinet paper must set out the dispute, together with proposed solutions.