In Lower Saxony, a decree of 20 December 2019 requires every school to develop a Vertretungskonzept, a substitution concept, to avoid lost lessons as far as possible. Lessons that cannot be avoided must not be lost one-sidedly at the expense of particular classes or subjects. A school in Dortmund sets an order for absences of medium length. First comes a teacher of the same subject, then a teacher of the same class, and only then general cover. Its teachers are told to check the Vertretungsplan, the substitution plan, several times a day, for example through push messages from the school’s app.
The Warning Day That Failed
On 10 September 2020, Germany held its first nationwide warning day. The alarm was planned for 11 a.m. The warnings in the apps NINA and KATWARN arrived on phones more than half an hour late. Many connected control centers had triggered warnings on their own, alongside the central one, and the system was overloaded. The agreed concept had provided for activation by the federal government only. Christoph Unger, president of the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance for 16 years, was replaced. The warning day of 2021 was canceled, while the office built a full test environment.
The Pause Before the First Cut
Germany’s Patient Safety Alliance recommends a Team-Time-Out before every operation or other invasive procedure. It takes place immediately before the skin incision. A designated moderator leads the whole team through a checklist. The surgeon names the procedure and the site and side of the body. The cut may be made only when every point on the checklist has been completed. All members of the team count as equals, and each is called on to speak up as soon as he or she notices an error.
Settled in Cabinet
Article 65 of the Basic Law: Über Meinungsverschiedenheiten zwischen den Bundesministern entscheidet die Bundesregierung. The federal government decides disagreements between federal ministers. Under its rules of procedure, the cabinet decides by majority. On 27 November 2017 Germany voted in Brussels for renewing the approval of the weedkiller glyphosate, on the decision of the agriculture minister, Christian Schmidt. The environment minister, Barbara Hendricks, opposed it. Under the government’s rules of procedure, Germany should have abstained. Chancellor Angela Merkel said the vote did not match the instructions the federal government had worked out.
The Short Service Path
The Dienstweg, the service path, is the prescribed route for official business. Only civil service law makes it strictly binding. The law also opens a few doors around it. A soldier may write directly to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, ohne Einhaltung des Dienstweges, without following the service path, and may not be disciplined or disadvantaged for it. Everyday German has a phrase for the unofficial shortcut: etwas auf dem kleinen Dienstweg erledigen, or auf dem kurzen Dienstweg, to settle something by the short service path. German Wikipedia notes that the phrase can be a euphemism for an action that may breach one’s duties.
The Air Traffic Controllers of 1973
Civil servants in Germany may not strike. Beginning on Ascension Day, 31 May 1973, and until the end of the year, West German air traffic controllers slowed down traffic at several German airports by Dienst nach Vorschrift, working strictly to the rules. German Wikipedia notes that this method let civil servants get around their ban on striking. The airlines put their losses at about 235 million marks. In 1981 the Federal Administrative Court ruled that collective actions which reduce the work performed violate a civil servant’s duty to carry out the office conscientiously. In 1984 the federal government had to pay Lufthansa more than 113 million marks in damages for the “air traffic controllers’ action of 1973.”
Not the Letter of Your Will
Heinrich von Kleist wrote Prinz Friedrich von Homburg in 1809 and 1810. Before the battle of Fehrbellin the prince is told not to attack without an explicit order. He attacks anyway and wins. He is sentenced to death for disobedience. Near the end of the play the old colonel Kottwitz defends him before the Elector. Herr, das Gesetz, das höchste, oberste, / Das wirken soll, in deiner Feldherrn Brust, / Das ist der Buchstab deines Willens nicht. Sir, the highest law that should work in your general’s breast is not the letter of your will. Does the Elector want to make the army a tool, he asks, gleich dem Schwerte, / Das tot in deinem goldnen Gürtel ruht, like the sword that lies dead in your golden belt? The Elector asks in return: Meinst du das Glück werd immerdar, wie jüngst, / Mit einem Kranz den Ungehorsam lohnen? Do you think luck will always reward disobedience with a wreath, as it did just now?
The Duty to Object
German civil servants carry die volle persönliche Verantwortung, the full personal responsibility, for the lawfulness of what they do in office. The law states what follows: Bedenken gegen die Rechtmäßigkeit dienstlicher Anordnungen haben Beamtinnen und Beamte unverzüglich bei der oder dem unmittelbaren Vorgesetzten geltend zu machen. (Civil servants must raise concerns about the lawfulness of official orders without delay with their immediate superior.) It is a duty, not a right. If the order stands and the doubts remain, the civil servant must go to the next superior above. If that superior confirms the order, the civil servant carries it out and is no longer personally responsible, unless the conduct ordered would violate human dignity, or is a criminal or administrative offense that the civil servant can recognize as such. This procedure is called Remonstration. The German Wikipedia adds that it is rarely used in everyday practice, because a civil servant who uses it often fears being labeled a Querulant, a troublemaker.
The Judge Assigned in Advance
Article 101 of the Basic Law says: Niemand darf seinem gesetzlichen Richter entzogen werden. No one may be removed from his lawful judge. In practice, the presiding committee of each court distributes the cases in a plan, the Geschäftsverteilungsplan. It makes this plan before the business year begins, for the whole year. The plan may be changed during the year only for narrow reasons, such as a judge who is overloaded. The judge for a case is therefore fixed in advance by a general rule.
A plan is a plan
Plan ist Plan. Wir bleiben beim Plan. Das war so nicht geplant — that was not planned that way, said as an objection rather than as a description.
And the opposite: Wir fahren auf Sicht, we are driving by sight, used when the plan has been abandoned. It is never said with satisfaction.