Mahlzeit!
Mealtime! The greeting colleagues give each other around midday.
Brückentag
Bridge day. A single working day between two days off, such as a public holiday and the weekend. Duden notes that it is especially suited to taking as a day of leave.
Feierabendbier
The beer after the end of the working day.
Work-Life-Balance
The English term is in the Duden as a German noun. It is defined as a balanced relationship between the demands of the job and a person’s private needs.
In April 2025, the newly elected Bundestag was due to sit in the week of 8 April. The CDU, CSU and SPD were negotiating a coalition, and they used their majority in the preliminary Council of Elders to cancel the sitting week. All opposition groups protested. The news service beck-aktuell noted that it rarely happens that the very mixed opposition agrees. The AfD’s chief whip, Bernd Baumann, called the decision unverantwortlich, irresponsible.
The Bundestag works in Sitzungswochen, sitting weeks, at least 20 a year. The Council of Elders sets their dates early, for the following year. The agendas, by contrast, are agreed shortly before each week. Every sitting week has the same shape. On Tuesday afternoon the parliamentary groups meet. On Wednesday the committees meet. Plenary sessions run all day on Thursday and until the afternoon on Friday. The second chamber, the Bundesrat, keeps its own rhythm. It meets in public session every three weeks, on a Friday, except during the summer break.
The federal cabinet meets every Wednesday in the Chancellery, with the chancellor in the chair. The Bundestag builds its week around this. In sitting weeks, members question the government on Wednesday afternoon, after the cabinet meeting, and the session opens with reports on topics from that morning. On 3 August 2016, Chancellor Angela Merkel was on vacation. The Wednesday cabinet met anyway, with Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel in the chair. Fewer ministers than usual sat at the table, and the meeting lasted about three quarters of an hour.
der Jour fixe — from French, a fixed day. Duden defines it as a meeting of a fixed group of people that takes place regularly, often on a set weekday. Its spelling note gives unser Jour fixe jeden Dienstagabend, our jour fixe every Tuesday evening. Its usage example is die Mitglieder haben sich schon über zu viele Jours fixes beschwert, the members have already complained about too many jours fixes.
turnusmäßig — as the rotation says. Duden defines der Turnus as a recurrence or order fixed in advance.
The registry office of Hagen gives couples a sheet before their wedding. It asks them to arrive about 20 minutes before the ceremony, and it asks the couple and their guests to be punctual. The reason is the next couple. In most cases further weddings follow, and every couple wants to keep its own time that day. Verspätungen verkürzen ansonsten leider Ihre eigentliche Zeitspanne der Trauung. Otherwise, lateness unfortunately shortens the time of your own ceremony.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the written papers of the first state exam in law should begin as exactly as possible at 9 a.m. The working time ends exactly five hours after the supervisor starts it. Dies gilt auch für Prüflinge, die erst nach dem Beginn der Bearbeitungszeit eintreffen. This also applies to candidates who arrive after the start. Writing after the end is not allowed and is noted in the record. A paper handed in late is marked ungenügend, insufficient, with 0 points. If this happens again in another paper of the same exam period, the whole exam counts as failed.
In the Bundesliga, a late kickoff is a case for the DFB sports court. A club whose team causes the delay is fined for verspätetes Antreten, late appearance for a match. The fine follows a fixed table, by the number of offenses and the length of the delay. According to ZDF, a third offense of 30 to 120 seconds costs 15,000 euros, and the highest fine in the Bundesliga table is 80,000 euros. On 26 April 2025, Bayern Munich played Mainz. The team finished the equipment check at 15:27:00 instead of 15:25:30, and the kickoff was 37 seconds late. It was the seventh late kickoff for which Bayern was responsible. The fine was 35,000 euros.
überziehen — to run over the agreed time. Die Redezeit überziehen, to run over one’s speaking time. Das Meeting hat überzogen, the meeting ran over. It is the same verb as overdrawing a bank account.
auf den letzten Drücker — at the very last moment.
Kommen Sie bitte zum Schluss — please come to the end. This is the chair’s standard phrase in parliaments and meetings.
Ihre Redezeit ist abgelaufen — your speaking time is up.
Hamburg’s school rules require reports to list the days and lessons a pupil missed, marked excused or unexcused. Some schools also count lateness. At the Gymnasium Eppendorf in Hamburg the rule is short: Unentschuldigte Verspätungen werden im Zeugnis vermerkt. Unexcused lateness is noted on the report card. At the city’s Wilhelm-Gymnasium, teachers record every late arrival the pupil is responsible for. Delays in public transport do not count. More than three such cases appear on the report.