In 1961 the brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht ran about 300 discount stores together. That year they decided to go separate ways. The best-known reason is a dispute over cigarettes. Theo wanted to sell tobacco for its higher margins, and Karl refused. Many experts doubt that this alone caused the split. Since then Germany has had Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd. The line between their territories is called the Aldi-Äquator, the Aldi equator. It runs from the lower Rhine near Mülheim across large parts of Hesse to north of Fulda and Bavaria. The two firms are separate companies, and they still work together in some central areas.
The Video Referee’s Narrow Area
The video assistant referees of the Bundesliga work at a broadcasting center in Cologne. Their area is narrow. Nur bei Toren, Elfmetersituationen, Platzverweisen und Spielerverwechslungen darf der VAR intervenieren. The video assistant may intervene only for goals, penalty situations, sending-offs and mistaken identity. Even then he does not decide. Der Schiedsrichter auf dem Platz hat die Entscheidungsgewalt. The referee on the pitch has the power to decide. In November 2017 Lutz Michael Fröhlich replaced Hellmut Krug as head of the video referees. Fröhlich said: Der Schiedsrichter auf dem Feld muss gestärkt werden. The referee on the field must be strengthened.
The Bakery That Dropped Two Checklists
A German craft bakery chain has 145 stores and more than 1,350 employees. Many of its workers said they disliked being monitored through checklists. The firm then removed two of these checklists in half of its stores, chosen at random. Economists from Cologne and other universities studied the results. Sales in the stores without the checklists rose by 2.7 percent on average. Turnover among trained staff fell by 35 percent. In team surveys, employees named spürbare Wertschätzung, appreciation they could feel, as the reason. The co-author Matthias Heinz summed it up. Wer Mitarbeitende zu stark kontrolliert, schadet dem Unternehmen. Whoever controls employees too much harms the company. The effect was not the same for everyone. Unskilled workers left more often after the checklists were gone.
Drivers May Trust That Others Follow the Rules
German traffic law has a Vertrauensgrundsatz, a principle of trust. A driver may rely on other road users to follow the rules. No statute states it in so many words. The courts derive it from Section 1 of the road traffic regulations. A driver with a green light may expect cross traffic to stop at red. The Federal Court of Justice puts the condition plainly. The principle holds solange die sichtbare Verkehrslage zu keiner anderen Beurteilung Anlass gibt, as long as the visible traffic situation gives no reason to judge otherwise. Children, older people and people in need of help are an exception. Toward them, Section 3 of the regulations requires drivers to behave dass eine Gefährdung dieser Verkehrsteilnehmer ausgeschlossen ist, so that any danger to them is ruled out.
Words for Broken Trust
der Vertrauensbruch
A breach of trust.
Porzellan zerschlagen
To smash porcelain. One causes damage in a relationship that is hard to repair.
es sich mit jemandem verscherzen
To lose someone’s goodwill through one’s own fault.
bei jemandem unten durch sein
To have lost all standing with someone.
jemandem auf die Finger schauen
To watch someone’s fingers. One checks a person’s work closely.
sich erst wieder bewähren müssen
To have to prove oneself again.
Not That You Lied
In Jenseits von Gut und Böse, Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche has a chapter of short sayings. Aphorism 183 reads: Nicht dass du mich belogst, sondern dass ich dir nicht mehr glaube, hat mich erschüttert. Not that you lied to me, but that I no longer believe you, is what has shaken me.
A Second Chance
Uli Hoeneß left prison on 29 February 2016, after 637 days. He had been sentenced to three and a half years for tax evasion and was released after serving half. Before the general meeting of FC Bayern Munich, he told the Abendzeitung: Ich bin nachdenklicher und auch demütiger geworden. I have become more thoughtful and also more humble. On 25 November 2016 he asked the members: Ich bitte Sie um eine zweite Chance. I ask you for a second chance. He promised to do everything to meet their expectations. The members elected him president again with 97.7 percent of the votes.
A Referee’s Six Months
On 27 January 2005 the referee Robert Hoyzer confessed that he had manipulated football matches for betting. On 29 April 2005 the German Football Association banned him for life. Hoyzer also named other referees. One was Felix Zwayer, who had helped bring the case to light. The association’s sports court found that Zwayer had accepted 300 euros from Hoyzer, and it banned him for six months. The verdict became known only years later. Zwayer has denied taking the money. He went on to referee at the top level, including a semifinal of the 2024 European Championship. The former referee Manuel Gräfe once said that anyone who had taken money and kept quiet about Hoyzer’s manipulation for half a year sollte keinen Profifußball pfeifen, should not referee professional football.
Four Years Under a Monitor
In 2006 a suspicion of corruption at Siemens became public. At first the reports spoke of about 20 million euros moved out of the company through shell firms. The proceedings ended in December 2008 with fines of about 1.2 billion euros. The total cost to Siemens later reached 2.2 billion euros. The fines did not end the matter. US authorities appointed Theo Waigel, a former German finance minister, as an independent Compliance Monitor. For four years he checked whether Siemens kept to rules and laws.
The Yellow Angel’s Numbers
The ADAC is Germany’s largest automobile club. Its award, the Gelber Engel, the Yellow Angel, included a vote by members on the Lieblingsautos der Deutschen, the Germans’ favorite cars. On 14 January 2014 the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that only 3,409 members had voted for the winner, the VW Golf. The ADAC had announced 34,299. Its managing director spoke of Unterstellungen und Unwahrheiten, insinuations and untruths. A few days later the communications chief Michael Ramstetter admitted the manipulation and resigned from all his posts. In a survey published on 23 January, 47 percent said they now trusted the ADAC less than before the crisis. In December 2016, after a reform of the club, its president August Markl said that its reputation was fast wiederhergestellt, almost restored.