In 1999 the state government of Baden-Württemberg began an image campaign with the agency Scholz & Friends. Its closing line became a catchphrase: Wir können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch. We can do everything, except standard German. The agency’s case study names the problem that the campaign had to solve. Baden-Württemberg galt auch als das Land der leistungsorientierten Streber. Baden-Württemberg was also seen as the land of achievement-driven swots. So the campaign showed people die Spitzenleistungen vollbracht haben und dabei sympathisch und menschlich geblieben sind, who had achieved top performance and had stayed likable and human. The self-irony, the agency wrote, beweist Größe und macht sympathisch. It shows greatness and makes people likable.
So Comfortable to Leave It to Others
Immanuel Kant dated his essay Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung? in Königsberg on 30 September 1784. In it he describes how easy it is to leave judgment to others. Es ist so bequem, unmündig zu sein. It is so comfortable to be immature. Habe ich ein Buch, das für mich Verstand hat, einen Seelsorger, der für mich Gewissen hat, einen Arzt, der für mich die Diät beurteilt, u.s.w., so brauche ich mich ja nicht selbst zu bemühen. If I have a book that has understanding for me, a pastor who has a conscience for me, a doctor who judges my diet for me, and so on, then I need not make any effort myself. Ich habe nicht nötig zu denken, wenn ich nur bezahlen kann. I do not need to think, as long as I can pay.
Where Concepts Are Missing
In the study scene of Goethe’s Faust I, a new student asks Mephistopheles for advice. Mephistopheles tells him: Im ganzen – haltet Euch an Worte! On the whole, keep to words! The student objects: Doch ein Begriff muß bei dem Worte sein. But there must be a concept behind the word. Mephistopheles answers: Denn eben wo Begriffe fehlen, / Da stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein. For just where concepts are missing, a word turns up at the right moment. Mit Worten läßt sich trefflich streiten, / Mit Worten ein System bereiten. With words one can argue splendidly, and with words one can build a system. The advice comes from the devil.
Stairs Counted as Shop Space
On 7 April 1994 the property developer Jürgen Schneider disappeared. His real estate empire collapsed and left debts of about three billion dollars. Craftsmen were left with unpaid bills of more than 50 million marks. Hilmar Kopper, the head of Deutsche Bank, called this sum Peanuts. The word became the Unwort des Jahres, the non-word of the year, for 1994. At his trial in Frankfurt in 1997, Schneider confessed. For a shopping complex in his home city, he had counted stairs, corridors and cellars as rentable space. On that basis he had forecast 57 million marks in rent. Viele Angaben waren objektiv falsch, he said. Many figures were objectively false. He also said that the responsible loan officer had never asked further questions. At Christmas 1997 the regional court sentenced him to six years and nine months in prison.
To Trust Someone to Do It
German builds two different verbs on trauen, to trust.
jemandem vertrauen
To trust someone.
jemandem etwas zutrauen
To believe that someone is able to do something.
Traust du dir diese Aufgabe zu?
Do you think you can handle this task?
das Zutrauen
Confidence in someone’s abilities.
Opinion polls use the second verb to ask about competence. In the ARD-DeutschlandTrend of September 2021 the question was: Welcher Partei trauen Sie am ehesten zu, die wichtigsten Probleme in Deutschland zu lösen? Which party do you think is most able to solve the most important problems in Germany? The statistics portal Statista files the answers under the party with the greatest competence.
Not Qualified, Presumed at Fault
Section 630h of the German Civil Code governs the burden of proof for errors in medical treatment. Since 2013 its fourth paragraph has read: War ein Behandelnder für die von ihm vorgenommene Behandlung nicht befähigt, wird vermutet, dass die mangelnde Befähigung für den Eintritt der Verletzung des Lebens, des Körpers oder der Gesundheit ursächlich war. If the person giving treatment was not qualified for it, the law presumes that this lack of qualification caused the injury to life, body or health. A typical case is a junior doctor who performs his first complex operation alone. The patient must still prove that an error was made. The law then presumes that the lack of qualification caused the damage.
Who Germans Trust
In March 2018 the GfK Verein published its survey of trust in professions. It had asked 2,000 people in Germany aged 14 and over. Feuerwehrleute, firefighters, came first with 96 percent, level with paramedics. Nurses followed with 95 percent. Doctors, bus and train drivers and pilots each reached almost 90 percent. At the bottom were advertising professionals with 25 percent, insurance agents with 23 percent and politicians with 14 percent. The press release noted that the federal election of 2017 took place during the survey and probably played a role in the politicians’ figure.
Words for Saying “I Don’t Know”
Da bin ich überfragt. — That question goes beyond what I know.
Da muss ich passen. — I have to pass. The phrase comes from card games.
Das ist nicht mein Fachgebiet. — That is not my field.
Da kenne ich mich nicht aus. — I don’t know my way around that.
Davon verstehe ich nichts. — I understand nothing about that.
The Minister on Insolvency
In September 2022, during the energy crisis, Economics Minister Robert Habeck was asked on the ARD talk show Maischberger whether bakeries and other small firms faced insolvency. He answered: Und dann sind die nicht insolvent automatisch, aber sie hören vielleicht auf zu verkaufen. Then they are not automatically insolvent, but they may stop selling. The trade paper Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung wrote of the Unkenntnis, the lack of knowledge, that the minister partly showed. Two days later the president of the Leipzig chamber of crafts said the minister was not familiar nicht einmal mit dem kleinen Einmaleins der Betriebswirtschaftslehre, not even with the basic times table of business administration. The chamber offered to put together a training course in insolvency law for him.
Judged by Number, Not by Name
In a German public architecture competition run under the federal Guideline for Planning Competitions of 2013, the jury does not know whose design it is judging. Under the guideline, each participant marks every part of the entry only with a Kennzahl, a code number. The entries stay anonymous until the jury has decided. The jury assesses the shortlisted designs in writing, and the decision is recorded in minutes. Afterwards all entries are exhibited in public with the authors’ names, together with the minutes.