Trust Archives - Page 16 of 22 - understand-culture

No Car Toll

In the TV debate with Peer Steinbrück on 1 September 2013, Chancellor Angela Merkel said: Mit mir wird es keine PKW-Maut geben! With me there will be no car toll. On 27 November 2013, the CDU, CSU and SPD agreed in their coalition agreement to introduce one. On 27 March 2015, the Bundestag passed it. That day the SPD member Lothar Binding explained in a written statement why he voted yes. Fair dealing with agreements, including coalition agreements, required it. He added: Deshalb wird mit Angela Merkel heute die PKW-Maut in Deutschland eingeführt. That is why the car toll is introduced in Germany today, with Angela Merkel.

The spoken promise gave way. The signed agreement held.

Read Aloud, Approved, Signed

Germans who buy an apartment, found a limited company or sign a marriage contract go to a notary. There the whole deed is read aloud. The Notarization Act requires it. Der Inhalt der Niederschrift muss in Gegenwart des Notars den Beteiligten vorgelesen, die Niederschrift von ihnen genehmigt und eigenhändig unterschrieben werden. The content of the record must be read aloud to the parties in the presence of the notary, approved by them and signed by them in their own hand. Maps and drawings are shown to them instead. Before the appointment, a consumer who buys land from a company must as a rule receive the draft 14 days in advance. The Federal Court of Justice confirmed this in 2015.

Who Does What by When

German guides to meetings distinguish two kinds of minutes. The Verlaufsprotokoll records the course of the discussion. The Ergebnisprotokoll records only the results. For items about who handles which task, the Haufe Academy’s glossary puts it in four words: Wer macht was bis wann? Who does what by when? Its model table has columns for the person responsible, the deadline and the status. The office consultancy Büro-Kaizen adds a rule. Deshalb ist der erste Tagesordnungspunkt bei jeder Besprechung stets das Ergebnisprotokoll der letzten Sitzung. The first agenda item of every meeting is therefore always the results minutes of the last one.

The Class Council Looks Back

A procedure sheet from the Bavarian state school institute shows how a primary-school class council works. The pupils take the roles of chair, minute-taker, rule-keeper and timekeeper. The second step of every session looks back at the last one. Das letzte Protokoll wird verlesen. The last minutes are read aloud, and the children consider how the decisions were carried out. At the end, the new decisions are summed up. A supplier of school materials describes the same review: Die Klasse prüft, ob Aufgaben und Beschlüsse aus dem letzten Klassenrat umgesetzt wurden. The class checks whether the tasks and decisions of the last class council were carried out.

Item One: The Last Minutes

The municipal code of Bavaria says: Die Verhandlungen des Gemeinderats sind niederzuschreiben. The proceedings of the council must be written down. The minutes show the resolutions and the result of each vote. Every member may ask for the minutes to record how he or she voted. The chair and the secretary sign the minutes, and the council must approve them. Citizens may read the minutes of public sessions. On 13 May 2026, the council of Niederalteich in Lower Bavaria met. The first item on its agenda was Genehmigung der Sitzungsniederschrift vom 16.04.2026, approval of the minutes of 16 April 2026.

The Minutes Become the Contract

In German law, silence is in principle not consent. Business has an exception, the kaufmännisches Bestätigungsschreiben, the commercial letter of confirmation. After negotiations, one side writes down what was agreed and sends it. If the other side does not object without delay, the contract stands as the letter describes it. The letter does not need to carry that name. Auch ein „Besprechungsprotokoll” wirkt wie ein kaufmännisches Bestätigungsschreiben. The minutes of a meeting have the same effect. The objection must come quickly. In 2023 the Higher Regional Court of Bamberg held that such a letter must be answered within a day or two. In 2024 the Federal Court of Justice refused leave to appeal, so the ruling became final.

The Electric Chair

From 1947 to 1967, the writer Hans Werner Richter invited authors to the meetings of the Gruppe 47. Authors read unpublished texts aloud, and the others criticized them on the spot. The reader sat on the free chair next to Richter, which was jokingly called the elektrischer Stuhl, the electric chair. Zur wichtigen Maxime wurde, dass der Vortragende sich nicht verteidigen durfte, sowie dass die Kritik der konkreten Texte im Mittelpunkt stand. It became an important rule that the reader was not allowed to defend himself, and that the criticism focused on the actual texts. In 1958 Günter Grass read the first chapter of his still unpublished novel Die Blechtrommel at a meeting in the Allgäu and won the group’s prize.

The Critic Who Left

From 1988 to 2001, ZDF’s Das Literarische Quartett showed critics arguing about new books, dominated by Marcel Reich-Ranicki and known for his devastating verdicts. In June 2000 the critics discussed Haruki Murakami’s novel Gefährliche Geliebte. Reich-Ranicki accused the critic Sigrid Löffler of always complaining about novels about love, and said she regarded love as something anstößig Unanständiges, offensively indecent. On air, Löffler rejected this as a persönliche Unterstellung, a personal insinuation. After the episode she announced that she would leave the program.

The Hair Sample

In 2000 it was agreed that Christoph Daum, coach of Bayer Leverkusen, would become national coach in the summer of 2001. On 1 October 2000, the Bayern manager Uli Hoeneß hinted in a newspaper that Daum used drugs. On 9 October Daum gave a hair sample of his own accord. Ich tue das, weil ich ein absolut reines Gewissen habe. I am doing this because I have an absolutely clear conscience. On 20 October he was told the result from the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the University of Cologne. It showed cocaine. Leverkusen dismissed him without notice, and Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, then acting head of the DFB, declared: Der Handschlag-Vertrag mit Daum ist gegenstandslos. The handshake contract with Daum is void.

Knigge on Keeping the Hour

Adolph Knigge’s Über den Umgang mit Menschen, On Dealing with People, first appeared in 1788. In the first chapter of later editions, Knigge tells his reader: Sei streng gegen dich selbst, pünktlich, ordentlich, arbeitsam, fleißig in Deinem Berufe! Be strict with yourself, punctual, orderly, hardworking, diligent in your profession. He gives a reason. Everyone likes to deal and do business with a person whose punctuality in word and deed can be relied on. Then he goes further. Be exactly where you mean to appear, at the set and proper hour, und wärst Du auch der einzige, der diese Ordnung beobachtet, even if you are the only one who keeps this order.