Germany, Trust - understand-culture

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 Authors read unpublished texts aloud, and the others criticized them on the spot.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.

The Coach and the Sporting Director

In January 2020 Hansi Flick, head coach of Bayern Munich, publicly called for new players. The club’s sporting director, Hasan Salihamidžić, answered: Ich bin einfach kein Freund von medialer Kaderplanung. I am simply not a fan of planning the squad through the media.

Disagreements between the two continued through the 2020–21 season. The club’s board disapproved of Flick’s one-sided communication. On 17 April 2021 Flick announced that he wanted to leave his contract in the summer.

The Vocabulary of Territory

Das ist nicht meine Baustelle. — That is not my construction site. It is not my area.

über jemandes Kopf hinweg — over someone’s head, without asking or informing that person

hineinregieren — to govern into something, to interfere from outside in an unwanted way

federführend — holding the pen, having the lead responsibility, as in das federführende Ministerium

der Zuständigkeitsbereich — the area of responsibility

das Silodenken — silo thinking

der Bereichsegoismus — departmental selfishness

Accept Solutions Other Than Your Own

The Bundeswehr’s regulation A-2600/1 on Innere Führung says: Führung muss Handlungsspielräume, Mitwirkung und Mitverantwortung ermöglichen. Leadership must allow room for action, participation and shared responsibility. Superiors must therefore lead mainly by mission, Führen mit Auftrag. The next sentence reads: Dabei müssen sie gegebenenfalls andere als die eigenen Lösungsansätze akzeptieren.

In doing so, they must where necessary accept solutions other than their own. The regulation adds that only a person who was informed in time and in full, and who understands the purpose of the task, is able and willing to act in the spirit of the mission.