German law tests the reliability of a person. Under Section 35 of the Trade Regulation Act, the authorities must ban a trader from running a business when facts show that the trader is unreliable and the ban is needed to protect the public or employees. The Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Frankfurt explains the meaning. A person is unreliable who, judged by the overall picture of his conduct, offers no assurance that he will run the business properly in the future. Typical reasons are unpaid taxes and unpaid social insurance contributions. The ban can be lifted only when facts justify the assumption that the unreliability no longer exists. The Weapons Act uses the same word. A person convicted of certain crimes lacks the necessary reliability until ten years after the last conviction became final.
Rather Lose Money Than Trust
“Ich möchte lieber Geld verlieren als Vertrauen.” I would rather lose money than trust. The sentence is Robert Bosch’s, the founder of the Bosch company. A biography records that he repeated it emphatically in 1919. The magazine of the Hans Böckler Foundation called it perhaps his most famous sentence.
Too Often He Broke My Trust
On 6 November 2024, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that he would ask the Federal President to dismiss his finance minister, Christian Lindner. “Zu oft hat er mein Vertrauen gebrochen,” Scholz said. Too often he broke my trust. “Es gibt keine Vertrauensbasis für die weitere Zusammenarbeit.” There is no basis of trust for further cooperation.
The Member of Parliament Without a Degree
Petra Hinz had been a Social Democratic member of the Bundestag since 2005. In July 2016 it became known that she had neither the Abitur nor a law degree, and so had passed no state law exams. She announced her resignation on 20 July 2016 and left the Bundestag at the end of August. The prosecutors in Essen found no initial suspicion of a crime and opened no investigation.
Prosecutors saw no crime in the false claims. They still ended her career in parliament within weeks.
The Tone of the Tagesschau
The Tagesschau is credited with keeping a sober, informative format since 1960. As a rule, its newsreaders read the reports from a teleprompter. The journalist Willi Winkler described the news as delivered “im amtsmännischen Ton der reinen Sachlichkeit,” in an official’s tone of pure objectivity. When the program turned 70 in December 2022, its editor-in-chief, Marcus Bornheim, named what it values most. “Der größte Wert, den wir haben, ist unsere Glaubwürdigkeit.” The greatest asset we have is our credibility.
The Corrected CV
In June 2021, the Greens’ candidate for chancellor, Annalena Baerbock, had to correct her CV on her website. The heading Mitgliedschaften, memberships, became Beiräte, (Förder-)Mitgliedschaften, regelmäßige Unterstützung, advisory boards, supporting memberships and regular support. “Ich habe da offensichtlich einen Fehler gemacht und das tut mir sehr, sehr leid,” she said. I obviously made a mistake there, and I am very, very sorry. The taz noted that her party’s poll numbers were falling again. It named two likely causes, the late reporting of special payments from her party and the inaccurate details in her CV.
Hard on the Matter
The president of the Bundestag can call a speaker back to the subject. This is the Sachruf. A speaker called back to the subject three times in one speech can lose the floor. The president can also call a member to order by name when the member violates the order or the dignity of the house. This is the Ordnungsruf. Three calls to order within three sitting weeks bring a fine of 2,000 euros, and 4,000 euros in a repeat case. In November 2025 the Bundestag rejected objections by AfD members to calls to order they had received. Vice President Andrea Lindholz explained the line. Members may “hart in der Sache diskutieren,” argue hard on the substance. They may not give up decency and a dignified manner toward one another.
Criticism of the Matter, Not the Person
German constitutional law protects sharp criticism. It does not protect Schmähkritik, abusive criticism. The Federal Constitutional Court defines this narrowly. A statement is abusive criticism only when “nicht mehr die Auseinandersetzung in der Sache, sondern die Diffamierung der Person im Vordergrund steht.” The debate about the matter is no longer in the foreground, and the defamation of the person is. Even exaggerated and abusive criticism is not Schmähkritik for that reason alone. In August 2020 the court overturned the conviction of a man in preventive detention. During a dispute over late pocket money, he had called a social worker at the prison a Trulla, a disparaging word for a woman.
Why Germans Trust Scientists
In November 2020, the survey Wissenschaftsbarometer asked 1,016 people in Germany about their trust in science. Sixty percent said they trusted science and research rather or fully. The survey then asked for reasons. The reason with the most agreement was “Weil Wissenschaftler Experten auf ihrem Feld sind,” because scientists are experts in their field. Seventy percent agreed. The most common reason for distrust was that scientists depend strongly on those who fund them. Forty-nine percent agreed with that.
A Health Minister From the Field
On 6 December 2021, Olaf Scholz presented the Social Democratic ministers of his new government. He named Karl Lauterbach health minister. “Viele Menschen haben sich in Deutschland gewünscht, dass der Gesundheitsminister vom Fach ist und dass der nächste Minister Karl Lauterbach heißt. Er wird es.” Many people in Germany had wished that the health minister would be someone from the field, and that the next minister would be Karl Lauterbach. He will be. Lauterbach is a physician and health economist. He had become known across the country through television talk shows during the pandemic. The medical journal Ärzteblatt called his obsession with detail his trademark. In the days before the announcement, the hashtag #wirwollenKarl, we want Karl, had spread on Twitter.