On 6 February 2003 the Federal Labor Court ruled on a question that employers may not ask. Stiftung Warentest summarized the ruling: Die Frage nach der Schwangerschaft ist unzulässig. Wenn ein Arbeitgeber sie dennoch stellt, darf die Bewerberin lügen. The question about pregnancy is not allowed. If an employer asks it anyway, the applicant may lie. This holds even when a pregnant woman may not do the job at first. Questions about membership in a party or a union are also not allowed. The legal news site LTO calls this eine Lizenz zum Lügen, a license to lie. In practice, a job interview may cover the work, but not family plans or political ties.
Wait Until You Are Offered the Du
The Goethe-Institut teaches German to beginners around the world. Its worksheet Du oder Sie? explains: Das formelle „Sie“ benutzen Erwachsene, die sich nicht oder noch nicht gut kennen. Adults who do not know each other, or do not know each other well yet, use the formal Sie. For the workplace it gives one rule: Als neuer Mitarbeiter müssen Sie warten, bis Ihnen das „du“ angeboten wird. As a new employee, you must wait until you are offered the du. The Hamburger Abendblatt gave the same advice in 2014: Neulinge sollten immer darauf warten, dass Kollegen oder Vorgesetzte ihnen das Du anbieten. Newcomers should always wait for colleagues or superiors to offer them the du. Chiara M. Meidinger, a board member of the German Knigge Society, says who makes the offer. In private life it is the older person, and at work the higher-ranking one.
Titles in Address
A guide for students at the University of Trier gives the correct written forms: Sehr geehrter Herr Professor Knodel and Sehr geehrte Frau Dr. Freudenreich. It adds that many a chief physician would not let even a patient call him merely Herr Doktor instead of Herr Professor. A guide on e-mail etiquette used at Goethe University Frankfurt tells students: Wenn Ihre Lehrenden akademische Titel führen, sollten Sie sie verwenden. If your teachers hold academic titles, you should use them. A first name is appropriate only once the addressee has explicitly offered the du. Erst dann ist die informelle Variante Liebe/r <Vorname> angemessen. Only then is the informal form Dear followed by the first name appropriate. The doctorate even appears on the German identity card. The identity card law lists the Doktorgrad, the doctoral degree, among the few details printed on the card.
The Professor Who Went Back to Sie
The Trier guide for students tells of a professor who at first said du to her staff. Over the years she found that younger staff found it increasingly hard to say du to a respected and older superior. She also found that it is much easier to criticize staff, to warn them or even to dismiss them, when one is on Sie terms with them. According to the guide, most professors therefore switch at some point in their careers to an obligatory Sie with new staff, if they have not used it from the start. The guide also says who makes the first move. A research assistant would hardly offer the du to the head of department, but the other way round would be more conceivable.
Call Me Julian
In July 2021, as the new coach of Bayern Munich, Julian Nagelsmann told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag: Die Spieler dürfen mich gerne duzen, ich höre meinen Vornamen tatsächlich auch lieber als meinen Nachnamen. The players are welcome to say du to me, I actually prefer hearing my first name to my last name. He added: Siezen oder duzen ist für mich in den modernen Zeiten kein Indikator mehr für Autorität oder nicht. For me, in modern times, Sie or du is no longer an indicator of authority. Even here, the offer of the du came from the coach.
A Friendship in Sie
The friendship between Goethe and Schiller is one of the best known in German literature. They addressed each other as Sie. Goethe told Schiller: Sie haben mir eine zweite Jugend verschafft und mich wieder zum Dichter gemacht. You have given me a second youth and made me a poet again. The music writer Graham Johnson notes that Goethe never said du even to Schiller. Goethe did move to du with the composer Carl Friedrich Zelter. This happened in 1812, when Zelter’s stepson had shot himself. In his reply to Zelter’s letter, Goethe addressed him for the first time with the brotherly du.
Merz Offers Klingbeil the Du
At the end of March 2025, during the coalition talks, Lars Klingbeil appeared on the ARD talk show Caren Miosga. He reported that Friedrich Merz, then 69 years old, had offered him the du a few days earlier. Klingbeil described the relationship with care: Wir wollen gar nicht beste Freunde werden, aber ein Vertrauensverhältnis ist gerade dabei zu wachsen. We do not want to become best friends, but a relationship of trust is starting to grow. A few days later, a newspaper headline called the two men die Duz-Partner, the du partners.
Leave Cannot Be Recalled
Once an employer in Germany has granted an employee statutory leave, it cannot call the employee back from it. The Federal Labor Court ruled so on 20 June 2000. Even an agreement that allows the employer to recall the employee is void, because it violates the mandatory law on leave.
Summer Holidays Fixed Years Ahead
On 13 December 2021, the conference of education ministers fixed the start and end of the summer holidays in all 16 states for the years 2025 to 2030. Five groups of states rotate, so that the holidays are staggered across the country. The reasons given included Planungssicherheit, planning certainty, for schools, families and tourism. In this system, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg come last, because of their Pentecost holidays. By August 2026, negotiations on the dates from 2031 were under way. Several states want to end the special position of the two southern states. Bavaria’s premier Markus Söder replied: Auf keinen Fall. Wir ändern die Ferien nicht. (No way. We are not changing the holidays.)
Saturdays Daddy Belongs to Me
In 1955, the German Trade Union Confederation, the DGB, called for a five-day week of eight-hour days, a 40-hour week, with full pay. Its slogan for May Day 1955 was 40 Stunden sind genug – 5 Tage sind genug, 40 hours are enough, five days are enough. For May Day 1956, the DGB printed a poster with the line Samstags gehört Vati mir. On Saturdays, Daddy belongs to me. The five-day week then came industry by industry, in coal mining in 1959 and in banking in 1961. The 40-hour week was agreed in printing in 1965 and in the metal industry in 1967.