Under German law a doctor does not owe a patient a cure. Since 2013 the treatment contract has its own sections in the Civil Code. The treatment must follow the generally recognized professional standards at the time it is given. A legal guide puts it in one line: Der Behandelnde schuldet keinen Heilerfolg, wohl aber eine Behandlung nach anerkannten Standards. The person treating owes no cure, but does owe treatment by recognized standards. A treatment error exists when what was done, the Ist-Standard, falls short of what should have been done, the Soll-Standard. Patients who suspect an error can turn to the expert commissions and arbitration boards of the medical chambers. In 2024 these bodies received 7,607 applications and decided 4,163 cases. In 1,134 cases the medical and legal experts found a treatment error.
health
One Signature per Batch
Before a batch of medicine made in Germany may be sold, one named person must sign it off. The Medicines Act calls her die sachkundige Person, the qualified person. Die sachkundige Person nach § 14 ist dafür verantwortlich, dass jede Charge des Arzneimittels entsprechend den Vorschriften über den Verkehr mit Arzneimitteln hergestellt und geprüft wurde. She is responsible for making sure that each batch was made and tested according to the law on medicines. She must certify this for each batch in a running register before it goes on the market. Sometimes a batch is made in several stages or at other sites. The regulation on drug manufacturing then lets her use confirmations from other qualified persons. But sie ist für die Freigabe zum Inverkehrbringen der Charge insgesamt persönlich verantwortlich. She remains personally responsible for releasing the batch as a whole. Medicines may be placed on the market only after this release.
The Questions for an Emergency Call
German children learn the W-Fragen, the W questions, for an emergency call to 112. Teaching material of the German Red Cross youth organization, for children from second grade, lists them.
Wo? — Where is the emergency?
Was? — What happened?
Wie viele? — How many people are injured?
Welche? — Which injuries did you see?
Warten! — Wait for questions.
In October 2017 a joint committee of the fire protection association vfdb and the German Fire Brigade Association reviewed the list for fire safety teaching in kindergartens and primary schools. Phones now transmit the caller’s number, so “who is calling” matters less and less. The number of injured, the committee wrote, has lost all importance for children, who cannot judge it reliably. Its conclusion: Ein Auswendiglernen der W-Fragen ist nicht mehr nötig. Memorizing the W questions is no longer necessary. The committee still wanted the questions taught. It put Wo first and redefined Warten as listening to the dispatcher and answering his questions.
The First Steps at a Dangerous Scene
German fire brigades and rescue services use the GAMS-Regel, a memory aid for the first measures at a dangerous incident.
Gefahr erkennen — recognize the hazard.
Absperren — cordon off the area.
Menschenrettung durchführen — rescue people.
Spezialkräfte nachfordern — call in specialist units.
The aim, says the medical encyclopedia DocCheck Flexikon, is not to endanger oneself, the team or others. To recognize the hazard, crews use a second scheme, called 4A-1C-4E. Its letters stand for Atemgifte (toxic gases), Angstreaktion (panic), Ausbreitung (spread), Atomare Strahlung (radiation), Chemische Stoffe (chemicals), Elektrizität, Explosion, Einsturz (collapse) and Erkrankung/Verletzung (illness or injury). In June 2025 a Cologne fire officer wrote a paper on water rescue. He noted that drowning and being swept away cannot be captured by the classic scheme. He cited a proposal to extend it with one more E, for Ertrinken/Wassergefahren, drowning and water hazards.
The Cockpit Rule That Was Withdrawn
In March 2015 a Germanwings co-pilot deliberately crashed his aircraft in the French Alps. 150 people died. Three days later, on Friday 27 March 2015, the German aviation industry association BDL announced a provisional procedure. Two authorized crew members must always be in the cockpit. In April 2017 the BDL announced that the large German airlines would drop the rule by 1 June. Die Evaluierung hat gezeigt, dass die Zwei-Personen-Regelung keinen Sicherheitsgewinn bringt. The evaluation has shown that the two-person rule brings no gain in safety. Opening the cockpit door more often, the BDL said, created additional risk that unauthorized people would get in.
A rule written in three days stayed only until it had been evaluated.
Six Months of Medicine
In 2023, many medicines were hard to get in Germany. In the Bundestag, the CDU/CSU opposition said that fever syrups, antibiotics, insulin and cancer drugs were hardly available anywhere. The government answered with a law against drug shortages, known as the ALBVVG. Its draft required manufacturers to keep three months of stock of drugs sold under discount contracts with the health insurers. The final law doubled this to six months. Wholesalers must keep four weeks of medicines for children. Hospital pharmacies must increase their stocks of intravenous drugs and antibiotics for intensive care. An early warning system for coming shortages was also set up. The Bundesrat approved the law in July 2023.
Emergency Power Within 15 Seconds
German hospitals must provide part of their electricity as a safety supply, under the standard DIN VDE 0100-710. If the grid fails or is disturbed, the emergency supply must take over within 15 seconds. The fuel stored for it must last at least 24 hours. In 2022, the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was asked in parliament how long its hospitals could last in a long blackout. It answered that further measures, such as larger tanks, could make supply possible beyond 24 hours. It also said that it had no information about individual hospitals.
Eleven Months for a Vaccine
In 2020 BioNTech, the company of two doctors from Mainz, ran Projekt Lightspeed. Within only 11 months its COVID-19 vaccine went from the laboratory to a conditional approval. The speed had to be explained. On 21 November 2020 the newspaper taz interviewed Klaus Cichutek, president of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, which shares responsibility for approving vaccines. The interviewer began: normalerweise dauert es Jahre, bis ein Impfstoff entwickelt ist. Jetzt sind es Monate. Normally it takes years to develop a vaccine. Now it is months. Cichutek answered: Ich kann Sie beruhigen. Wir handeln nicht nach Bauchgefühl, sondern mit dem Kopf. I can reassure you. We act with our heads, not our gut. He added that the clinical trials had more test persons than usual. On 9 December 2020 he told an online symposium of the medical journal Deutsches Ärzteblatt: Wir haben beim Zulassungsprozess für die Impfstoffe nichts unterlassen, was nötig und üblich ist. We left out nothing in the approval process that is necessary and customary.
Here speed won acceptance once it was shown that no step had been skipped.
The Health Card Planned for 2006
A German law of 2003 aimed to introduce the electronic health insurance card on 1 January 2006, with a full security and data protection concept and field tests. At a congress at the time, some participants already called the schedule untenable. Only from 1 January 2015 was the card the sole valid proof of insurance. In November 2015 an opposition group in the Bundestag claimed the project had cost over 1.3 billion euros. That figure comes from the questioners, not from the government.
Every Known Side Effect
In Germany a finished medicine may only be sold with a package leaflet in German. The manufacturer must list all known side effects, sorted into fixed frequency classes. The wording runs from sehr häufig, very common, to sehr selten, very rare. A common class reads: Häufig (kann bis zu 1 von 10 Behandelten betreffen), common, may affect up to 1 in 10 people treated. The result is the long folded Beipackzettel that Germans find in every box. A health scientist at the University of Hamburg writes that the leaflets sind juristische Dokumente zur Absicherung der Hersteller, keine Patienteninformationen. They are legal documents that protect the manufacturer, not information for patients.