In 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic, several members of the Bundestag and of state parliaments from the CDU and CSU arranged deals for protective masks and received commissions. Georg Nüßlein of the CSU is said to have received 660,000 euros. Nikolas Löbel of the CDU said he had received 250,000 euros. In 2022, in the case of Nüßlein and another CSU politician, the Federal Court of Justice found that this was not bribery under existing law. Closing the gap was a matter for the legislature. Since 18 June 2024, Section 108f of the Criminal Code has made it an offence for members of parliament to demand or accept an unjustified financial advantage in return for acting, during their term, on behalf of someone else’s interests.
law
Lex Abs
Hermann Josef Abs of Deutsche Bank held up to 30 supervisory board seats, 20 of them as chairman. When the Stock Corporation Act was revised in 1965, the number of seats one person may hold was limited to ten. In popular speech, the rule was called the Lex Abs. It still stands in Section 100 of the Act, and chairmanships count double.
The Triple Jumper Who Sued for His Place
The triple jumper Charles Friedek was not nominated for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The German Olympic Sports Confederation said he had not jumped 17 meters in two competitions. Friedek sued for damages. In 2015 the Federal Court of Justice found that the nomination guidelines did not require the 17 meters to be reached in two different competitions. A monopoly association, the court said, is verpflichtet, diese Leistungen jedem zu gewähren, der die Voraussetzungen für die Leistungsgewährung erfüllt, obliged to grant these benefits to everyone who meets the conditions.
A Promotion Annulled
On 4 November 2010 the Federal Administrative Court annulled an appointment to the presidency of a higher regional court. The minister had chosen another candidate. He handed over the certificate of appointment right after the higher administrative court’s decision, before the passed-over candidate could turn to the Federal Constitutional Court. The court set the appointment aside and required a new selection. The candidate was entitled to eine sachgerechte, allein an Leistungsgesichtspunkten orientierte Entscheidung, a proper decision based on performance alone. A passed-over applicant in the public service can bring a Konkurrentenklage, a competitor’s lawsuit, against such a selection. Until this ruling, an appointment once made was generally treated as final.
Tasks Reserved for Nurses
Since 1 January 2020, Section 4 of the Nursing Professions Act has reserved certain tasks for licensed nurses. They include assessing a person’s individual need for care and organizing, shaping and steering the care process. Pflegerische Aufgaben nach Absatz 2 dürfen beruflich nur von Personen mit einer Erlaubnis nach § 1 durchgeführt werden. These nursing tasks may be carried out professionally only by persons with a nursing license. An employer may neither assign these tasks to staff without the license nor tolerate their doing them.
Who Clears the Snow
In winter, every strip of German pavement has someone responsible for it. Towns are responsible first, but local bylaws usually transfer the duty to the owners of the adjoining property. Owners can pass it on to their tenants. According to the owners’ association Haus & Grund Passau, this works only if it is explicitly agreed in the lease, and the house rules alone are not enough. The duty usually runs on weekdays from 7:00 to 20:00. If someone slips because the path was not cleared or gritted, the person responsible can be sued for damages and for compensation for pain and suffering.
The Job in Writing
Under Section 2 of the Nachweisgesetz, the act on written proof of employment terms, an employer in Germany must put the essential terms of an employment contract in writing. They include eine kurze Charakterisierung oder Beschreibung der vom Arbeitnehmer zu leistenden Tätigkeit, a short characterization or description of the work the employee is to do. The employer must hand over this description at the latest on the seventh calendar day after the agreed start of the employment.
A Clear Division Between Managing Directors
On 6 November 2018 the Federal Court of Justice ruled on a company with two managing directors. The company’s insolvency administrator sued one of them for payments made after the company had, he argued, become insolvent. The lower court had accepted the director’s defense that the matter lay with his co-director. The Federal Court of Justice held that a division of areas requires klare und eindeutige Abgrenzung der Geschäftsführungsaufgaben, a clear and unambiguous demarcation of management tasks, agreed by all members. The management as a whole keeps responsibility for matters that cannot be delegated. The division need not be in writing.
Managing Someone Else’s Affairs
The German Civil Code has rules for a person who takes care of someone else’s affairs without being asked. Lawyers call this Geschäftsführung ohne Auftrag, management without a mandate. Under Section 677, such a person must act in the other person’s interest and according to that person’s real or presumed will. Under Section 678, if taking over the matter goes against that will and the helper should have seen this, the helper must pay for the resulting damage, even without any other fault.
Unclear Roles as a Health Hazard
Employers in Germany must assess the hazards of work, including psychological strain. Labor inspectors check these assessments with a guideline of the National Occupational Safety Conference, dated 11 January 2018. Its checklist of hazards from psychological strain includes, under work organization, unklare Kompetenzen (i. S. von Berechtigungen, Befugnissen), Verantwortungsbereiche und Rollen. These are unclear competences, in the sense of permissions and authority, unclear areas of responsibility and unclear roles. The checklist also names fehlende oder zu eng begrenzte Zuständigkeiten, missing or too narrowly limited responsibilities.