Der Änderungsantrag. A change to a German project plan goes through a formal request: what is to change, why, what it costs, what it moves, who approves. The plan can be changed. It cannot be drifted away from.
law
The general clause
German statutes frequently use deliberately broad terms — good faith, reasonableness, good morals — which courts fill case by case. The law is written to require judgment rather than to eliminate it.
Spare parts supply
Ersatzteilversorgung. German manufacturers commit to supplying spare parts for long periods after production ends, and EU ecodesign rules now require it for several product categories with minimum durations specified. The product is expected to outlive the production line that made it.
To over-advantage
To over-advantage. A single German verb for taking more than your due from a transaction. It sits in ordinary speech and in legal drafting alike. There is no neutral English verb for it — to get a better deal carries no fault, and übervorteilen carries nothing else.
The severance package
American severance is generally not required by law. It is offered in exchange for a signed release of claims, and the amount is a negotiation. What a German receives by statute, an American receives by agreement.
The SLA
The American service level agreement states uptime, response time and resolution time as numbers, with credits payable when they are missed. Reliability is written as a contractual quantity with a penalty attached.
Damage to things, injury to people
German insurance and police reporting distinguish damage to things from injury to people as separate categories, named separately, counted separately. A traffic report states whether there was Sachschaden only.
The division between the matter and the person runs deep enough to structure how accidents are recorded.
Discretionary scope
Ermessensspielraum. German administrative law grants officials a defined room for judgment within a rule, and a decision can be challenged for failing to exercise it as well as for exceeding it. The discretion is part of the rule, with its own boundaries.
The chain of appeal
Der Instanzenzug. The German court hierarchy provides successive levels of appeal, each with its own full examination. A dispute is expected to take years if it needs to, and the structure is built on the assumption that a first answer may not be the right one.
The 401(k)
American retirement saving is portable by design — the account belongs to the employee and moves with them between employers. The pension is detached from the job deliberately, so that leaving costs nothing in accrued benefit.