The Dienstweg, the service path, is the prescribed route for official business. Only civil service law makes it strictly binding. The law also opens a few doors around it. A soldier may write directly to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, ohne Einhaltung des Dienstweges, without following the service path, and may not be disciplined or disadvantaged for it. Everyday German has a phrase for the unofficial shortcut: etwas auf dem kleinen Dienstweg erledigen, or auf dem kurzen Dienstweg, to settle something by the short service path. German Wikipedia notes that the phrase can be a euphemism for an action that may breach one’s duties.