08 / 15 Nullachtfünfzehn

Imagine that you’re having a conversation with a friend in Germany, and you ask her or him how his day has been. You might ask Wie geht’s? or Wie war die Schule heute?

You might expect answers like gut or schlecht or langweilig or nicht so gut or so lala. But you might be surprised to if your friend answered by saying null acht fünfzehn.

To answer a question with 08 / 15 is to use an idiom. It means, roughly, ‘run-of-the-mill’ or ‘usual’ and is indicates that things are going routinely, even boringly.

The story behind this odd expression starts in 1908. In that year, a particular type of machine gun was designed, manufactured, and brought into service in the German army. The design was updated in 1915.

The official designation for this weapon was LMG 08/15, whereby LMG stands for leichtes Maschinengewehr. This weapon was produced in large numbers, and widely used, both in training and in battle, in World War I. It also saw use in WWII.

The ubiquity of this gun, both during long boring repetitive hours of training, and in long hours in the trenches on the front lines, made it a symbol of routine.

Decades after the war, author Hans Helmut Kirst titled one of his novels 08/15. The novel dealt with WWII.

The phrase 08/15 is now used to indicate that something is normal, routine, or repetitively boring. It is sometimes written in its slang pronunciation, nullachtfuffzehn. In the twelfth and final volume of the standard Duden reference books, the phrase is explained:

Die als geflügeltes Wort (auch in der Form „Nullachtfuffzehn“) in die Umgangssprache eingegangene Zahlenkombination ist zu einem Begriff geworden, mit dem man etwas als „alltäglich“ und „gänzlich unoriginell“ charakterisiert. Sie kam durch den deutschen Schriftsteller Hans Helmut Kirst (1914-1989) ins allgemeine Bewußtsein, nachdem dieser seiner sehr bekannt gewordenen Romantrilogie aus den Jahren 1954/1955 den Titel „08/15“ gegeben hatte. Zugrunde liegt die militärische Bezeichnung für ein Maschinengewehr aus dem Jahr 1908, das 1915 technisch verändert wurde und die Bezeichnung LMG 08/15 bekam. Die Zahlen wurden dann zunächst zu einer Metapher für den geistlosen militärischen Drill.

The term can be used pejoratively, in the sense of mittelmäßig, or neutrally, in the sense of üblich or alltäglich.

Germany's Mittelstand - What Is It?

Economists study Germany in order to unravel the mysteries of its continued success. Two factors are manufacturing and exporting. Germany has managed to continue to be strong in both of these.

While many first-world, high-tech countries have seen their manufacturing outsourced to nations with lower labor costs, Germany has maintained some level of domestic production. To be sure, German firms have some amount of offshore factories, but relative to other economies - the USA, the UK - there’s more domestic manufacturing.

This trend is powered not only by the big companies - BASF, Bayer, Bosch, Siemens, VW, BMW, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes-Benz-Daimler, Birkenstock, etc. - but also by the small and medium sized companies.

Standing between the large companies and the individual proprietors, these firms are called the Mittelstand and are the source of as much growth and innovation as the big firms.

When recession hits, the Mittelstand allows Germany to bounce back quicker than other nations. The BBC’s Stephen Evans writes:

This recovery is spread widely because every German town seems to have its periphery populated by the famed “mittelstand” of small and not-so-small companies, exporting countless unglamorous but profitable products. These companies are often family-owned and founded on values of quality and investment, combined with a shrewd search for markets.

In addition to policies carefully crafted to encourage a positive balance of trade, Germany also enjoys a superior worker-training system. While the USA and other nations have competitive university-trained professionals and large pools of unskilled labor, they lack the middle level: skilled craftsmen.

Germany’s skilled tradesmen create the legendary quality that goes along with brands like Porsche, BMW, and Zeiss. These artisans are produced by a thorough educational system which siphons good students away from the university-bound track and places them into apprenticeships.

The German economic structure ensures that master craftsmen are paid as well as the professionals coming out of the universities, and sometimes even better. There is no social stigma attached to being a machinist or a tool-and-die maker.

Can other nations replicate the results of the German system? Newsweek’s Rose Jacobs writes:

The Mittelstand is the envy of the western world – and beyond. The Economist reported last week that officials from South Korea, Iran and Egypt have been in touch with the German trade body for mid-sized companies, asking for advice on how to emulate its members’ success. In fact, the German model is already being exported in very concrete ways: several German companies with manufacturing facilities abroad have decided to address local skills shortages by recreating overseas versions of Germany’s apprenticeship system, with future workers recruited young and given a mix of classroom and on-the-job training that both prepares them for solid middle-class jobs and inspires loyalty. It’s proved so successful that, in the US, American firms are following suit, and in China, the government is adapting Germany’s apprentice training exam for its own young people.

The German economy provides a stable and predictable environment, which in turn encourages investors to take more risks, and look further into the future, foregoing short-term results for long-term ones.

The German model works even outside of Europe, as shoppers in North America flock to German retailers like Aldi and Trader Joe’s.

UK's Stewart Wood Analyzes Germany

As a member of Britain’s Labor Party (‘Labour Party’ as they spell it), Stewart Wood has a lifetime appointment in the House of Lords, and is a leader in his party. Writing in the Guardian, a Manchester newspaper with a global following, Wood encourages his fellow Englishmen to consider what they might learn from the example of Germany.

After a few years of prosperity in the 1980s, when real growth in all income groups ignited productivity in the lower and middle classes and encouraged innovation in business, British economic activity has stagnated. Wood sees, in the German system, a motivation for employers to invest in their workers.

The perception that there is potential for growth makes investors more future-oriented. A predictable and stable economic environment, and freedom to innovate, foster a psychology in which management is willing to take risks, because prospects and expectations are better. Wood writes:

What is most inspirational about the German economy is not the policies it has pursued, but the consensus of values on which the economy is based. Germany is committed to a free market economy, but one in which capitalism is organised and responsible. This “social market” rests on widely accepted rules and practices: to encourage long-termism; to promote collaboration rather than conflict in the workplace; to incentivise employers to invest in the skills and productivity of their workers; and to try to ensure prosperity is available to Germans in all regions rather than just one. And when bad times hit, Germans fall back on a welfare system explicitly based on the interlocking principles of need and contribution.

One aspect of the German economy is a strong manufacturing sector. While other high-tech countries have outsourced physical production to offshore sites with lower costs, Germany found ways to keep factories at home: higher productivity and smarter methods.

To be sure, even German companies fight the threat, and the temptation, of outsourcing to third-world sites. But even in the sweatshop-prone clothing industry, German companies like Adidas, Puma, and Hugo Boss have kept at least some operations on German soil.

As German firms continue to expand - Adidas is now the parent company of Reebok, and Americans are now shopping at German stores like Aldi and Trader Joe’s - Stewart Wood wants his fellow Brits to study those examples

Because the truth is that there is much to like and admire about Germany. And – whisper it softly – there is a lot we can learn from them too.

While major names come quickly to mind - BASF, Bosch, Siemens, Lufthansa, T-Mobile, Birkenstock, Hapag-Lloyd, and Bayer - the small and middle sized companies, whose names are largely unknown outside, and sometimes inside, Germany are also crucial to economic success. These small and middle sized companies are categorized as Mittelstand, between the large companies and individual proprietors.

As often as not, the Mittelstand drives economic growth, creating innovative products, new processes, and increasing employment.

Germany’s education system produces superior technicians and highly-skilled craftsmen. While many first-world nations have excellent universities which produce professionals, Germany has paired its prize universities with mid-level training programs for machinists and tool-and-die makers.

Craftsmanship is as important as engineering for the production of legendary brands like Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz-Daimler. Stewart Wood states bluntly:

It remains the most successful exporting nation in modern European history.

The lesson from Germany: keep domestic manufacturing at home, allow stability and deregulation to encourage investment, and train a solid cadre of skilled craftsmen to complement the university-trained high-tech professionals.

Germany's Strong Economy: Two of Its Key Elements

For several decades, Germany has led the nations of Europe in various economic indicators. Through rising and falling business cycles, the wax and wane of employment rates, inflation and recession, and the other usual ebb and flow phenomena of finance, Germany remains at or near the top of the list.

Why is the German economy so successful?

The answer is multi-factorial. Writing for Newsweek in July 2014, Rose Jacobs identifies labor policies and a strong manufacturing sector as two of the elements fueling Germany’s growing economy:

Where French unions and companies go at each others’ throats over working conditions, Germany has loosened labour laws just enough to encourage hiring, helping push down unemployment to record lows today. And where the UK waxes nostalgic about its manufacturing past, Germany – which faced the same market forces over the past 40 years that prompted Britain to shift towards a service economy – today boasts higher export figures for high-tech products than any country on earth.

While German workers are well-paid, productive, and enjoy good working conditions relative to their peers in Europe and North America, the relationship between management and organized labor is less combative.

While other nations have moved steadily toward a service economy, Germany has retained a healthy manufacturing base. Germany still makes money by building products and selling them both domestically and abroad.

Learning German Pays!

In March 2014, The Economist published a study of how knowing a foreign language affects a worker’s paycheck. Obviously, it helps!

In almost every profession, knowing German will increase your earnings: engineers, chemists, physicists, and managers all get paid more if they know German. The same is true for those working in marketing, life sciences, economics, pharmaceuticals, software, telecommunications, and healthcare.

The Economist cites MIT’s Albert Saiz, who got his doctorate from Harvard. Analyzing the salaries of various professionals, Saiz

found quite different premiums for different languages: just 1.5% for Spanish, 2.3% for French and 3.8% for German. This translates into big differences in the language account: your Spanish is worth $51,000, but French, $77,000, and German, $128,000. Humans are famously bad at weighting the future against the present, but if you dangled even a post-dated $128,000 cheque in front of the average 14-year-old, Goethe and Schiller would be hotter than Facebook.

Obviously, the numbers will vary from individual to individual. Saiz reckoned with a $45,000 starting salary. The 3.8% premium for knowing German would be $1710 in the first year. This amount compounds over time. “Assuming just a 1% real salary increase per year and a 2% average real return over 40 years,” Saiz arrives at the figures above.

In any case, learning German is worth it!

Studying in California? Take a German Class!

A survey of academic majors and professional programs at the University of California and the California State University system shows that German is recommended, strongly recommended, or required for more degrees and diplomas than any other world language.

Evidence comes from three documents: “Prerequisites and Recommended Subjects in Preparation for Work at the University of California,” “San Francisco State University Bulletin,” and “U.C. Berkeley General Catalog.”

German is recommended or prescribed for a total of 56 majors or degree programs. By contrast, French was recommended for 43 majors, Spanish for 21, Japanese for 7, and Chinese for 4.

The following departments recommended German to their undergraduate majors and to their graduate students: Ancient Civilization, Anthropology, Art History, Classical Studies, Comparative Literature, Dramatic Art, Literature, Mathematics, and Paleontology, among others.

These departments “strongly” recommended German: Anatomy, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedical Physics, Botany, Chemistry, Film Studies, Genetics, Linguistics, Logic and Methodology of Science, Molecular Biology, Music, Near Eastern Studies, Physical Science, Physics, Physiology, Religious Studies, Zoology, and others.

Special Occasions - Feiertage, Besondere Ereignisse, und Besondere Anlässe

Like Americans, people in Austria, Switzerland, and other parts of central Europe have special occasions in life - milestones, or Meilensteine. Many of these rites of passage - Übergangsriten - are the same on both continents: Geburtstage (birthdays), Hochzeiten (weddings), Verlobungen (engagements), etc.

To celebrate these occasions, people send Glückwunschkarten (greeting cards) and Geschenke (gifts or presents). They might throw a party, and the German language has several words for ‘party’ - Party, Fest, Fete, and others.

A special type of Fest happens the evening before a Hochzeit, and is called a Polterabend. The verb poltern means ‘to rumble’ or otherwise make loud noises, and is familiar to English speakers in the term Poltergeist.

An old tradition calls for friends of the family to gather in front of the bride’s house on the evening before the Hochzeit and make lots of noise, often by breaking pottery (but not glass). Allegedly, this habit arose from an ancient superstition advising that loud noise would scare away evil spirits and thereby protect the Braut (bride) so that she could arrive safely the next morning at the Hochzeit. But in reality it’s simply a fun way for the friends to be laut.

Meanwhile, the Bräutigam (groom) is probably far away, drinking Bier with his friends.

On the day of the Hochzeit, most German couples will get married twice. There will be a government wedding at the Standesamt (registrar’s office), often located in the Rathaus (city hall). This makes them officially married for tax purposes.

Most couples will have a second wedding ceremony with family and friends, usually in a Kirche or in a Synagoge. Afterward, the Hochzeitspaar (bride and groom) typically celebrates in a restaurant, which has been reserved for the occasion so that no other customers are there, and the group takes over the entire place for meals and dancing.

Every year afterward, the Ehepaar (married couple) will celebrate that date as their Hochzeitstag or Jubiläum.

Das Ehepaar will celebrate a silberne Hochzeit or Silberhochzeit, which happens nach fünf-und-zwanzig Jahren.

Likewise, they’ll celebrate a goldene Hochzeit after fifty years.

When a child is born, the family and friends will often throw a party for the Taufe (baptism).

In addition to celebrating a person’s Geburtstag, some regions of Austria, Switzerland, and southern Germany also celebrate Namenstag. To find a person’s Namenstag, find a saint who has the same name, and then find the date which is the official holiday for that saint. The territories which celebrate Namenstag tend to be Roman Catholic regions; other parts of Germany and Switzerland are Lutheran or Calvinist, and tend not to observe Namenstag.

The famous professional soccer player Bastian Schweinsteiger, for example, was born on August 1, so that’s his Geburtstag. But the official holiday to celebrate St. Sebastian is January 20, so that becomes Schweinsteiger’s Namenstag.

The Geburtstagskarten which people receive on their birthdays often say Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag or Herzliche Glückwünsche zum Geburtstag.

The phrases Herzlichen Glückwunsch and Herzliche Glückwünsche are appropriate, not only for Geburtstage, but also for any other achievement or happy occasion.

Around the age of 13 or 14, a student will complete her or his religious instruction, and celebrate a Konfirmation.

Naturally, there’s a big Fest when students finish school. After completing the Grundschule, you’ll go on to one of three types of high school. If you’re graduating from a Hauptschule, your diploma is called a Abschlusszeugnis. If you’re graduating from a Realschule, your diploma is called a Mittlere Reifezeugnis. From the Gymnasium, you’ll get an Abitur. The word Abitur refers both to the test and to the diploma that you receive if you pass the test.

Der zweite Sonntag im Mai ist Muttertag in der Schweiz, in Österreich, in Deutschland, in Liechtenstein, und in den USA. Aber in Luxemburg ist Muttertag an dem zweiten Sonntag im Juni.

Der dritte Sonntag im Juni ist Vatertag in den USA. In Österreich ist Vatertag an dem zweiten Sonntag im Juni. In Luxemburg ist Vatertag an dem ersten Sonntag im Oktober. In Liechtenstein ist Vatertag immer am 19ten März.

The celebration of Ostern (Easter) can vary from mid-March to late April. Vierzig Tage nach Ostern ist Vatertag in Deutschland. This same date is also celebrated as Himmelfahrtstag (Ascension Day). Many schools get Ferien (vacation days) for Himmelfahrt.

Different regions have different dates for Vatertag in der Schweiz, so you have to ask which Kanton you’re in before you know when this holiday is.

When someone dies, the remaining family members, along with some friends, will place a Todesanzeige in the local Zeitung (newspaper) - an announcement of the person’s death along with comments and memories. As Zeitungen have become less common, these Todesanzeigen now appear online. The family will also mail printed cards with the Todesanzeige in special envelopes with black rims.