Some links at the end.
Exhibition at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum.
Perhaps more interesting for me than for Germans.
I think they put this exhibition together by getting a group of experts to brainstorm.
Many diverse items.

FRG and GDR living rooms
GDR Monopoly set
GDR album cover: Lennon & Plastic Ono Band, Shaved Fish, VEB 1983
Building set: Der kleine Großblockbaumeister
A walking-stick-cum-stringed instrument / Spazierstock-Instrument (Stockvioline)
Der deutsche Schäferhund in Wort und Bild, 1905
Uhu, Tempo, Jenaer Glas
Birkenstock, Tipp-Ex, Nivea
Uta von Naumburg the 19th-c. ideal woman (that was a gap in my education)
German Pavilion, World Fair, Chicago 1893 (a huge edifice)
Decorations, pins, Meisterbrief
Vereine, Fasching
Allotments (Schrebergärten)
Der deutsche Wald, Jagd, sport in the forest; Stifter, Studien 2, Der Hochwald
Waldbesteck: Waidblatt mit Scheide, Messer, Gabel und Feile
Wunderbaum car deodorant
Deutsches Reichs-Einkochglas
Funk-Armbanduhr
Winnetou, Kant, Königin Luise
Wurstmaß, 1601
Kehrwoche sign

Missing
They had Christmas but not Advent
They had freedom movements but not the RAF

Thoughts
They said it might do us good to read Goethe and Schiller today, but this wasn’t substantiated. In what way was it meant?
They talked about the theatre being a moralische Anstalt and TV not being. I’ve often thought about this, because German TV can tend to moralize. For example, every six months the news programme suddenly describes a new film it thinks we should see, even though the rest of the time it has no interest in reviews. I listed part of one exhibit in an earlier entry. But TV doesn’t work like that.
At the end of the catalogue are some materials on a survey done in 9 countries plus Germany. Open questions about the Germans are categorized. Example: Germany most often referred to ‘fleißig und pflichtbewusst’, Czechs most often to ‘diszipliniert’.
Negative factors: the Germans most often said their negative side is that they are pessimistic and complain a lot. No other country mentioned this at all! Lots of Czechs said ‘arrogant’, lots of Austrians just said, ‘Don’t like the Germans’.
What I missed was: why didn’t they ask the Swiss? Would the Swiss have said the Germans are untidy?

Information on the exhibition in German and English.
Die Zeit: Online-Umfrage zum Thema

This topic arose in connection with a mailing-list discussion about schaden- und klaglos halten, which is probably intended to be schad- und klaglos halten and is not necessarily an Austriacism.

The question arose (at least for me) whether you need a separate word for klaglos, or whether indemnify or hold harmless is sufficient alone. So it becomes a question of what the English terms mean – a question often asked by those translating into German when faced with pairs of terms in English.

I looked at Mellinkoff’s Dictionary of American Legal Usage, which is one of a number of books one can consult to see if doublets consist of words with different meanings, or if they could be rendered by one.

To summarize:

hold harmless: is understood to protect another against the risk of loss as well as actual loss. Whether or not it includes defense of lawsuits is sufficiently uncertain to warrant detailed provision.

indemnify: a) sometimes a synonym of hold harmless. The identity is made clearer in the expression indemnify against liability.
b) when distinguished from hold harmless, indemnify: to reimburse for any damage. This sense is spelled out as indemnify against loss

indemnify and hold harmless: a lawyer’s hedge against the imprecision of both expressions, by including assumption of loss and liability. Defense of lawsuits still best spelled out.

On the Web I found indemnify and keep indemnified (but I would think indemnify includes that), and also defend, indemnify and hold harmless. The best mailing-list suggestion was indemnify against loss and lawsuits. The indemnify against seemed wrong to me, but that was because I was thinking indemnify = for past loss and hold harmless = for future liability. The very preposition against seems to me to have a future sense in this context.

I don’t know if indemnify and keep indemnified is necessary. If you promise in a contract to indemnify someone, there’s no reference to ‘once only’.

This is all without asking the necessary question as to the meaning of schad- und klaglos halten.

I had a peculiar exchange of words at the flea market. I was looking at a thick DIY book of the 1960s, entitled Die Axt im Haus. But I didn’t get far because one of the stallholders came up to me and said, ‘This book is much better’, and tried to press a copy of Pschyrembel’s Klinisches Wörterbuch into my hands. This seemed odd, because I already have Pschyrembel (I told him mine was fairly recent and he said, ‘Ein zeitloses Werk’), and I haven’t noticed any do-it-yourself tips in there.

However, it seemed he had read the title as Der Arzt im Haus. I said, ‘Der Arzt im Haus ersetzt sich selber’, and ‘Die Axt im Haus ersetzt den Arzt’, but somehow I don’t think we were on the same wavelength.

This morning:

Last Wednesday:

Working Languages points out that Lufthansa haven’t heard of the term ‘World Cup’.

bq. But what is this World Championship of which they speak? Is it in any way connected to the World Cup currently dominating our lives? Could it perhaps be some parallel or even rival event?

Waldschänke Nürnberg (deutsche Speisekarte)

(Thanks to Jutta – I didn’t ask her what she ate)

Cordially welcomely in the Waldschaenke sport bar

Frankish courts
Pig roast with Kloss and salad 6,30
Schaeuferle roasted with Kloss and salad 7,90
Sour roast with Kloss or Spaetzle in addition salad 7,80
Rinderroulade with Kloss and salad 7,80
3 Frankish bratwuerste with herb or potato salad 4,90

From the pan
Shred Viennese kind with Pommes or potato salad in addition salad 7,10
Hunter shred with Pommes in addition salad 7,30
Gypsy shred with Pommes and salad 7,30
Shred “Waldschaenke special” with garlic sauce, Kroketten and salad
7,30
Cordon Bleu with Pommes or potato salad in addition salad 7,70
Putengeschnetzeltes with Spaetzle or Roesti in addition mixed salad 7,20
Schweinelendchen in with duchess potatoes and salad 7,80
Putenmedaillons with herb butter, Pommes and salad 7,20
Ham noodles with scrambled egg in addition salad 6,20
Roestkloss with ham and scrambled egg in addition salad 5,90

Fish courts
Calamaris with Remouladensosse and salad 6,80
Fischfilet baked with Remoulade and potato salad 6,10

Vegetarian courts
Kaesespaetzle with roasting bulb and salad 6,20
Sheep cheese baked with salad, olives and Peperoni 5,20
Fresh cheese potato bags with salad 5,40
Mozarellasticks on multicolored salad 5,40

Excavator specialities
With apple mash or preiselbeeren 4,30
With Camenbert in addition preiselbeeren 5,90 over-bake
Vegetable excavator with mixed salad 6,20
With smoking salmon in addition Preiselbeermerrettich 6,80
With Schweinelendchen and pepper cream sauce in addition salad 7,90
Excavator on back steak with cheese over-bake in addition salad 6,90

Salads
PUT chest strip on multicolored salatteller with weissbrot 7,20 Salad
plate with gek. Ham, cheese, olives and Peperoni 5,90
Greek farmer salad with Baquette 6,50

Noodle courts
Tagliatelle on tomato sauce with Parmesan and Basilikum 5,90
Tagliatelle with smoking salmon strips in cream sauce 6,50
Spiral noodles with China vegetable sweetly sourly from the pan 6,30
Spiral noodles with PUT chest strips and China vegetables in pikanter
sauce 7,20
Tortelini with meat filling in the seeing Niger cream sauce 5,90

Refeed
3 Apfelkuechle with vanilla ice-cream and cream 3,80
And raspberries 3,30
are called vanilla ice-cream with cream? Gem.Eis Schoko, vanilla,
strawberry with cream 2,90

Small courts
Cattle beef-tea with pancake strip 2,30
Chili con Carne in addition weissbrot 4, 60?
Curry sausage with Pommes 4,60
Schaschlik with Pommes 5,40
Chicken Wings with Pommes and pikanter Sauce 5,50
Shred-and-yielded with salad supplement 4,90
Ham cheese Baquette over-bakes 4,50
Baked Camenbert in addition preiselbeeren and weissbrot 3, 90
Ham or chese sandwich with cucumber and tomato 2,30
Knoblauchbaquette 3,00
City sausage with music in addition brown bread 4, 60
Kaept’n blue bear plate 5 Fischstaebchen with Pommes or potato salad
3,50
Child shred with Pommes and Ketchup 5,00

Some lawyers on the letterheads of American law firms, and increasingly of English ones too, are described as being ‘of counsel’.

On a letterhead it usually means a senior lawyer who is semi-retired. (In England, that used to be consultant)
But I gather it’s beginning to refer to younger lawyers who have been around a while but are not going to be made partners.

Off a letterhead, it can mean a lawyer from another firm who helps a lawyer in a case.

In the Times Law Weblog, Edward Fennell commented on Herbert Smith introducing this.

bq. So the firm’s decision, announced this week, that it is setting up a new “career path” for associates seems entirely in keeping with this philosophy. Those selected will be given extra status, a possible bonus and additional perks. Can’t be bad. …
But they [big law firms] also need able people who – while not necessarily “ticking all the boxes” for partnership – still have a terrific amount to offer in turning the wheels of profitability.
My gripe, were I amongst them, is the adoption of the grating Americanism “Of Counsel”. Come on, we’re British – the English language can do better than this.

I don’t know if ‘grating Americanism’ is the problem, but it is a difficult expression to handle as a noun. To quote Herbert Smith:

bq. Norman Green, Chief Operating Officer at Herbert Smith, commented:
“We believe there is a clear business need for an alternative career structure, a belief supported by the soundings we took among associates. We look forward to announcing the first group of Of Counsel in September.

I do like Herbert Smith’s current opening page.

Here’s something on the subject in the USA: The Of Counsel Relationship, by Nancy Kaufmann.