Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Schildbürger

Some time ago I was asked what attracted me to come back (after my six-month placement with Arup in London in 1984/85) and live in the UK. One of the things I said in response was:

"I was glad to leave behind the proverbial German bureaucracy, although somewhat alarmingly I sometimes feel that Britain is well on the way of overtaking Germany in this respect, and the attractive concept of ‘reasonableness’ seems to have been lost in many cases."

A current silly argument relating to the replacement of traffic signs with more modern versions (in some cases it appears to be a case of "spot the difference") restores my 'faith' in German bureaucracy.