I see where you are coming from, and you are of course correct that it would be an ISO. However, this would be identical in its specifications with the pre-dating DIN, and it would be both inefficient and un-ecological to change the text on the form since A38 prints are still in stock in large numbers. You could, of course, use the new online form of you had a Bundesdruckerei-issued digital card reader to use the digital signature method. That, of course, would also help with countersignment requirements. (Spot on, I was lazy there.)
However, the archival requirements are not that bad. You would just have to keep a singed and approved copy for ten years. (Printed, of course, in case of the electronic version.
Only documents of national importance go into the A-bomb proof bunker in the black forest. And they would be transferred to age-resistant microfiche, as far as I remember. That would, by the way, not include the current chancellors YouTube videos, and not her pencil shifting. We can safely assume that there are several commissions deciding on which documents to preserve. And that BND and Verfassungsschutzämter are mostly exempt on the regulation, but do not comment on the situation.
Also, we can assume that the backlog is haunting the archivists in their worst nightmares.
We are divagating wildly OT here, but I’d just like to note that while I was (I hope) being humorous I was actually describing the process used in a real German company to store certain paperwork - and the A-bomb proof shelter is real. They didn’t want to let me see into it until I got it across to them that I didn’t have any British hangups about The War - because some of the files still had the original bindings. With the Hakenkreutz stamped on the spines. Some of the things they made had projected lifetimes of well over 50 years, so of course records were kept properly. In the Divine Comedy Dante refers sarcastically to an earlier stage of Florentine government “ad etade/ch’era sicuro il quaderno e la doge” - in the days when the records and the measures were secure. For Germany, with certain very specific exceptions, those days have been around for a long time.
Given the rise of the neofascist ideology and policy, I suggest calling this background “white noise”.
However, this “World Out of Bounds” narrative is as commonplace as it is suspicious.
Political traditions of foreign affairs are very stable, and especially so diplomatic traditions (including intelligence services cough). Just think of the Apostolic nuncio as Dean of the diplomatic corps as a quite remarkable example. From all I know about this I can only deduce that this is not going to change. The world of diplomacy might be confused about a lot of things in the last years, but even the US embassy cables didn’t cause more than a raised eyebrow in public diplomacy. And they sure spilled some beans which could have caused Jack Spratt to climb to un-diplomatic heights.
This is highly weird, but I don’t believe that the world is truly different, or truly out of bounds.
[spoiler]
I just hope I’m not in denial, to be honest. The alternative would make me want to curl up. Under the bed. With my head in a paper bag. With a smile drawn on it, so people wouldn’t worry too much.
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*Edit: What? Spoiler tag not working? Am I stupid? I used those before…
Truth to be told I really hope everybody is spying on Trump. Every intelligences organisation on the planet needs to “tapp” everything to do with him. We need to make sure he doesn’t play with his football.
OT but if you have access to BBC iPlayer watch the last part of the Tracey Ullman Show Part 6. Her Merkel impression is rather good and it doesn’t play to stereotypes very much.
This was, though, a surprisingly common delusion among schizophrenics at one time.
And in a very limited sense they were right, because the BBC has always been an arm of propaganda (what do you think 1984 is really about?) so yes, the Government did put voices in people’s heads by means of radio waves. In the same way while I greatly doubt that Obama phoned up Cheltenham, the idea that someone in the US government mentioned to someone in the NSA who mentioned to someone in Cheltenham that if they happened to learn anything that might prove embarrassing to Trump if it came out, a sight of it would be appreciated - does not seem that unlikely to me. Intelligence agencies do not work for politicians. They work for power.
Did once, by accident. Wasn’t impressed by scenery but awarded 3* on Tripadvisor because (a) artisanal Orc cookery is something of an improvement on MacDonalds and (b) you can get some quite nice jewellery if you hang around the volcano district and are prepared to haggle.
Just let me caution you, Al-Phârazon, that you should not let the guy you met there talk you into burning your white tree, setting up a huge dome at it’s place. Especially removing yourself further from the continent and sailing west seems a bad idea. Your whole island might go down like a lead duck
