The Hamburg Notice and the Missing Signature
Marta, 15, wants to join her school's three-day exchange to Hamburg in July. The German notice on the board says: 'Anmeldung bis Freitag, 15. März, im Sekretariat. Die Teilnehmerzahl ist auf 20 begrenzt; entscheidend ist der Eingang der Anmeldung, nicht das Datum auf dem Formular. Schülerinnen und Schüler unter 16 Jahren benötigen die Unterschrift eines Erziehungsberechtigten - ohne Unterschrift ist die Anmeldung ungültig. Die Anmeldung ist verbindlich; bei Rücktritt nach dem 30. April wird eine Gebühr von 40 Euro fällig. Ein Reisepass ist nicht nötig, wohl aber die Krankenversicherungskarte.'
Marta turns 16 in May. Her mother is away until 18 March. Marta hands her form in on Thursday 14 March without a signature, intending to add it later. Twenty-three students apply; Marta's form is the twenty-first to arrive. She has a current passport and a valid insurance card, and she has already told her part-time employer she will be away in July.
1. As things stand, is Marta's application valid, and will she go to Hamburg? Work through each condition rather than giving a yes/no.
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No on both counts - and there are two separate failures, not one.
Condition 1: age and signature. The notice sets the threshold at 'unter 16 Jahren'. Marta is 15 at the time of application; her birthday in May is irrelevant because the requirement is stated in the present and checked when the form is processed. So a parent signature is mandatory, and 'ohne Unterschrift ist die Anmeldung ungültig' settles the consequence: the form is void as submitted.
Condition 2: the 20-person cap. 'Entscheidend ist der Eingang der Anmeldung' means the timestamp, not the date written on the form, decides the order. She is twenty-first, so even a perfect form would leave her outside the cap unless someone withdraws.
The trap: candidates often merge these into 'she needs a signature', fix that, and stop. Fixing the signature does not fix the ranking. A full answer names both problems and then says what she must do: get the signature before the Friday deadline and ask the office to date-stamp the corrected form, accepting that she is on a waiting list.
Timing note: her mother returns 18 March, after the deadline, so the signature must be obtained by phone or scan - she cannot simply wait.
2. Marta's plans change and she wants to pull out on 20 May. What does the notice say will happen, and what does 'verbindlich' add to that?
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Outcome: a 40-euro fee is due, because she withdraws ('Rücktritt') after 30 April.
Reasoning:
- 'Verbindlich' means binding. Signing the form is not an enquiry; it converts into an obligation, which is why a fee can attach to a later withdrawal at all.
- The date 30 April is the cut-off for free withdrawal. 20 May falls after it, so the fee applies. A candidate who reads only 'Gebühr von 40 Euro' and ignores the date gives the right number for the wrong reason.
- Distinguish the two negative outcomes: withdrawing after the cut-off costs 40 euros; never paying and never telling anyone is a different problem entirely and does not avoid the obligation.
Why this is a judgement item, not a recall item: nothing here can be answered from vocabulary knowledge. You have to line up a date on a calendar, a condition word ('bei Rücktritt nach dem ...') and a consequence word ('wird ... fällig'), then apply them to a new fact supplied in the question.
3. What exactly does 'bis Freitag, 15. März' mean for a candidate reading a German notice, and how does 'nicht das Datum auf dem Formular' change Marta's position?
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'Bis' is inclusive. A deadline of 'bis Freitag' includes Friday itself: the form may arrive on Friday 15 March and still count. Compare 'vor Freitag', which would exclude it, and 'bis spätestens', which is the emphatic version of the same inclusive idea.
The second clause is the sharper point. A form dated 12 March but handed in on 18 March is late, because the office counts receipt, not the date the student wrote down. This cuts two ways for Marta:
- It removes any argument that her form 'was ready' on the 14th.
- It gives her a route back: if she can get the corrected, signed form into the Sekretariat by the end of Friday, it is treated as on time - though the queue position for the 20 places is likely to be reassessed.
Transferable reading strategy: German official texts front-load conditions and then attach the consequence with a dash or a semicolon ('- ohne Unterschrift ist ...'). Read the sentence whole. Stopping at the dash produces the condition without its effect, which is where most lost marks in this kind of item come from.