Ordnung muss sein

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Italics title (reformed) or (traditional) is a German proverbial expression which translates as "there must be order". The idea of "order" is generally recognized as a key cliche for describing German culture. Franz von Papen, for instance, cited it in 1932 as Frederick the Great's "classic expression". As a slogan used by Paul von Hindenburg, it became "world famous" in 1930, according to The New York Times. A longer version is contained in a mid-19th century collection of proverbs where the title is a Wellerism: (in English: "Order must be, said Hans, as they took him to the prison)."

Related German proverbs are , literally "order is half of life", humorously extended in the antiproverb ("and disorder the other half"). Similarly, a proverb says meaning "he who keeps order is just too lazy to spend his time searching".

Present interpretation of the expression distorts its original meaning. The expression was introduced by Martin Luther as Ordnung muss sein unter den Leuten ("Law must be among people"), Ordnung in the sense of True Law of God as opposed to human rules, for Orden und Regeln sind nichts ("Orders and rules are nothing") (on the same page) and Liebe zu Geld... ist nicht Gottes Werk oder Ordnung (Love for money... is not God's work or “Ordnung”).

There is an (Public Office for Order, Code enforcement) in every German municipality and city. Minor or petty offenses are called , meaning "contravention" or "offense", in the sense of "contrarity to (public) order", similar to the American term "disorderly conduct".

In popular culture

The proverb forms part of the title of an early 2000s German television sitcom, "Hausmeister Krause – Ordnung muss sein", set in a Cologne housing development and starring Tom Gerhardt as Hausmeister Krause, a janitor with an authoritarian streak.