German standardization in the international context
Knoop, Hans
Technical standards have a much greater influence on our life as one can guess. Hardly anyone is aware of this fact. There is a need for technical standards as a basis for management practice to gain access into all markets by ensuring the safety and quality of products, and by creating safety and confidence. Unfortunately, standards are not in the focus of public interest and so they do not get the esteem due to them. The use of voluntary standardization allows the legislative body to use high qualified working results and to relieve administration. The partnership between governmental standardization and voluntary technical standardization is required, not only for reasons of economy. This is impressively emphazised by the German standardization agreement which has existed for thirty years. DIN has approximately 76 standards committees (Normenausschhsse: e.g. NABau (construction)), which have a fixed funding system.The government and authorities in Germany (and elsewhere) are the major users of DIN and DIN EN standards (as well as DIN ISO and DIN EN ISO documents), referencing these documents in their regulations (similar to the new approach at European level). Funding and resources are extremely important, considering that the total number of annual meetings (national, regional, world-wide), in which DIN takes part with 3,500 experts has remained at between 5,000 and 6,000.
Event: XXIII International FIG Congress : Shaping the change
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