"Der klügere gibt nach" which directly translates to "the wiser one gives in" or more or less matches the idiom "it's better to bend than to break".
Growing up I heard this a lot and it's mostly use to silence those who have (well-founded) objections. Took me a while to realize that this leads to us following the stupid because they don't give in which subsequently makes the wise one the stupid one.
The Idiom is regularly abused and misunderstood. Its about being smart what fights are worth fighting. Often heard by kids from their Patents when they fight over "nothing"
Yeah, having kids made me realize how important it is to choose my battle.
I prefer being strict on a limited set of important rules and more lenient on the rest rather than trying to do too much and just giving up on everything when i'm exhausted.
Like it's fine if my two years old is a bit messy on the table and does not finish his plate as long as he's trying the food and let us have our dinner too in a relative peace.
It’s basically “choose your battles.” Some battles can be won, but only for minimal gain and a lot of effort. So is it really worth fighting, or do you simply concede the loss so you can better spend your limited time and effort elsewhere?