One of the things he was most famous for was something he said at a press conference held on 12 February 2002:
Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because, as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know.
At the time, many people thought he was babbling, talking nonsense, that he'd "lost the plot" [den Faden verlieren].
However, when you work your way through it, what he said does make sense. And the Germans have a similiar concept encapsulated in the word "Dunkelziffer".
Let's say you are talking about crime statistics and state that there were 1,000 reported rape cases last year. You would then say that the "Dunkelziffer", which literally means "dark number", is probably four times higher, since most people do not go to the police to report a rape. Or you might give a figure for the number of people diagnosed with a certain disease or condition and then say that you have no idea how many have not yet been diagnosed but you make an informed guess - that's the "Dunkelziffer".
"Dunkelziffer" means the unknown (and estimated) number of cases or events that were not reported or are not known about.
It is, in the words of Donald Rumsfeld, a "known unknown"; we cannot know how many actual cases or events took place; we can only guess at the figure.
Trust [man kann sich darauf verlassen, dass] the Germans to come up with a single word to sum up a complicated concept.
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