Er... do you mean offering to work "off the record" without paying taxes for it ("Schwarzarbeit")? That't tax evasion, not corruption, but yeah, that's pretty common, even in Germany.
That's interesting that in German, Dutch and French we will talk about "black work" (schwarzarbeit (DE), travail au noir (FR), zwart werk (NL)) meaning undeclared/unreported work.
I see multiple probable origins on the net :
- Coming for the german "schwarzarbeit" during end of 1st, in-between or during the occupation during 2nd WW and translated in French/Dutch from there.
- Patron making employees works during the evening/night during the Middle albeit work was restricted only during day time.
I did not really find authoritative sources for the origin of the expression so take that whole bag of salt.
AFAIK you are correct. Before the first world war taxation was different in most of those countries and work was not taxed directly at all otherwise only in war years (i.e. the first world war) so the meaning is new. There was no need for a word for something which did not exist.
No, I mean someone offering you to give them some cash to ignore some rules (or not report what they should), or to actually change recorded data in a way that benefits you. A clear case: insurance brokers who offer you to change some records so that you can get a private insurance in cases where you shouldn't.
I see multiple probable origins on the net : - Coming for the german "schwarzarbeit" during end of 1st, in-between or during the occupation during 2nd WW and translated in French/Dutch from there. - Patron making employees works during the evening/night during the Middle albeit work was restricted only during day time.
I did not really find authoritative sources for the origin of the expression so take that whole bag of salt.