ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Standard German ceiling light mounting?

I'm in the US, but I need to install a German ceiling (pendant) light made by Oligo . This is for a residential application. I'm curious to know how such lights are typically installed in Germany.

In the US, residential ceiling lights are typically mounted to a standard ceiling box. These come in metal or plastic and are usually either round or octagonal. Here's a couple of examples:

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Here's a metal octagon box installed (the yucky brown ring is a result of cigarette smoke):

<IMG SRC=\"http://www.smugmug.com/photos/15181861-S.jpg\">

These boxes are typically 75 or 100 mm wide and provide two threaded holes either 89 or 70 mm apart. Lighting fixtures typically screw directly to these holes and have a cover to hide the box.

The German fixture I have looks like this:

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It has a bracket with holes spaced 45 mm apart that looks like it's intended to be surface-mounted to the ceiling. The light then hangs from the bracket via two screws on the side. The cylindrical cover has a diameter of 70 mm and is about 23 mm deep, providing a volume of about 88 cm³.

I can make an adapter plate without too much trouble to fit this light to a US ceiling box, but I'm curious to know how this would be installed in Germany. Are there ceiling boxes over there, or does the wire just come through a small hole in the ceiling? Would the connections be done inside the cover on the light (doesn't seem like there's much room for that), or would they be done inside the ceiling?

Thanks!
Steve