Ich kenne nur den Ausdruck "für jemanden die Kastanien aus dem Feuer holen", und dafür finde ich im Langenscheidt folgende Entsprechungen:
1. act as a person's cat's-paw
2. pull the chestnuts out of the fire for a person

Agree with RES (AE). Langenscheidt is off the mark on this, at least as regards AE.

"[In kritischen Situationen] zog Hindenburg es oft vor, schweigend im Hintergrund zu verharren und andere die Kohlen aus dem Feuer holen zu lassen."

Sorry guys but "für jmd. die Kohlen aus dem Feuer holen" is quite different to "walking over hot coals for s.o.".
It means someone has to save the situation because someone else messed up or failed to deliver the goods or because he "chickened out".
"To walk over hot coals for s.o." means doing s.th. for s.o. out of love and friendship, doesn't it? Quite different then.
Just do a google search. You'll find lots of examples. Sorry, I've not come up with a good translation yet.

"The Karnataka batsman's purity of technique, rich repertoire of strokes, mental strength and sheer passion for the game have seen him pull the chestnuts out of the fire for India time and again...against any opponent, away or home."

In the example below, "pulling the chestnuts out of the fire" is used exactly in the same way as "Kohlen aus dem Feuer holen" would be used in German. I don't know about A.E. usage and can't really say that I've come across it much in British English texts, but maybe RES and Peter were misled by the coal bit in the German text? Immediately associating it with "walking over hot coals"?
My Pons also tranlsates "für jmd. die Kastanien aus dem Feuer holen" with "pulling the chestnuts etc...". I must admit though, that I only know the German as "Kohlen aus dem Feuer holen", not chestnuts.

Quote from OED:

to pull the chestnuts out of the fire:
used (with reference to the fable of the monkey using the cat’s paw to extract roasting chestnuts from the fire) of the employment of another to undertake the dangerous part of an enterprise.

Noch ein Beispiel. Diesmal aus dem Oxford English Dictionary. The definition is almost identical with that in the Wahrig: für jmd anderen etwas Unangenehmes oder Gefährliches tun"

Thanks for the explanation of the distinction Doris. Learned something new. Must admit I never heard the chestnut one in use and can't think of one right now either.

"To bail someone out" ?? - of course no element of danger here, but simply "jmd aus der Patsche helfen". .. or is this still too far off the mark?

RES - It doesn't always fit but I think it works beautiful in some cases (especially in sports contexts).

That works in a lot of similar situations, and is a bit more colloquial.

Thanks a lot to all.
It is sometimes hard to find the right expression or word. Only looking in the dictionary doesn't help in every case.

The Economist, April 6-12 (The anger swells, page 25)

[Syria] has even started withdraring its troops in Lebanon to the Syrian frontier. But Hizbullah, the Lebanese guerrilla group that is widely seen as a Syrian cat's paw, has pointedly raised the heat on Israel's northern border.

Stumbled over the "cat's paw" in the Economist this morning over breakfast and just wanted to add this example for completion's sake.

would like to correct the typo - it's gotta be "withdraWing" of course.