BMW turned 100 in March 2016. Mercedes-Benz congratulated its rival with advertisements in car magazines and national newspapers, and with a video on Facebook. The Facebook text read: BMW wird 100 Jahre alt! Alles Gute und auf die nächsten 100 Jahre Wettbewerb. BMW is 100 years old! All the best, and here’s to the next 100 years of competition. The print ad said: Wettbewerb spornt an. Competition drives you on. That week, every BMW employee could visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum for free.
Gold Without Friendship
At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Boris Becker and Michael Stich won the gold medal in men’s doubles. In the final they beat Wayne Ferreira and Piet Norval. The two Germans did not get along. In Barcelona they did not sit at the same table even once. Becker said it simply: Wir mögen uns eben nicht. We just don’t like each other. After both had gone out in the singles, they had the same goal, and they reached it.
The Handshake Before the Penalties
Germany played Argentina in the World Cup quarterfinal on 30 June 2006 in Berlin. The match went to penalties. Jens Lehmann was in goal. Oliver Kahn, Germany’s number one for years, had been moved to the bench by the national coach Jürgen Klinsmann just before the tournament. The two goalkeepers were rivals. Before the shootout, Kahn went over to Lehmann, crouched beside him and shook his hand. In a ZDF documentary Kahn later described the rivalry: Es wird hart gekämpft, es wird mit allen Bandagen gekämpft. The fight is hard, and every means is used. About the moment he said: Du siehst ihn – und hast eigentlich nur ein Bedürfnis: ihm jetzt dafür nur das Beste zu wünschen. You see him, and you really have only one wish: to wish him only the best for this.
Going Personal
In Eristische Dialektik, published after his death and widely read as Die Kunst, Recht zu behalten, the art of being right, Arthur Schopenhauer lists tricks for winning an argument. The last one is to go personal. Beim Persönlichwerden aber verlässt man den Gegenstand ganz, und richtet seinen Angriff auf die Person des Gegners: man wird also kränkend, hämisch, beleidigend, grob. In going personal, one leaves the subject entirely and directs the attack at the opponent’s person. One becomes hurtful, spiteful, insulting, rude. German Wikipedia summarizes: the argument against the person is a way out when the opponent seems to be winning.
Critical Discourse as a Duty
Since 2019 the German Research Foundation (DFG) has had a binding code of good scientific practice. Its first guideline obliges researchers alle Ergebnisse konsequent selbst anzuzweifeln, to consistently doubt all their own results. They must einen kritischen Diskurs in der wissenschaftlichen Gemeinschaft zuzulassen und zu fördern, allow and promote critical discourse in the scientific community, and keep strikte Ehrlichkeit, strict honesty, about their own contributions and those of others.
The Matter, Not the Person
German law protects sharp criticism, but not Schmähkritik, abusive criticism. The Federal Constitutional Court defines the line, as German Wikipedia quotes it. A disparaging statement becomes abusive only wenn in ihr nicht mehr die Auseinandersetzung in der Sache, sondern die Diffamierung der Person im Vordergrund steht, when it is no longer about the matter, and the defamation of the person comes to the fore.
Criticizing the Work
Section 193 of the Criminal Code covers tadelnde Urteile über wissenschaftliche, künstlerische oder gewerbliche Leistungen, critical judgments about scientific, artistic or commercial work. It also covers Vorhaltungen und Rügen der Vorgesetzten gegen ihre Untergebenen, reproaches and reprimands by superiors to their subordinates. Such statements are punishable as an insult only if the form of the statement or the circumstances show an insult. So a manager who tells an employee plainly that the work is poor is, as a rule, not punishable for insult, unless the form or the circumstances of the remark make it insulting.
The Matter Comes First
The German psychologist Sylvia Schroll-Machl describes Sachorientierung, orientation toward the matter, as a German cultural standard. In 2004, in a box headed Wir Deutschen, we Germans, she wrote: Die Sache ist uns wichtiger als die Person. The matter is more important to us than the person. Wir können durchaus mit jemandem auf sachlicher Ebene zusammenarbeiten, obwohl wir uns persönlich nicht besonders mögen. We can certainly work with someone on a factual level, even though we do not particularly like each other personally. In the same series she warns that thinking this alone is enough for working together is der häufigste deutsche Irrtum, the most common German mistake.
Criticize the Treatment, Not the Doctor
The professional code of the Medical Association of Saxony-Anhalt says: Ärzte haben sich untereinander kollegial zu verhalten. Doctors must behave collegially toward one another. The code then says what this excludes. Unsachliche Kritik an der Behandlungsweise oder dem beruflichen Wissen eines Arztes sowie herabsetzende Äußerungen über dessen Person sind berufswidrig. Unfactual criticism of a doctor’s treatment or professional knowledge, and disparaging remarks about the doctor as a person, violate professional rules. The association’s journal added in 2012 that factual criticism of a colleague’s treatment remains allowed.
First Suitability, Then Sympathy
Markus Bühner is a professor of psychological methods and diagnostics at LMU Munich. In a 2015 interview published by the university, he spoke about hiring. Sympathie ist zunächst etwas vermeintlich ganz Wichtiges. At first, liking a person seems very important. But choosing a likeable person who is not suited to the job will sooner or later cause high staff turnover. Liking may decide only between candidates who are all suitable. Ansonsten gilt: Erst kommt die Eignung, dann die Sympathie. Otherwise the rule is: first suitability, then liking.