Germany, Feedback, Audience - understand-culture

In Front of the Assembled Crew

vor versammelter Mannschaft — in front of the assembled crew. The Duden dictionary’s example comes from the army: der Gefreite wurde vor versammelter Mannschaft getadelt, the lance corporal was reprimanded in front of the assembled unit. In everyday speech the phrase means in front of everyone present. Mannschaft can also mean a work team.

jemanden zur Rede stellen — to put someone to the speech, to call someone to account. Duden notes that Rede here first meant a statement or a justification before a court.

The Right to Raise It

In December 2025 Borussia Dortmund drew 2:2 with Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League. Afterward the defender Nico Schlotterbeck criticized the substitutes in public, without naming them. Die Spieler, die reinkommen, verlieren jeden Ball. The players who come on lose every ball. Wenn man reinkommt in der 60. Minute, erwarte ich 30 Minuten Volldampf. If you come on in the 60th minute, I expect 30 minutes at full power.

The coach Niko Kovač backed him. Als Führungsspieler hat er mit Sicherheit auch das Recht, gewisse Sachen anzusprechen. As a leading player he certainly has the right to raise certain things.

Even Required

In 2010 the Higher Labor Court of Munich ruled on two warnings. The employer had told some employees of the internal audit department about them. The court found nothing wrong with that. A law firm’s summary of the ruling puts it this way: such information was regelmäßig zu erwarten, zum Teil sogar geboten, to be expected as a rule and in part even required, because the employees shared their work in divided processes.

The court drew the line at the pillory. The employee had not been put an den Pranger. Only a particularly grave pillorying that harmed his honor would have required a public retraction.

Before the Troops

German military disciplinary law has two kinds of reprimand. The Verweis is the formal censure of a specific breach of duty. Der strenge Verweis ist der Verweis, der vor der Truppe bekannt gemacht wird. The severe reprimand is the reprimand that is announced before the troops.

Never in the Team Meeting

In 2016 the Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung gave supervisors five tips on feedback. Vor allem wenn es um Kritik geht, sollten die Besprechungen immer unter vier Augen stattfinden. Above all when criticism is involved, the talks should always take place under four eyes.

In 2024 the IT magazine Computerwoche quoted the coach Katja Ischebeck: Üben Sie negative Kritik immer unter vier Augen. Always give negative criticism under four eyes. A manager should point out a team member’s shortcomings auf keinem Fall im Team-Meeting, in no case in the team meeting.

The Annual Talk

Freie Universität Berlin has an agreement with its staff representatives on annual talks between supervisors and employees. It has been in force since 1 January 2018. Das Jahresgespräch findet grundsätzlich unter vier Augen statt. As a rule, the annual talk takes place under four eyes, between the two people. The record of the talk is not part of the personnel file.

Saarland University’s agreement of 2007 says the same. Staff talks are held as Vier-Augen-Gespräche, four-eyes talks, and their content is to be treated as absolutely confidential.

The Verdict Goes to the Class

Students at the Nuremberg Institute of Technology evaluate their courses. Under the evaluation rules of February 2025, the lecturer must then discuss the record of the results with the group of students who evaluated the course. This discussion is how the result is published to that group.

Eine hierüber hinausgehende personenbezogene Veröffentlichung der Evaluationsergebnisse erfolgt nicht. There is no further publication of the results that names a person. Everyone involved in the evaluation is bound to confidentiality.

The Defense Is Public

At the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Göttingen, the oral defense of a doctoral thesis, the Disputation, is hochschulöffentlich, open to the university public. The committee can allow members of the audience to put questions to the candidate. Two faculties at the University of Bamberg also hold the defense in public, for about 90 minutes.

In Göttingen the verdict is reached differently. The committee decides nichtöffentlich, in private, whether the candidate has passed.

Damage to the Party

On 22 December 1999 the CDU’s general secretary, Angela Merkel, published an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about the former chancellor Helmut Kohl. Die von Helmut Kohl eingeräumten Vorgänge haben der Partei Schaden zugefügt. The actions that Helmut Kohl has admitted have damaged the party.

She gave her reason in one sentence. Nur auf einem wahren Fundament kann die Zukunft aufgebaut werden. Only on a foundation of truth can the future be built. Her conclusion followed: Die Partei muss also laufen lernen. So the party must learn to walk.

The Problem, the Solution, or Both

Every year the general meeting of a German stock corporation votes on the Entlastung, the discharge, of its management board and supervisory board. By granting it, the shareholders approve how the company was managed. Approval rates of 95 percent and more are usual in Germany.

At Deutsche Bank’s general meeting in May 2015, the co-chief executives Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain received only 61.02 and 60.99 percent. In the hall, Kienle of the shareholder association SdK asked Jain: Sind Sie das Problem dieser Bank, die Lösung oder beides? Are you the problem of this bank, the solution, or both?