At the SPD party congress in Berlin in June 2025, Lars Klingbeil was re-elected co-chair with only 64.9 percent of the votes. Only Oskar Lafontaine, with 62.6 percent in 1995, had received less. Klingbeil called it ein schweres Ergebnis, a hard result.
He also spoke about how the criticism had been made. According to ZDF, he would have wished that one or another delegate had voiced this displeasure in the debate as well.
Under Section 82 of the Works Constitution Act, an employee can demand that the employer discuss with him die Beurteilung seiner Leistungen, the assessment of his performance, and his chances of development in the company. He may bring a member of the works council. He may also comment on any measure of the employer that affects him. Section 83 gives him the right to see his personnel file. If he disagrees with something in it, such as a written warning, he can write a reply, the Gegendarstellung. Erklärungen des Arbeitnehmers zum Inhalt der Personalakte sind dieser auf sein Verlangen beizufügen. At his request, the employee’s statements on the file must be added to it.
In March 2001, after a 0:3 Champions League defeat at Olympique Lyon, the Bayern Munich president Franz Beckenbauer spoke at the midnight banquet. He said the team had played Altherren-Fußball, old men’s football, like Uwe Seeler’s veterans’ team. The players then met in captain Stefan Effenberg’s room. Bayern went on to win the Champions League that season. Effenberg later said the team knew its performance had been catastrophic. He counted the banquet speech among the reasons for the title, even if über die Wortwahl können wir reden oder diskutieren, we can talk or argue about the choice of words.
In autumn 2012, after a 2:0 win over Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich’s sporting director Matthias Sammer said the team had not played gallig enough, with enough bite, and had been lätschern, limp. Coach Jupp Heynckes disagreed with how he had done it, and told him so. Mit der Form, der Art und Weise war ich nicht einverstanden. Das habe ich ihm auch gesagt. I did not agree with the form and the manner. I told him that too. Er weiß, dass es wichtig ist, diese Dinge in geschlossenen Räumen anzusprechen. He knows it is important to raise these things behind closed doors. That season Bayern won the league, the cup and the Champions League.
The Morbiditäts- und Mortalitätskonferenz is a regular hospital meeting about complications and deaths. A case that went badly is presented, and the team asks what happened. In 2016 the German Medical Association published a guide for these meetings. It says the discussion should be sach- und nicht personenbezogen, about the matter and not about the person. It should concentrate on facts and processes, not on people. The aim is to work through critical events free of blame. It should be possible to ask “Why?”, and doctors in senior positions must be ready to have their own mistakes discussed. Among the obstacles the guide lists is a discussion that focuses on blame and individual mistakes.
From 1947 to 1967, the writer Hans Werner Richter invited authors to the meetings of the Gruppe 47. Authors read unpublished texts aloud, and the others criticized them on the spot. The reader sat on the free chair next to Richter, which was jokingly called the elektrischer Stuhl, the electric chair. Zur wichtigen Maxime wurde, dass der Vortragende sich nicht verteidigen durfte, sowie dass die Kritik der konkreten Texte im Mittelpunkt stand. It became an important rule that the reader was not allowed to defend himself, and that the criticism focused on the actual texts. In 1958 Günter Grass read the first chapter of his still unpublished novel Die Blechtrommel at a meeting in the Allgäu and won the group’s prize.
In Saarland, a teacher may not read out a pupil’s grade in front of the class. A decree of the state education ministry of 9 July 2024 says this applies to all types of school, for reasons of data protection and teaching. In secondary schools, an anonymous distribution of grades may be shown only for written tests in core subjects. In March 2026 the state’s data protection commissioner, Monika Grethel, set out the conditions under which announcing individual grades in class could be lawful at all.
Ins Gesicht sagen — to say to the face. Offen aussprechen — to speak out openly. Kein Blatt vor den Mund nehmen — to take no leaf before the mouth, meaning to speak without covering.
And the opposite: hintenherum, behind-around, and hinter dem Rücken, behind the back. Both are accusations.
The German objection is not to being criticised in front of others. It is to being criticised where you cannot answer.
Das muss auf den Tisch — that has to go on the table. Said in German when something is being handled quietly that ought to be handled in front of everyone. The image is of a table with people sitting around it. Putting something on it is making it visible to all of them simultaneously, which is the point rather than a side effect.
German law requires the works council to convene a works meeting of all employees once every calendar quarter and report on its activities. At least once a year the employer must report to that meeting on staffing, the financial position and trends of the establishment, and environmental protection.
Where the employer or a quarter of the eligible employees request it, the works council must convene a meeting and put the requested matter on the agenda.
A statutory forum exists in which the workforce assembles, the employer accounts for himself, and anyone may put a subject on the table.