Germany, Feedback - understand-culture

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?

Said Only in the Vote

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.

The Reviewer

Goethe’s short poem Rezensent, the reviewer, was first printed in 1774. It begins: Da hatt ich einen Kerl zu Gast, I had a fellow as my guest. The guest eats his fill at the host’s table. Afterward he finds fault with the meal: Die Supp hätt können gewürzter sein, the soup could have been better seasoned.

The poem ends: Schlag ihn tot, den Hund! Es ist ein Rezensent. Strike him dead, the dog! He is a reviewer.