Since 1976 the satire program extra 3 has been on German television. One of its segments is Der reale Irrsinn, real madness. It points mainly to failed public building projects and to embarrassing events in companies and institutions. The segment has gained a program of its own, broadcast at irregular intervals as extra 3 Spezial.
The Criticism Talk
das Kritikgespräch — the criticism talk. Haufe Akademie, a German provider of management training, defines it as a structured talk between a manager and a team member. It is prompted by concrete misconduct or by results that fall short.
The advice for the opening is brief. Nenne kurz und sachlich den Anlass des Gesprächs. State the reason for the talk briefly and factually. The criticism itself should be concrete and about behavior. The article’s example is not Du bist unzuverlässig, you are unreliable, but In den letzten zwei Wochen sind drei Berichte verspätet abgegeben worden. In the last two weeks, three reports were handed in late.
Treatment Errors, Counted
In 2025 the doctors of the Medizinischer Dienst, the medical review service, wrote 11,735 expert reports on suspected treatment errors across Germany. In every fourth case, 3,098 in all, they found an error that had caused harm. In 97 cases the error led to death or contributed substantially to it.
When it presented the figures in August 2026, the service called for a mandatory, pseudonymized and sanction-free reporting system for so-called never events.
Still Not Satisfactory
In December 2019 the Defense Ministry published a report on the material readiness of the Bundeswehr’s main weapon systems. Its subheading said that readiness was above average on deployments, but im Inland nach wie vor nicht zufriedenstellend, at home still not satisfactory. Average readiness was about 70 percent. Newer systems were mostly below 40 percent, in what the report called the clearly unsatisfactory range.
The report has a public part and a secret part. The public part, the ministry said, is meant to contribute to public debate and to transparency. In January 2022 the ministry reported that readiness had risen to 77 percent, but that eleven systems, most of them older, were below 50 percent.
Weaknesses in All Areas
The first PISA results were published on 5 December 2001. German 15-year-olds scored well below the OECD average. On 5 and 6 December 2001 the state education ministers agreed on seven fields for action. A paper they adopted in October 2002 states it plainly: Schwächen zeigen sich in allen untersuchten Bereichen … Weaknesses show in all the areas studied.
Prizes for the Worst
Since 2009 the consumer organization foodwatch has awarded the Goldener Windbeutel, the golden cream puff, for misleading food advertising. Since 2011 the public has chosen the winner in an online vote. In 2019 the prize went to Zwergenwiese’s tomato sauce for children, with 53 percent of almost 70,000 votes. It contained twice as much sugar as the version for adults.
Since 1977 the association Aktion Plagiarius has given a mock prize to the makers and sellers of especially brazen copies of products. The trophy is a black dwarf with a golden nose.
In January 2026 the consumer center of Hamburg named its Mogelpackung des Jahres 2025, cheat package of the year. Milka’s Alpine milk chocolate won two thirds of the votes. The bar had shrunk from 100 to 90 grams, while its price rose from 1.49 to 1.99 euros.
The Defect Reporter
On 19 April 2021 the city of Leipzig put its Mängelmelder, its defect reporter, online. Residents use it to report trash in parks and public squares, and broken playground equipment and benches.
By September 2025 the city had received more than 58,000 reports. 30,744 of them were about dumped trash. As a rule, a report is handled within three working days.
Errors Count in Every Subject
The education ministry of Hesse publishes a Fehlerindex, an error index, for judging the correctness of language in written work für alle Unterrichtsfächer, for all school subjects, in grades 9 and 10. It applies to written work of at least 100 words. The teacher counts the errors, multiplies the number by 100 and divides it by the number of words.
Above a set index, the grade for the work falls. At a Gymnasium in grade 9, an index of 3.5 lowers the grade by one third of a grade, and an index of 6.5 by two thirds. The rule applies in every subject, not only in German.
Awards by the Million
East Germany handed out awards in large numbers. By 1989 a total of 4.8 million members of work collectives had won the title Kollektiv der sozialistischen Arbeit, collective of socialist work.
A reference work on the East German trade union federation, published in 2009, describes the result. The inflationary character of the awards led to a rapid loss of their prestige among those who received them.
The Word for the Best in Class
der Streber — the Duden dictionary defines it as a person who strives ambitiously and egoistically for advancement at school or at work. It marks the word as abwertend, disparaging.
In 2004 the school researchers Georg Breidenstein and Michael Meier published a study of the label in class. It problematisiert und stigmatisiert (potentiell) herausragende schulische Leistungen, it makes (potentially) outstanding school performance a problem and a stigma. Die jeweils Besten der Klasse geraten unweigerlich und nachhaltig in den Streberverdacht. The best pupils in each class inevitably come under suspicion of being a Streber.