In November 2016 the German Football Association named Jürgen Klinsmann the fifth Ehrenspielführer, honorary captain, of the men’s national team. The four before him were Fritz Walter, Uwe Seeler, Franz Beckenbauer and Lothar Matthäus.
In November 2025 the association named three more honorary captains of its men’s and women’s teams: Bernard Dietz, Silvia Neid and, after her death, Doris Fitschen. It cited their outstanding sporting achievements and their exemplary conduct.
In 2019 the German career site Karrierebibel published an article titled Mitarbeiter des Monats: Auszeichnungen demotivieren, employee of the month: awards demotivate.
It described what such awards do in a team. Dem Mitarbeiter wird der Erfolg nicht gegönnt oder es wird sogar eine Bevorzugung durch den Chef unterstellt. The colleagues begrudge the employee his success, or they even suspect that the boss favors him. Ranglisten sind gefährlich und können den Teamgeist beeinträchtigen. Rankings are dangerous and can harm team spirit.
In 2009 the Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung, the newspaper of the skilled trades, advised: Ein Lob an eine einzelne Person wird immer unter vier Augen ausgesprochen … Praise for an individual is always given under four eyes, between two people, with an exception for official honors. Ein zu öffentliches oder zu einseitiges Lob schürt Neid und Missgunst. Praise that is too public or too one-sided stirs envy and resentment.
In 2015 the Deutsches Ärzteblatt advised doctors who lead a practice to consider carefully whether to praise a staff member in front of the team. An orthodontist quoted in the article said that praise must not arouse the envy of the other staff. The doctor should never start a contest of praise. Das führt allzu oft nur zu bösem Blut im Team. That too often leads only to ill feeling in the team.
In September 2015 the Bosch chief executive Volkmar Denner announced that the company would abolish individual bonuses for its managers. Bonuses would depend instead on the success of the whole company, and in especially good years all employees would benefit through a special payment. Denner called it eine Revolution für Bosch, a revolution for Bosch. Geld kann demotivierend wirken, he said. Money can have a demotivating effect.
In December 2016 Daimler announced a similar plan. It wanted to abolish personal bonuses based on individual targets for its managers and to tie them more closely to the success of the company.
The collective agreement for the employees of the German states once had a section on performance pay. It was deleted without replacement from 1 January 2009.
For federal employees, an evaluation based on fieldwork in 2009 looked at how performance pay was handed out. It found a tendency to spread the money broadly and to rate generously. The fear of demotivating weaker performers was given as one reason for the broad spread. In some agencies, the option of dividing the money by pay group had led to what the evaluators called counterproductive rating contests.
Federal civil servants and soldiers can receive bonuses for outstanding special performance. Section 42a of the Federal Pay Act limits their number. In any calendar year, the bonuses and allowances given by an employer may not exceed 15 percent of its pay recipients.
The law also allows a rule for teamwork. The implementing regulation may provide that bonuses given to several people for a performance achieved through close cooperation count together as only one within the quota.
Every soldier of the Bundeswehr, of any rank, can earn the Leistungsabzeichen, the proficiency badge. It was first announced in the White Paper of 1970, and it comes in bronze, silver and gold.
The tests include a march with a 15-kilogram pack, a fitness test, swimming 100 meters in clothes, shooting and first aid. One rule sets the overall level. Die schwächste Einzelleistung bestimmt die Gesamtwertungsstufe. The weakest single result determines the overall level.
Until 1980 the Bundeswehr had no decorations of its own. In November of that year, Minister Apel created the Ehrenzeichen der Bundeswehr, the badge of honor of the armed forces.
A decoration for bravery followed on 13 August 2008, when Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung created the Ehrenkreuz für Tapferkeit, the cross of honor for bravery. It is given for courageous, steadfast and patient conduct in exceptional danger to life and limb. By 2025 it had been awarded 33 times.
The order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts was founded in 1842 by the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Federal President Theodor Heuss revived it in 1952. New members are co-opted by the order’s chapter at its meeting.
In 2020 the order had 40 German and 40 foreign members. After the election of September 2025 it had 36 German and 37 foreign members.
The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic is not given for good work in a job. Its rules require eine selbständige, auszeichnungswürdige Leistung für das allgemeine Wohl, an independent achievement for the common good that is worthy of an award. Die tadelsfreie Erfüllung von Berufspflichten oder die Übernahme von ehrenamtlichen Tätigkeiten allein genügt nicht. Faultless fulfillment of professional duties, or merely taking on a volunteer post, is not enough.
Another rule concerns those who put themselves forward. Wer seine eigene Auszeichnung anregt, kann mit einer Ordensverleihung nicht rechnen. Whoever proposes his own award cannot expect to receive the order.