In July 1982, during the dispute over the stationing of new NATO missiles, the Social Democrat Oskar Lafontaine answered his own party’s chancellor, Helmut Schmidt. He told the magazine Stern that Schmidt kept speaking of “Pflichtgefühl, Berechenbarkeit, Machbarkeit, Standhaftigkeit,” a sense of duty, predictability, feasibility and steadfastness. Then he went on: “Das sind Sekundärtugenden. Ganz präzis gesagt: Damit kann man auch ein KZ betreiben.” These are secondary virtues. To put it precisely, you can also run a concentration camp with them. German uses the word Sekundärtugend for traits such as diligence, punctuality and reliability. They are useful in daily life. Pursued for their own sake, they have no moral value.
Reliability earns trust in Germany, but Germans also ask what it is used for.