A German who sells a used car often asks first what the car is worth nach Schwacke. The Schwacke list first appeared on 15 November 1957. It gives the residual value of used vehicles by model, year, equipment and mileage, independent of the condition of the single car. People call it simply Schwacke. Banks use it to decide how much they will lend against a car. The Deutsche Automobil Treuhand, the DAT, was founded in 1931 by the associations of the car industry and the car trade. It also publishes used-car valuations and forecasts of residual values.
business
Deals That Fall Through After the Show
In the television show Die Höhle der Löwen, the lions’ den, founders present their companies to investors. The show started on VOX in 2014. A deal is agreed in front of the camera within minutes. The investors check the company only after the recording, and many deals fail at this stage. Some companies did not pass the check because the founders had made false statements on air. The counts differ. The site deutsche-startups.de counted 11 failed deals out of 16 in the first season and 15 out of 21 in the second. The film site Filmstarts counted 35 deals in the first two seasons, of which 26 failed. A technology blog, citing Business Insider, gave a much lower figure: about 40 percent.
The Craftsman’s Estimate
A German customer who calls a plumber without agreeing on a price still owes a definite amount. Section 632 of the Civil Code fills the gap. If a fee schedule exists, the scheduled fee counts as agreed. If none exists, the usual fee counts as agreed. The written estimate, the Kostenanschlag or Kostenvoranschlag, is free unless the parties agreed otherwise. Section 649 covers the case where the estimate turns out too low. If the work cannot be done without a substantial overrun, the craftsman must tell the customer without delay. The customer may then end the contract and pay only for the work done so far. The Frankfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce explains that an overrun of 10 to 20 percent is probably not yet substantial.
The López Effect
In 1993 Ferdinand Piëch brought José Ignacio López from General Motors to Volkswagen. VW created a new board position for him, responsible for production optimization and purchasing. López forced the supplier industry into concessions it had never made before. With the suppliers he accepted, he fixed purchase prices in writing for the next five years, and the prices fell each year. He was called the Würger von Wolfsburg, the strangler of Wolfsburg. He left VW in 1996. His name stayed in the language. The López-Effekt does not mean savings. It means cheap and often defective parts.
The term names what came after the squeeze. Lower prices were followed by lower quality.
The Supplier Who Stopped Delivering
In August 2016 two small suppliers stopped delivering parts to Volkswagen. ES Automobilguss made gearbox parts. CarTrim made seat covers. Both said they belonged to the Prevent group. They said VW had cancelled their orders without notice, without a reason and without compensation. According to the news agency dpa, VW had been willing to pay compensation, but the demands were said to be unrealistic. This could not be verified. VW obtained court orders that told the suppliers to resume deliveries. They did not deliver. VW halted work at six German plants, which affected nearly 28,000 workers. Within days the two sides reached an agreement. VW would keep buying parts from Prevent companies for at least six years. The sum was not made public. The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported 13 million euros.
The Motto Over the Desk
Mein Sohn, sey mit Lust bey den Geschäften am Tage, aber mache nur solche, daß wir bey Nacht ruhig schlafen können. My son, take pleasure in business by day, but make only such deals that let us sleep peacefully at night. In Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks (1901), the family gives Thomas Buddenbrook a large memorial tablet with this motto in Gothic letters. The occasion is the firm’s hundredth anniversary on 7 July 1868. Thomas has just bought the entire grain harvest of the estate Pöppenrade while it is still standing in the field. He paid half price to an owner who badly needed money. When he first thought about the deal, he described it in his own words: Unreinliche Manipulation … Im Trüben fischen … Brutale Ausbeutung … Einen Wehrlosen übers Ohr hauen … Wucherprofit. Unclean manipulation, fishing in muddy water, brutal exploitation, cheating a defenseless man, a usurer’s profit. During the anniversary celebration, a telegram arrives. Hail has destroyed the Pöppenrade harvest.
The motto is said to come from the author’s own family firm. The sources disagree on which Johann Siegmund Mann wrote it.
Business Is Business
Geschäft ist Geschäft. — Business is business. Duden explains it: when money is involved, one cannot take feelings into account.
Beim Geld hört die Freundschaft auf. — Where money begins, friendship ends.
Bei Geldfragen hört die Gemütlichkeit auf. — Where money is concerned, the friendly mood ends. The banker David Hansemann said it in the Prussian United Diet in 1847, in a debate on a state loan for a railroad. It quickly became a common saying.
Dienst ist Dienst und Schnaps ist Schnaps. — Duty is duty and schnapps is schnapps.
Appropriate Pay at the Top
Section 87 of the German Stock Corporation Act tells the supervisory board how to pay the management board. Total pay must stand in einem angemessenen Verhältnis, in an appropriate relationship, to the member’s duties and performance and to the situation of the company. It must not exceed die übliche Vergütung, the usual pay, without special reasons. If the company’s situation gets so much worse that continuing the pay would be unfair to the company, the supervisory board should reduce it. The reference to performance, the limit of the usual pay and this duty to reduce pay were added by a law of 2009 on the appropriateness of management board pay.
In March 2012, the pay of Volkswagen’s chief executive Martin Winterkorn became a public issue. He had received about 17 million euros for 2011. Criticism came from business as well as from the unions. Lutz Goebel, head of the association Die Familienunternehmer, said: Fünf Millionen sind eine vernünftige Grenze. Five million is a reasonable limit. Winterkorn answered: Ich kann verstehen, dass manche sagen, das ist zu viel. I can understand that some people say this is too much. In February 2013, Volkswagen’s supervisory board decided that bonuses would be paid only in years with an operating profit of at least five billion euros.
The Mannesmann Trial
The trial was about bonuses paid during the takeover of Mannesmann, with damage originally put at 58 million euros. Josef Ackermann, head of Deutsche Bank and a member of the presidium of the Mannesmann supervisory board, was charged with breach of trust. Klaus Esser, the former chief executive of Mannesmann, was also charged. In July 2004, the court acquitted them. On 21 December 2005, the Federal Court of Justice overturned the acquittals. A bonus that only rewards past work, with no future benefit to the company, breaches the duty of those who grant it. In November 2006, the court agreed to close the case in return for payments. Ackermann paid 3.2 million euros and Esser 1.5 million euros.
Pay in Fourth Place
In the Randstad Employer Brand Research 2026, employees in Germany were asked what matters most when they choose an employer. Job security came first, named by 58 percent. A pleasant working atmosphere came second with 54 percent, and work-life balance third with 52 percent. Pay and benefits came fourth with 50 percent. In 2025, pay had still been in first place.
The EY job study of 2025 asked why people had left an employer. The most common reason was pay that was too low, named by 35 percent. Nicole Dietl of EY drew this conclusion: Geld ist ein wichtiger Hebel, ein gutes Gehalt allein motiviert Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter allerdings nicht. Money is an important lever, but a good salary alone does not motivate employees.