In the most recent poll on occupational prestige in Germany conducted by the Allensbach Institute engineers and university professors took seventh place, behind physicians and craftsmen, but well ahead of politicians and journalists.
26% of Germans polled noted a high degree of respect for the engineering profession. No wonder, for Germans define individual prestige based on technical (specialized) knowledge.
Almost every third supervisory board member of a DAX30 company is an engineer by training. Industrial heavyweights like Volkswagen and DaimlerBenz have always been run by engineers, to the dismay, as the magazine Spiegel wrote, of those colleagues with a business or legal background.
In Germany, to inform persuasively means to lead, guide, channel listeners to the desired conclusion and decision. It is done indirectly, subtlely, discreetly, signaling, indicating, not selling.
The slightest form of pushiness, of promoting can lead the German audience to suspect that the presenter is hiding something or trying manipulate them. Reserve and restraint is a virtue in the German context and moves the presenter closer towards the goal.
Sales personnel in German stores often greet the customer with Sie kommen zurecht? meaning “You know what you’re looking for?” or Sie schauen nur? meaning “You‘re just taking a look around?”.
This is their way of communicating that they are ready at any time to assist the customer with any questions they might have, but do not want to disturb them, much less try to sell them something.
German customers do not feel comfortable being sold to, certainly not aggressively sold to. Germans who sell know this of themselves, take therefore a hands-off, discreet approach, to persuasion, reacting only if and when the audience gives the corresponding signals.
Sales is given low prestige in Germany. People in general do not like to sell. Germans even less so. High prestige in the German business world is enjoyed by the natural sciences, engineering, manufacturing, law, and until recently, banking and finance. The disciplines of sales, including account management, and marketing enjoy less prestige.
King in Germany is knowledge, research and development, invention, production. Germans in general believe that a product should sell itself. Who needs sales/marketing? Verkaufen – German for selling – begins with ver, the prefix to many German verbs which have a negative meaning.
See Heinz Erhardt, one of post-war West Germany’s most beloved comedians and actors.
The German word überzeugen – literally over-witness; more than enough witnesses – means to persuade or convince with plausible arguments, evidence, proof that something is true, right, correct.
überzeugen for Germans means to use rational arguments only, to appeal to reason, without attempting establish a personal (subjective, emotional) relationship with the target audience.
The German word überreden – literally over-talk; more than enough talk – means to coax, plead, cajole, browbeat, armtwist the other person to do something they originally did not wish to.
überreden for Germans means to use subjective-emotional argumentation, to appeal to the emotions, to the non-rational. Germans reject überreden. Germans expect überzeugen.
Martin Wehrle, a German managment coach, writes career-articles for DIE ZEIT. In a recent article he advises: Nicht aufdrängen! – Don’t be pushy! He notes that many job applicants are far too aggressive, as early as in the initial sentences of their cover letter.
“Because I am a perfect fit for the position, I am sending you my application ….” Starting off like that almost guarantees an immediate rejection, writes Wehrle.
Instead of allowing the reader to make her own judgement, the applicant makes it for them. Personnel departments want to make their own decision who is right for the company. That’s what they get paid for.
Wehrle recommends: “Intelligent applicants act like witnesses before a jury. They don’t push the jury to a decision. Instead they simply state the facts, objectively.
The more objective the witness comes across, the more they are believed. The best applicants don’t speak for their application. Their application speaks for them.
Jemandem das Blaue vom Himmel versprechen – to promise someone the blue of the heavens – is to promise the unreachable. It is an attempt to persuade via promises which have”weder Hand noch Fuss – neither hand nor foot.
To exaggerate, to paint a rosy picture of future developments is not in any way convincing to Germans. This might be one of the reasons why they are so sceptical about utopias of every kind.
In a January 2015 article in DIE ZEIT Tina Hildebrandt writes critically and with irony about the Merkel government engaging experts in order to study what makes the German people happy, and how to move them in that direction. Anstupsen is what the experts call their method.
The experts are developing kleineEntscheidungshilfen – little decision making aids – to prod German citizens in that direction. That is precisely the problem, Hildebrandt writes: “An administration should persuade, not nudge.”
The article demonstrates how quickly Germans get angry when one tries to push them in a certain direction even if only with the help of “little decision making aids.” The slightest suspicion that any action aims to get a decision is immediately counterproductive.
The Germans sense any form of nudge or prod as drängen – as pressure, as pushing. Germans want to be persuaded. And when they make a decision they reject any kind of outside influence.
“Barsky discovered that the people who trained him (Russian KGB) did not have an authentic understanding of Americans, and he struggled at first with his assignment. While his instructions were to infiltrate political circles and get close to Brzezinski (National Security Advisor under US President Jimmy Carter), he was not given specific instructions on how he was supposed to accomplish that.
He also learned that while his English was excellent, he was very pushy and argumentative when dealing with people. He was shocked when he was confronted with this fact by a fed-up friend. He realized that he was essentially too East German to fit in.” From Wikipedia
See the CBS 60 Minutes story on Jack Barsky:
Jordan Peterson’s interview with Jack Barsky is extraordinarily fascinating:
Frankfurt. Handelsblatt. September 13, 2025. Forget “keep it simple”: according to a recent study (in Germany), start-up founders raise more funds when they express themselves in a more differentiated way. What makes a good pitch.
When start-up founders want to convince investors of their idea, they often receive the same advice: keep it simple. Messages should be as clear as possible, with few foreign words and no frills. However, a new study by researchers at the Technische Universtät Dortmund, the Universtät Passau, and the Technische Universtät Munich, published in the journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, shows that it’s not quite that simple.
According to the study, the use of cognitively complex language leads to greater financing success: those who expressed themselves in a more linguistically sophisticated manner during their pitch received an average of more than seven percent or approximately $125,000 in additional investment in the twelve months that followed.
November 12, 2024. Bill Anderson, CEO of Bayer, reports on the company’s progress. A video with the title “90 days in 90 seconds.”
However, many Germans were not convinced. Not because Germans are mean people. Not because Germans are negative, destructive, or pessimistic. But instead, because they have a different approach to persuasion. How they persuade. How they allow themselves to be persuaded.
See the Anderson-video and the comments on LinkedIn. Here are some of the German comments:
“Dear Bill Anderson: I know that you have a difficult job, and I don’t want to blame you for the mistakes of your predecessors. Nevertheless, you should be able to honestly tell employees, shareholders and the German public, how things are going at Bayer. Your above statement is in my point of view misleading and irresponsible.
Bayer’s existence is threatened and you and the top management (seem) have not yet understood this. Stop being the Olaf Scholz (German Chancellor) of the German industry and please switch from Disney Land mentality to the necessary crisis mode. If you and management are unable to recognize, communicate and resolve the realities, please clear the way for leaders who can. And please stop sugarcoating terrifying realities ASAP!!!”
The commenter is a Ph.D. university professor in Pathology and Immunology. And the commenter is a German who has also become an American citizen.
Another comment from a German on LinkedIn: “‘We’re making great progress in some areas.”‘ You cannot be serious! The share price is at a 20-years low. It is true that you cannot be blamed for your predecessors’ mistakes, but where was the share price at, when you started as CEO at Bayer?”
And this from a Bayer-employee: “With this performance and a drop of more than 10% in share price today, I would be surprised if you survive another year as CEO. Be honest and inform the public that the Bayer Monsanto merger is a huge insolvency risk. It is time for a rescue plan to save at least parts of the company.” The commenter is German.