Most of these comments mis-read the piece. Germany is a relatively new country -- younger than the United States -- and it has yet to figure out its role in the world. One thing it has done several times is seriously abuse its powers; in addition to the horrors of the Second World War, German policy in the first one was to flood all mines and dismantle and move to Germany all factory machinery. Since the war was fought principally in Belgium and France, it decimated those economies.
In that vein, the VW debacle simply reminds Europeans of the reasons they are still a bit uncertain about Germany. This was supposed to be the most humble and practical of businesses, and it turned out to be willing not only to conduct a fraud, but to lie repeatedly and try to cover it up.
Yes, we know American companies commit fraud and other crimes. But our law and common values are clear when they get caught. So the question here is how German law and public perception handles the situation.
In that vein, the VW debacle simply reminds Europeans of the reasons they are still a bit uncertain about Germany. This was supposed to be the most humble and practical of businesses, and it turned out to be willing not only to conduct a fraud, but to lie repeatedly and try to cover it up.
Yes, we know American companies commit fraud and other crimes. But our law and common values are clear when they get caught. So the question here is how German law and public perception handles the situation.
2
Frankly, I am a bit surprised at the outcry at this column. I am all for political correctness in its place, but political correctness as principle has no place in the opinion pages. As a born and bred upper crust German raised in rural Canada I can vouch for the veracity of all of Cohen's judgements. So why are so many vehemently denying that which we, the self critical Germans freely admit?
We are insufferably arrogant. We do feel superior to everyone on earth. We do not think we should have to kowtow to anyone's rules or laws if those rules and laws are deemed illogical in our estimation. We truly admire and cultivate assiduously, the exterior selves that include proper attire, proper deportment, proper respect for authority, tradition, work ethic and culture.
Hidden in that is the absolutely chilling way this adherence to code is achieved. From birth, the child is molded into the model citizen that slots itself into the system so seamlessly, it hardly notices that things are missing. Until it does.
In my case it resulted in a complete overhaul of myself and my upbringing. I emerged at the other side, knowing a little more about who I was and a whole lot more about who I was not. My name is mud to the people who believe I am a traitor to my class and to the race, yes the race.
Germany does do many things very well as we all know, but Cohen and others are right in pointing out what lies beneath that. True character will out. A false character crumbles.
We are insufferably arrogant. We do feel superior to everyone on earth. We do not think we should have to kowtow to anyone's rules or laws if those rules and laws are deemed illogical in our estimation. We truly admire and cultivate assiduously, the exterior selves that include proper attire, proper deportment, proper respect for authority, tradition, work ethic and culture.
Hidden in that is the absolutely chilling way this adherence to code is achieved. From birth, the child is molded into the model citizen that slots itself into the system so seamlessly, it hardly notices that things are missing. Until it does.
In my case it resulted in a complete overhaul of myself and my upbringing. I emerged at the other side, knowing a little more about who I was and a whole lot more about who I was not. My name is mud to the people who believe I am a traitor to my class and to the race, yes the race.
Germany does do many things very well as we all know, but Cohen and others are right in pointing out what lies beneath that. True character will out. A false character crumbles.
13
It is somewhat distressing for Roger Cohen of all writers, usually someone with measured opinions even about Germany, to resort to cliches and generalizations about national character.
Like any nation, the country as a whole reflects a broad spectrum of values, political and economic ideas and lifestyle choices, often before others follow (for example 'Green politics'.
It is also interesting to see how people always ask for Germany to do do more, but please do it by being less.
Like any nation, the country as a whole reflects a broad spectrum of values, political and economic ideas and lifestyle choices, often before others follow (for example 'Green politics'.
It is also interesting to see how people always ask for Germany to do do more, but please do it by being less.
11
"Germany is never quite what it seems. There is a strain between its order and its urges. Formality may mask frenzy. When things go wrong, they tend to go wrong in a big way."
Yes, the writer got it right. Going berserk in a grand manner is a German thing. Look at Angela Merkel and the migrants. Somebody whom I don't remember said once the Germans have two brains.
Yes, the writer got it right. Going berserk in a grand manner is a German thing. Look at Angela Merkel and the migrants. Somebody whom I don't remember said once the Germans have two brains.
3
After visiting over 25 countries, including Germany, I traveled to Israel in 1986 for a walking tour of the usual sites. Our guide was a 70 year old Jewish man who was born in Jerusalem and had lived through everything.
Near the Western Wall we noticed a tour bus from Germany and stopped in our tracks. I commented that "Now I've seen everything" and asked what he thought they were doing in Israel.The guide sighed and answered "I don't know" and walked away.
There is no time limit for German guilt to run out. What they did can never be erased or forgiven. It would have been better if the German nation had ceased to exist and been replaced by a new country with a new language.
Some memories are forever!
Near the Western Wall we noticed a tour bus from Germany and stopped in our tracks. I commented that "Now I've seen everything" and asked what he thought they were doing in Israel.The guide sighed and answered "I don't know" and walked away.
There is no time limit for German guilt to run out. What they did can never be erased or forgiven. It would have been better if the German nation had ceased to exist and been replaced by a new country with a new language.
Some memories are forever!
2
Some of the comments focus on the harm done to Volkswagen owners. Most of the comments ignore or gloss over the real victims of this massive fraud - living breathing people. Nitrogen oxides exposed to sunlight yield ground-level ozone, which in turn causes and exacerbates asthma and other lung disease. This disproportionately affects disadvantaged people who may not even own cars. The engineers who thought up and executed this scheme could be depicted with horns and pointed tails.
On a related note, in my state, emissions testers used to place the car on what was essentially a treadmill for cars, rev up the engine, and then measure emissions at the tailpipe. Apparently, Volkswagen figured out a way to fudge that test. Now my state made cheating easier by relying on readouts from the car's computer.
On a related note, in my state, emissions testers used to place the car on what was essentially a treadmill for cars, rev up the engine, and then measure emissions at the tailpipe. Apparently, Volkswagen figured out a way to fudge that test. Now my state made cheating easier by relying on readouts from the car's computer.
2
Much has been written about how VW stock has lost a third of its value since this news became public. Little has been written about how VW stock had lost a third of its value between April and the week before this news became public.
Someone knew something. It's not just nitric oxides that leave a funny smell.
Someone knew something. It's not just nitric oxides that leave a funny smell.
2
What if Unification "church" IT people went bonkers (Moonies), say even a national director like Michael Beard, or a Sinking Spring IT dweeb like Leighton Degoede, and they started hacking American automobiles so they could stalk Americans, and incidentally, steal information to help boost their Korean masters business interests (Kia? Hundai?). What would the name of that "wrongdoing" be?
It is seems a flawed logic that blames all Germans and the German character for what one company did, as it would be to blame all Jews and the Jewish character for what a few might have done. Many comments here eschew Cohen's logic that blames all Germans for what Volkswagen did. But is not the logic that was used by the Germans themselves, that all Jews are venal and must be exterminated. Is that not the logic that Christianity used to blame all Jews for the murder of Christ, as a blood guilt. Is not that the logic of racism in America, that all blacks are bad by nature, or that all immigrants are rapists and murderers, or that all women are sentimental and weak. Cohen's article in that way raises other perhaps unintended profound issues having to do with the ways a culture forms connections between the few and the many, between a few Muslims and all Muslims, a logical formula that is the core of racist ideology, that one flawed individual represents a flaw in the whole group.
9
The story here is not about the culture of an entire country. The story here is about the culture of global corporatism. Regulations were in place, yet VW went to unprecedented (well, given the culture in business today, maybe not!) lengths to go around these regulations.
I don't blame the German people for this... GM, Ford and Chrysler all have, in automotive, put questionable, dangerous products on the road, although VW seemingly purposely cheated in a way the Detroit companies did not. Still, is this a referendum on Americans? Takata airbags are a disaster waiting to happen, and there are still those that say Toyota's electronics in unintended acceleration never came under total scrutiny... Is this a deep-rooted problem with Japan? Or is this a problem with a business environment where competition is so intense that regulatory shortcuts are greeted with "a wink and a nod" until someone is harmed?
I yhink this op-ed piece just misses the main point.
I don't blame the German people for this... GM, Ford and Chrysler all have, in automotive, put questionable, dangerous products on the road, although VW seemingly purposely cheated in a way the Detroit companies did not. Still, is this a referendum on Americans? Takata airbags are a disaster waiting to happen, and there are still those that say Toyota's electronics in unintended acceleration never came under total scrutiny... Is this a deep-rooted problem with Japan? Or is this a problem with a business environment where competition is so intense that regulatory shortcuts are greeted with "a wink and a nod" until someone is harmed?
I yhink this op-ed piece just misses the main point.
10
Yeah, I find the sweeping generalizations noxious, too. Mr. Cohen calls out the Germans for stereotyping the Greeks and spends the rest of his column doing it to the Germans.
I was offended in a similar way by a column Mr. Cohen wrote about France in which he stated that assimilation has not worked there. Obviously to anyone who visits assimilation, has worked extremely well for nearly all, but not for all, as is true for the US, or anywhere else. It's the same thing here. Volkswagon's actions are a criminal matter, and the criminality should be meticulously rooted out. Why divert people with a bunch of ethnic hand-wringing about the boogie-man in their collective soul?
I was offended in a similar way by a column Mr. Cohen wrote about France in which he stated that assimilation has not worked there. Obviously to anyone who visits assimilation, has worked extremely well for nearly all, but not for all, as is true for the US, or anywhere else. It's the same thing here. Volkswagon's actions are a criminal matter, and the criminality should be meticulously rooted out. Why divert people with a bunch of ethnic hand-wringing about the boogie-man in their collective soul?
12
I would like to see Mr Cohen's response to these comments. Can Mr Cohen please be held to account for this editorial? Please write an answer to the comments asking how an entire country should be held to account for the actions of a few Volkswagen engineers/executives. Am I responsible for GM? Abu Ghraib? Slavery? This is a very important question, and I am in no way being facetious. He certainly knows how to start a discussion!
11
It's customers have been lied to, but what about the rest of us, forced to breathe polluted air?
2
The country that gave the world "The Big Lie" and industrial gas chambers now deceives the world while poisoning the air.
"I'm shocked! Shocked, to find there is gambling going on here!"
"I'm shocked! Shocked, to find there is gambling going on here!"
1
It is not the first time Germany's VW played with the air we "untermenchen" breath, All throughout WW2, Germany's VW plants built "Gazwagens" to exterminate people on the way to the pits so they did not have to handle the bodies twice. Why are we surprised that they are poisoning the air we breath... it comes naturally to them. VW represents German strength and VW has had a lot of practice gassing people... ahttp://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/camps/chelmno/gas-wagons/.
4
To implicate Germany, German political leadership, and the entire VW company over the VW diesel emissions cheating is misplaced. Even if VW engineers and executives were responsible it does not suggest that everyone at VW was. Why not implicate Japanese or America political leaders over the Toyota and GM problems. After all, Toyota reached a $1.2 billion settlement to end probe of accelerator problems related to complaints of unintended acceleration. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports include 89 deaths and 57 injuries. General Motors will pay $35 million to settle a federal probe into its 10-year delay of recalls related to an ignition switch flaw. The switch problem led to the death of at least 13 people and recall of approximately 2.6 million vehicles. The VW diesel emissions cheating scandal was blatantly wrong but it did not result any deaths to VW owners.
7
VW board members to their diesel customers: " If you're that truly concerned about air quality and global warming just stop driving your diesel cars. It's that easy. Hell, we just make 'em. We aren't forcing you to pollute. It is your decision. Now lets please move on."
1
One thing intrigues me. If Volkswagen are going to spend over Euro4 Billion on recalls, what are they going to do? Are they going to remove the offending software and revert all of the cars to their actual polluting operation? In which case, there are going to be a lot of disgruntled environmentalists.
2
It's simply wrong -- or lazy wordsmithing - to say that this is "the biggest corporate scandal in the carmaker’s history." While clearly the Emissions Cheating is a major problem, it pales in comparison to the darkest era at Volkswagen: When they requisitioned innocents from German Concentration Camps to serve as slave laborers, building the machinery that helped keep the Nazis afloat --and the world at war -- for so many years.
4
This shalow column about Germany is not worthy of Roger Cohen, whose usually thoughtful contributions I normally appreciate. What about cheating corporations in his own country?
12
Extent of Intellectual Corruption
An inescapable fact is that lack of competence, integrity, compliance, and/or transparency at any level of an organization has never been shown to have been confined to that level. Moral pathogens propagate.
An inescapable fact is that lack of competence, integrity, compliance, and/or transparency at any level of an organization has never been shown to have been confined to that level. Moral pathogens propagate.
Mr. Cohen, please read the comments here and then do some soul-searching. Stereotyping of this most primitive kind that you display here has absolutely no place on the Opinion pages of the NYT.
Mr. Winterkorn resigned because the responsibility in the end falls on him as the head of the VW conglomerate. I believe him when he says that he knew absolutely nothing about this cheating. In my mind he did absolutely the right thing. It takes some deep-seated hatred on your part, Mr. Cohen, to try to spin this into an indictment against an entire nation.
Mr. Winterkorn resigned because the responsibility in the end falls on him as the head of the VW conglomerate. I believe him when he says that he knew absolutely nothing about this cheating. In my mind he did absolutely the right thing. It takes some deep-seated hatred on your part, Mr. Cohen, to try to spin this into an indictment against an entire nation.
9
I'm disappointed with this article and the way it approaches the issue at hand. The debacle of Volkswagen is shameful and needs to be discussed, but drawing parallels with a country as a whole, or even attempting to laterally shift the attributes of guilt over to the entire nation is incorrect. The author makes it seem like Germans have this inherent urge to lie, cheat and deceive but are restrained by their order, which is grossly incorrect. Would like to politely ask Mr. Cohen to reconsider, this is a systemic failure of a corporation, which is strained between sustainable practices and drive for profits as opposed to a strain between the German order and its urges.
4
Are you serious? A German company conducts fraud, and the entire nation should do some soul searching? Are you not aware that what VW did is illegal in Germany / Europe as well?
8
This piece seems over the top with Cohen's assertions about Germany harking back to Nazism. But Ford, GM and Toyota all have committed egregious crimes leading to immediate fatalities(unlike the VW problem, which will be a very minor contribution to the climate problem except in Europe) in recent years, despite pious ethical beliefs by the leaderships of their home countries. Despite the damning of Winterkorn, it seems more likely that this disaster, like the other auto company fatality episodes reflects in large part the potential for loss of control in large corporations and the impact of conflicts between ethics and the profit motive on middle management. Winterkorn may well be right and may be guilty of no wrongdoing. The problem is he was not given to more "right doing" in achieving the balance between ethical behavior and the profit motive that large companies need to keep from going off the deep end.
1
No, VW is not Germany. Nor are American corporations representative of the USA. The deluge of nearly identical worded apologists in these comments supporting Germany by deflecting blame to the one country that defeated it twice... seem to indicate AstroTurfing to me. Pure Germany could never sin again...right. Odd they have maneuvered themselves into power over Europe, pretended to care about immigrants just long enough for a headline before doing a 180. Stop deflecting blame by deflection. It doesn't pass the sniff test.
Just a reminder that Germany must now and for ever be held in check. Their finger wagging, reminds one of radical republicans in the US.
Just a reminder that Germany must now and for ever be held in check. Their finger wagging, reminds one of radical republicans in the US.
1
What goes around, comes around. So: let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
1
Quote: "But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing, between high culture and low conduct, between angels’ wings and nitrogen oxides."
This is exactly what the world feels is typical US-American. Maybe the Germans have learnt too much from their American protectors?
And, by the way: What about the nitrogen oxides send into the air by American trucks, which is a much bigger risk for health? If you discuss moral then bring in the whole picture, please.
This is exactly what the world feels is typical US-American. Maybe the Germans have learnt too much from their American protectors?
And, by the way: What about the nitrogen oxides send into the air by American trucks, which is a much bigger risk for health? If you discuss moral then bring in the whole picture, please.
6
Replacing VW's boss by Porche's is typical of an attitude that refuses to dig into its own dishonesty, as shown during the Greek debt crisis, when Germany neglected to recognize its own never reimbursed gigantic debt in the 50s.
It is also - and that's not typical of Germans- the usual corporate gross way of pretending to correct its wrongdoings.
I honestly doubt VW will end up paying the huge fines and refunds it ought to: wait for some quiet trick to erase it.
It is also - and that's not typical of Germans- the usual corporate gross way of pretending to correct its wrongdoings.
I honestly doubt VW will end up paying the huge fines and refunds it ought to: wait for some quiet trick to erase it.
1
Cohen mentioned German "finger wagging" I wonder why the first though that came to my mind was how similar the USA is to Germany in our "finger wagging" and hypocrisy regarding other nations.
8
VW's wrongdoings were known about and sat upon for a year, only to be conveniently exposed before a prestigious auto show. If Volkswagen is the tip, Ford/GM/Chrysler sins are what's under the water. Will the US Justice Department (and Mr. Cohen) expose them to the same scrutiny?
4
I think the reason we shouldn't trust German leadership is the same reason we shouldn't trust any country, including ours. Qui bono, who benefits. Country leaders frame the arguments so that their is a moral reason for taking action. But the reality is that it is just a way to pay off corporate donors with make work programs in the national security biz. Enough, mind your own biz, keep your mouth shut and in most cases things will take care of themselves.
1
The London Debt Agreement of 1953 relieved Germany of fifty percent of various reparations and loans. But that debt was incurred while killing millions of human beings and setting the world on fire, twice. That was serious.
Greece however took German loans for frivolous matters, and therefore is not entitled to the relief the serious Germans enjoyed.
Greece however took German loans for frivolous matters, and therefore is not entitled to the relief the serious Germans enjoyed.
3
The Banksters of Wall Street that we the people bailed out after they systemically robbed millions of their homes and retirement funds have not been punished- yet Mr Cohen and some reporters repeatedly finger wag at the German nation over the misconduct of Volkswagen.
Neither misconduct is excusable and the United States did not punish one Bankster- our Federal Reserve and Treasury made then whole. Eric Holder- our former Attorney General- has returned to a law firm that makes it's living servicing banksters after failing to prosecute quite possibly the largest theft in the history of humanity.
What Volkswagen is doubtlessly guilty of at whatever level was cognisant of the emissions, while despicable, is far less harmful than the massive theft of the accumulated wealth of countless American families. The two greatest investments most people have are their homes and their retirement funds- the Banksters stole both. The emissions of the VW Diesel cars with 4-cylinder engines emit pollution no greater than many trucks and buses currently rolling down the highways and streets this very day or older models grandfathered by older emissions rules. A little perspective is in order.
Neither misconduct is excusable and the United States did not punish one Bankster- our Federal Reserve and Treasury made then whole. Eric Holder- our former Attorney General- has returned to a law firm that makes it's living servicing banksters after failing to prosecute quite possibly the largest theft in the history of humanity.
What Volkswagen is doubtlessly guilty of at whatever level was cognisant of the emissions, while despicable, is far less harmful than the massive theft of the accumulated wealth of countless American families. The two greatest investments most people have are their homes and their retirement funds- the Banksters stole both. The emissions of the VW Diesel cars with 4-cylinder engines emit pollution no greater than many trucks and buses currently rolling down the highways and streets this very day or older models grandfathered by older emissions rules. A little perspective is in order.
5
This bunch I guess have always been seen as above board. Much like the Blatter & Valcke story too. No one you can trust of late.
If these type comments were directed at an Asian company and nation they would be called racist. This article besmirches a lot of people and organizations with a pretty broad brush.
11
Perhaps I missed it, but did Mr. Cohen ever pen a column regarding the collapse of Lehman Bros., the housing bust, U.S. federal bank bailouts and financial collapse and how they align with the American culture and identity?
12
To be fair to Mr. Cohen, he usually is not disposed antagonistically towards Germany. He has spent a lot of time here and has on occasion lauded aspects of German politics very openly. What with the recent opening of Germany towards huge numbers of refugees, it is easy to understand how one can be very disappointed with the current VW scandal, which indeed cuts at the heart of some of Germany's dearest held values, a.o. technical efficiency combined with a clean ecological profile.
Too bad VW was unable to reach this goal using their Diesel technology. Maybe it is impossible anyway, for any manufacturer.
Still, I wouldn't equate the corporate VW scandal with moral failings of Germany as a whole. German people may be guilty of being naive about what is being done and what is possible, but that does not set them apart from anybody else. The shock about VW crime is as big in Germany itself as anywhere else. That squeaky-clean image VW had acquired is gone for good.
Such scandals can serve as useful inflection points. Maybe this is a good time to realize that Diesel technology has reached the endpoint of the development in terms of cleanness and efficiency. This might be the call to invest much more heavily in alternative technology - fully electric cars with high range, e.g., hydrogen powered. The development of such cars along with technology and means for producing and distributing hydrogen, might spur another boost in investment and jobs.
Too bad VW was unable to reach this goal using their Diesel technology. Maybe it is impossible anyway, for any manufacturer.
Still, I wouldn't equate the corporate VW scandal with moral failings of Germany as a whole. German people may be guilty of being naive about what is being done and what is possible, but that does not set them apart from anybody else. The shock about VW crime is as big in Germany itself as anywhere else. That squeaky-clean image VW had acquired is gone for good.
Such scandals can serve as useful inflection points. Maybe this is a good time to realize that Diesel technology has reached the endpoint of the development in terms of cleanness and efficiency. This might be the call to invest much more heavily in alternative technology - fully electric cars with high range, e.g., hydrogen powered. The development of such cars along with technology and means for producing and distributing hydrogen, might spur another boost in investment and jobs.
28
One of the articles in NYT underrated the standards of emission tests in European countries. If so, we can't blame the Volkswagen,
there is an abrupt failure due to the absence of the "Common testing procedure between European Countries and the USA".
In my experience, for the past four decades, I could see the immense collaboration among European countries in Science and Engineering field, especially on the age old science of balancing CO2 and NOx in combustion . What happened to ANSI / BS/DIN
standards equivalence.
Instead of blaming Volkswagen solely, the candid cooperation among the USA and EU on the root cause and the origin of the "smart but improvised software " installed in the vehicle will prevent the recurrence to all automobile manufacturers around the world.
The transparent science and technology of Europe & the USA have grown leaps and bounds through errors and failures but not by blaming culture.
there is an abrupt failure due to the absence of the "Common testing procedure between European Countries and the USA".
In my experience, for the past four decades, I could see the immense collaboration among European countries in Science and Engineering field, especially on the age old science of balancing CO2 and NOx in combustion . What happened to ANSI / BS/DIN
standards equivalence.
Instead of blaming Volkswagen solely, the candid cooperation among the USA and EU on the root cause and the origin of the "smart but improvised software " installed in the vehicle will prevent the recurrence to all automobile manufacturers around the world.
The transparent science and technology of Europe & the USA have grown leaps and bounds through errors and failures but not by blaming culture.
Clearly VW acted dishonestly and Germany did not manage the Greek crisis well, but this does not qualify Germany as unreliable, nor should lead to philosophical conclusions that Germany is unfit to play a leadership role because of its past mistakes.
There is not a country that after committing the notorious crimes of the '30s and '40s has accepted responsibility and looked at its own conscience more than Germany. There has been a literature dating back to the 1950's and still ongoing, where the Germans have examined themselves and made gestures (including the German constitution and teaching nazi history in school) to avoid doing again the same mistakes. Some of the best books/articles looking with critical eye at past mistakes came out of Germany, and some are still published on a regular basis in the online English version of the "Spiegel". Not much of the same intellectual honesty came out from other nations that collaborated with the nazis in WVII such as Italy (where in the year 2015 an unapologetic Mussolini still sits in the parliament), or France (where they have conveniently avoided to ever consider Vichy a matter of national shame).
There is not a country that after committing the notorious crimes of the '30s and '40s has accepted responsibility and looked at its own conscience more than Germany. There has been a literature dating back to the 1950's and still ongoing, where the Germans have examined themselves and made gestures (including the German constitution and teaching nazi history in school) to avoid doing again the same mistakes. Some of the best books/articles looking with critical eye at past mistakes came out of Germany, and some are still published on a regular basis in the online English version of the "Spiegel". Not much of the same intellectual honesty came out from other nations that collaborated with the nazis in WVII such as Italy (where in the year 2015 an unapologetic Mussolini still sits in the parliament), or France (where they have conveniently avoided to ever consider Vichy a matter of national shame).
4
I very much like Mr. Cohen's writing but this column seems beyond the pale. This is a serious matter for VW and has devastated its reputation but, even there, it isn't as though they have poisoned the earth. We are apt to find that other automakers have duped the regulators also. Which leads to the issue of inept regulations.
3
I wrote a previous comment several weeks ago on Germany's psyche, including its self righteous tendency to dictate to other less gifted mortals and it's scary penchant for always being right.
I finished by cautioning the world to never turn it's back on the German nation.
Apparently the world, scarily, did turn it's back and, hopefully, has learned it's lesson!
I finished by cautioning the world to never turn it's back on the German nation.
Apparently the world, scarily, did turn it's back and, hopefully, has learned it's lesson!
3
Dear Roger -
This time, you overdid it. That's what happens when deep resentments, for which I have great sympathy, leave the carefully controlled unconscious. Sorry. Nobody can be good at all times.
This time, you overdid it. That's what happens when deep resentments, for which I have great sympathy, leave the carefully controlled unconscious. Sorry. Nobody can be good at all times.
4
So if Germany is VW -- 600,000 of hard working, actual product making employees who made a bit of a judgement error, what is the US....Enron? Tyco? Subordinated mortgage debt?
We'll know the US is not only about that, and for Germany's its the same.
An error was made, nothing more, nothing less --- admit, retribute, move forward. In my mind, that's character.
We'll know the US is not only about that, and for Germany's its the same.
An error was made, nothing more, nothing less --- admit, retribute, move forward. In my mind, that's character.
5
This is the kind of simplistic over-generalizing that purports to explain with clarity, but in reality only reveals the author's incomplete thinking and laziness. The weak logic runs along these lines: it's a bad scandal; the company is headquartered in Germany; therefore, German character must be flawed. It reveals a stupidity I never would have expected from such a seasoned observer of European life. I will resist the urge to over-generalize and suggest the author's retirement, but I hope he will think things over more carefully next time and re-introduce nuance and subtlety into his analyses.
7
When individuals pro or con to any issue, argue making reference to highly charged, broad sweeping events from the past, the emotional roller coaster begins and data-driven response takes a back seat.
This is a 2nd op ed blaming Germany for the VW cheating. I haven't seen any Roger Cohen columns blaming America as a whole for the rampant corporate crime that brought down the economy, but with no prosecutions of the bankster crooks, at all. In fact, he never even discusses them.
Just depends how you define, then defend crime. How about deaths from known faulty ignition switches or known poisoned peanuts? Those kill people immediatly, while pollution takes a while. A long line of lethal ' irresponsibility' , to use a benign term.
Corruption? How about the US govt and elections directed and sponsored by big corporations? We see a fundraising race from the super rich into the billions by now.
How about our regulatory agencies downgraded and starved of funds and power? Any equivalent in Germany or other advanced democracies?
American boasting of its exceptionalism is much more obnoxious than Germany's pride in its institutions, which are real at least. But our columnists never describe their govt and social systems, which uninformed and naive US voters might use as a role model. Health care, education and job training, the criminal justice system, acceptance of unions, and sensible election costs are all ahead of the US. Sounds too left wing for America?
If US citizens are kept in ignorance of this, they are easier prey to the Gop rw. Roger seems to be getting on the bash Germany bandwagon.
Just depends how you define, then defend crime. How about deaths from known faulty ignition switches or known poisoned peanuts? Those kill people immediatly, while pollution takes a while. A long line of lethal ' irresponsibility' , to use a benign term.
Corruption? How about the US govt and elections directed and sponsored by big corporations? We see a fundraising race from the super rich into the billions by now.
How about our regulatory agencies downgraded and starved of funds and power? Any equivalent in Germany or other advanced democracies?
American boasting of its exceptionalism is much more obnoxious than Germany's pride in its institutions, which are real at least. But our columnists never describe their govt and social systems, which uninformed and naive US voters might use as a role model. Health care, education and job training, the criminal justice system, acceptance of unions, and sensible election costs are all ahead of the US. Sounds too left wing for America?
If US citizens are kept in ignorance of this, they are easier prey to the Gop rw. Roger seems to be getting on the bash Germany bandwagon.
3
The author seems not to care to distinguish between the acts of the German government and German companies. A (gigantic) screw-up by one single German company does not necessarily imply the entire German nation is complicit and that German moral decay is inevitable.
"But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing". Why is that intrinsically German? Where is the link between the German government demands for Greece and a cover up by a German company? The author seems to believe in some overruling archetypical German mentality or culture that propel both the German government and companies to act in a similar fashion. This can at best be a mere hypothesis or speculation, an opinion.
Does good leadership mean to never hand out lessons? Great leadership means to lead by example. Example means good and tested practices. And these practices may very well become lessons that German or any other country can or even should offer other countries. “Lessons” are not per se bad, there are no synonym for dictate. Democracy, rule of law, human rights, equality and non-discrimination are the cornerstones of both German and American societies. Germany saw the catastrophic result of a society without all these concepts. And that was a pretty good lesson – not only for Germany but for the entire world. The virtues of democracy and human rights are no longer up for debate, there are lessons. Been there, done that.
"But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing". Why is that intrinsically German? Where is the link between the German government demands for Greece and a cover up by a German company? The author seems to believe in some overruling archetypical German mentality or culture that propel both the German government and companies to act in a similar fashion. This can at best be a mere hypothesis or speculation, an opinion.
Does good leadership mean to never hand out lessons? Great leadership means to lead by example. Example means good and tested practices. And these practices may very well become lessons that German or any other country can or even should offer other countries. “Lessons” are not per se bad, there are no synonym for dictate. Democracy, rule of law, human rights, equality and non-discrimination are the cornerstones of both German and American societies. Germany saw the catastrophic result of a society without all these concepts. And that was a pretty good lesson – not only for Germany but for the entire world. The virtues of democracy and human rights are no longer up for debate, there are lessons. Been there, done that.
2
Given the overwhelming tone of bewilderment in these comments at the treacherously essentializing argument in this piece, it would be nice to hear a response from Cohen: what on earth was this column supposed to achieve?
4
USA is overly interested in downgrading VW and its criminal offense regarding its cover-up of its diesel engines only. In addition about 10 million of these diesel engines were sold outside USA and mostly in Europe. Nobody complained and NOBODY got killed so its just a question of NOT meeting US EPA standards.
Now let's take GM's faulty ignition key causing the death of 124 people while GM built these cars for about 9 years although knowing about these ignition problems. Nobody got fired and only was fined for peanuts while GM's CEO keeps on smiling and stayed in her position. VW's CEO Winterkorn at least stepped down and is even facing prosecution in Germany.
This is the difference between USA the almighty getting away with murder - 124 lives - and a German company being criminalized for not obeying US EPA standards.
This is a pure and simple DISCRIMINATION and US officials sucking $ 6,5 billion out of VW similar to what DoJ did with European Banks for abot $ 20 billion and more recently the arrests of FIFA officials in Zurich, Switzerland. Apparently USA is now using MAFIA techniques to cut its Budget Deficits!
Now let's take GM's faulty ignition key causing the death of 124 people while GM built these cars for about 9 years although knowing about these ignition problems. Nobody got fired and only was fined for peanuts while GM's CEO keeps on smiling and stayed in her position. VW's CEO Winterkorn at least stepped down and is even facing prosecution in Germany.
This is the difference between USA the almighty getting away with murder - 124 lives - and a German company being criminalized for not obeying US EPA standards.
This is a pure and simple DISCRIMINATION and US officials sucking $ 6,5 billion out of VW similar to what DoJ did with European Banks for abot $ 20 billion and more recently the arrests of FIFA officials in Zurich, Switzerland. Apparently USA is now using MAFIA techniques to cut its Budget Deficits!
4
When VW said they wanted to produce more cars than Toyota, I found the hubris appalling. Before that, we had gone through the Transnuclear Scandal (1987/88) where "Big Nuclear" was revealed as deeply corrupt, cutting edges wherever it was possible. Boring German banking got much more interesting after Swiss banker Ackermann became the new Deutsche Bank chief. Their former solid image is gone and nobody seems to care. The idea is always the same: just don't get caught. Swiss banks held 50% more Greek government bonds in 2010 than German banks. During the latest bail-out talks the media completely focused on greedy German banks. Swiss banking? Well, standards are different, we expect better from the Germans. Me included.
3
Just about every time I decide to read Roger Cohen's column, I am reminded about why I had stopped reading them a while ago. They are based on false premises much of the time, in this case that Germany as a whole is responsible in some connection for the VW scandal.
What nonsense.
What nonsense.
4
Mr. Cohen never fails not to be counterintuitive.
2
I have been searching the Der Spiegel digital website for the past ten days and there has not been any mention of the VW cheat device. There has been much to do, however, of the fight between the heirs of F. Porsche for control of VW. Maybe cheating, shortcuts and errors are expected from the automobile industrial by consumers, that are always seeking sleeker design, greater mpg, faster 0-60 performance and electronics this and that. Germany doesn't seem to take emission rule as seriously as MPG from a liter of diesel. Different markets, different rules.
Mr. Cohen is wrong trying to tie VW or 2015 Germany, for that matter, to its Nazi past or German culture. Not forgotten but the war is over! I am not angry at what VW did, just disappointed that they, too, lied about "clean diesel" to sell cars.
Now should I trust Elon Musk? His Solar City will be installing solar panels on my roof and battery storage inside. Yes, I would love to own a cheap $35,000 Tesla someday to run up and down the mountain to Reno. Wait! Is this for real or another "clean diesel" con? However, I am willing to play the game and take the risk...for the excitement and fun of it
I have never owned a German car, but 50 years ago I had an NSU (later Audi) moped which did 35 kph on rural roads. Solid machine, it was, and delivered what it promised. German Engineering. Das Bike.
Mr. Cohen is wrong trying to tie VW or 2015 Germany, for that matter, to its Nazi past or German culture. Not forgotten but the war is over! I am not angry at what VW did, just disappointed that they, too, lied about "clean diesel" to sell cars.
Now should I trust Elon Musk? His Solar City will be installing solar panels on my roof and battery storage inside. Yes, I would love to own a cheap $35,000 Tesla someday to run up and down the mountain to Reno. Wait! Is this for real or another "clean diesel" con? However, I am willing to play the game and take the risk...for the excitement and fun of it
I have never owned a German car, but 50 years ago I had an NSU (later Audi) moped which did 35 kph on rural roads. Solid machine, it was, and delivered what it promised. German Engineering. Das Bike.
3
"But the appointment smacked of cozy arrangements and a quick fix at a time when the company needs a harsh and deliberate appraisal of how things went so disastrously wrong."
As with all corporate crimes, things didn't go wrong, it's just that they got caught.
"It’s time for some serious German soul-searching. Leadership demands that."
One thing is certain, the Germans shouldn't look to American corporations for corrective instruction.
As with all corporate crimes, things didn't go wrong, it's just that they got caught.
"It’s time for some serious German soul-searching. Leadership demands that."
One thing is certain, the Germans shouldn't look to American corporations for corrective instruction.
2
If Volkswagen is the quintessential German company, Coca Cola is quintessential American. Apparently Americans feel no guilt in placing in the stream of commerce the most unhealthy soft drink in the world. "It is time for serious American soul-searching. Leadership demands that."
4
and really - in the last few weeks I thought that people were overdoing it - this praising of 'Germany' as the only country with compassion and empathy - especially as it was mainly a 'Mutti' from Ex East German who showed what compassion and empathy for refugees really means.
And so there has to be some kind of backlash. And I guess - to remind 'teh Germans' how unsympathetic they were about Rich Greeks moving to London always works? - But the other day I heard a German say they -(the Germans) would take rich Greek Refugees from London too - and would that make them again 'reliable'?
- Or was that Train of Thought a bit too much of the Rails -(as 'Volkswagen' would say?)
And so there has to be some kind of backlash. And I guess - to remind 'teh Germans' how unsympathetic they were about Rich Greeks moving to London always works? - But the other day I heard a German say they -(the Germans) would take rich Greek Refugees from London too - and would that make them again 'reliable'?
- Or was that Train of Thought a bit too much of the Rails -(as 'Volkswagen' would say?)
Holy cow people. No matter what the article's topic a lot of commentators manage to find a way of relating it to America's problems and of course out comes the throwing stones bit. Yes America is one messed up place but that doesn't mean she gets to take the credit for all the West's transgressions. Germany looks extremely hypocritical lately and Roger is right to call them out.
2
Other readers correctly note that there is nothing specifically German about corporate greed or fraud. There is also nothing specifically German about self-righteousness.
But it is also true that in the last few years, there has been quite a lot of self-righteousness emanating from Germany, notably about its alleged profound attachment to the rule of law and rigid adherence to rules. Those claims were never very convincing, as the VW scandal only underlines. People in Germany should therefore not be surprised by the international response.
But it is also true that in the last few years, there has been quite a lot of self-righteousness emanating from Germany, notably about its alleged profound attachment to the rule of law and rigid adherence to rules. Those claims were never very convincing, as the VW scandal only underlines. People in Germany should therefore not be surprised by the international response.
1
What is particularly onerous is the way VW characterized the government agencies and the researchers who first raised the red flags several years ago as bumblers and ignoramuses who did not know how to test the cars or understand how they worked or how to conduct the tests or how to drive the cars and THAT was the reason for the very bad air quality results.
The next time a conservative goes on about how bad government is, ask him how his kid's asthma is doing.
The next time a conservative goes on about how bad government is, ask him how his kid's asthma is doing.
2
Mr. Cohen's columns are kind of like Mel Brooks movies without any jokes. Thus:
"It’s time for some serious German soul-searching. Leadership demands that."
Perhaps it's also time for Mr. Cohen to do some serious soul-searching about Jewish leadership in the world?
"It’s time for some serious German soul-searching. Leadership demands that."
Perhaps it's also time for Mr. Cohen to do some serious soul-searching about Jewish leadership in the world?
5
Here's how it will play out.
Phase one: outrage, it's already past us. And was pretty fake. For most people inspections of any kind are a pain. They environment? We really don't care either way, otherwise we would not by flying so much and driving such unnecessarily huge cars (I live in Geneva, we have barely any snow, our roads are tarred, every second car is a 4x4, mostly driven by small men or women, and apparently the driver's seat is the family phone seat...) ...
Part 2: the joke phase. The comedy shows begin making it all rather funny.
Phase 3: anyone mentioning it is told by the rest of the Internet mob to move on, because there are worse things than that.
Phase 4: Business, as usual. Volkswagen and other oil-driven industrial multinationals put flowers in their logos, suns, show clips of children having fun with some sentimental music in the background, skateboarders and a bit of hiphop... They want us to know that they REALLY care....
... the way an abusive parent actually cares.
Phase one: outrage, it's already past us. And was pretty fake. For most people inspections of any kind are a pain. They environment? We really don't care either way, otherwise we would not by flying so much and driving such unnecessarily huge cars (I live in Geneva, we have barely any snow, our roads are tarred, every second car is a 4x4, mostly driven by small men or women, and apparently the driver's seat is the family phone seat...) ...
Part 2: the joke phase. The comedy shows begin making it all rather funny.
Phase 3: anyone mentioning it is told by the rest of the Internet mob to move on, because there are worse things than that.
Phase 4: Business, as usual. Volkswagen and other oil-driven industrial multinationals put flowers in their logos, suns, show clips of children having fun with some sentimental music in the background, skateboarders and a bit of hiphop... They want us to know that they REALLY care....
... the way an abusive parent actually cares.
2
Some have said that VW is subject to these problems because of its closely-held ownership but I find this unconvincing. As the prime counterexample, BMW is even more closely held (the Quandt family holds almost half of the company) but there is no shadow of suspicion there.
It seems to me that VW corporate structures and governance are poorly organized and that these deficiencies are greater than Germanic origin or tight shareholding.
It seems to me that VW corporate structures and governance are poorly organized and that these deficiencies are greater than Germanic origin or tight shareholding.
2
What a wretched piece of xenophobic and racist reporting. If you want to castigate a car company for being immoral, proceed, but Germans bear no more collective responsibility for VW's actions than Americans do for those of GM or the behavior of our national intelligence agencies.
And if you can't tell the difference between national culture and VW's commercial advertising, if your level of cultural understanding is that shallow, you ought not to be writing about other cultures at all.
And if you can't tell the difference between national culture and VW's commercial advertising, if your level of cultural understanding is that shallow, you ought not to be writing about other cultures at all.
6
and there is this theory that the strongest influence on the 'managers' of this world has been somehow 'American'.
And that is a stupid and silly theory - as most theories wich are generalizing - and I once had to report about a Seminar where German (Car) managers learned 'the Art of the Deal' from an American professional and I still wouldn't say that Americans are 'unreliable' because of that - they just like Steak a little better than Germans, who in the aggregate prefer 'Wurst' -(sausage) - and I always thought - that this preference for 'Wurst' made 'teh Germans' so 'unreliable' -(as nobody ever knows what's really in a Wurst?
And even if this comment is silly -(but problem NOT as silly as this article by the 'unreliable Roger Cohen') - could 'moderation' please let it pass - as the comments need some comical relief too?
And that is a stupid and silly theory - as most theories wich are generalizing - and I once had to report about a Seminar where German (Car) managers learned 'the Art of the Deal' from an American professional and I still wouldn't say that Americans are 'unreliable' because of that - they just like Steak a little better than Germans, who in the aggregate prefer 'Wurst' -(sausage) - and I always thought - that this preference for 'Wurst' made 'teh Germans' so 'unreliable' -(as nobody ever knows what's really in a Wurst?
And even if this comment is silly -(but problem NOT as silly as this article by the 'unreliable Roger Cohen') - could 'moderation' please let it pass - as the comments need some comical relief too?
I've not read such a breathtakingly simple-minded and bigoted column in this space in a while. It would be o less so if Cohen also made other similarly outrageous statements such as how there was something particularly American about the GM ignition failure scandal. Say what you will about the VW defeat device, but at least it was not responsible for the death of at least 124 deaths, result in the recall of nearly 30 million cars worldwide, for a fault that had been known to GM for at least a decade prior to the recall being declared. So spare me the sanctimonious racial stereotyping please.
5
American companies tend to be run by dishonest psychopaths as well. Perhaps Mr. Cohen has something against Germans to single them out this way? Where was all the consternation when it came out that GM had been hiding flaws in its cars that killed more than 100 people? Why can't that be blamed on Americans generally? I believe US government actually controlled GM for a time recently; the federal government in Berlin has no such control of VW.
2
It’s impossible to give a correct grade to Germany or any other nation.
All we can do is to give them the correct range.
How to come up with the accurate range?
Give them the best compliment you can come up with and hit them with the worst criticism you can accurately assign to them.
That range determines their absolute best and absolute worst. How they are going to live their lives depends exclusively upon them. It’s their choice, whether they are going to live up to their best potentials or sink down to the worst level.
Of course, all of us are facing exactly the same choice.
It’s up to us to choose how we are going to live.
That’s why over the course of history different nations have peaked at different moments and then crumbled down only to rise up again and again…
All we can do is to give them the correct range.
How to come up with the accurate range?
Give them the best compliment you can come up with and hit them with the worst criticism you can accurately assign to them.
That range determines their absolute best and absolute worst. How they are going to live their lives depends exclusively upon them. It’s their choice, whether they are going to live up to their best potentials or sink down to the worst level.
Of course, all of us are facing exactly the same choice.
It’s up to us to choose how we are going to live.
That’s why over the course of history different nations have peaked at different moments and then crumbled down only to rise up again and again…
Germany produces some great products as well as some insufferably arrogant people. Those responsible at Volkswagen assumed they would not be caught because they assumed they are smarter than everyone else. The stupidity of their arrogance is they outsmarted themselves.
2
There's some tortured reasoning here, while Cohen's tries to bend reality to his will - and word count. The column charges ahead trying to prove the self-evident while Cohen infuses his reasoning with historical references. The chef messes up the recipe, and the column emerges as a mediocre stew rather than the entree it could have been.
I would love to see a study into the ethnicities of the majorities involved in banking scandals from the last 25 years.
It will never happen – that would be racist! And yet there's nothing wrong with attacking the nationality from which one third of all Americans claim ancestory?
This writer needs to be removed permanently.
It will never happen – that would be racist! And yet there's nothing wrong with attacking the nationality from which one third of all Americans claim ancestory?
This writer needs to be removed permanently.
3
This article is not about the German race. It is about the hippocracy of a government that says its country's success is owed purely to honest hardwork, looking down its nose at others for imperfection.
Ah, German souls are not easy to search. I should know.
Eventually one ends up with a Christianity of a Lutheran/calvinistic brand that, with all its hypocrisies, has permeated the Germanic Ich from wall to wall for centuries.
Best to sleep with 1 eye wide open.
Eventually one ends up with a Christianity of a Lutheran/calvinistic brand that, with all its hypocrisies, has permeated the Germanic Ich from wall to wall for centuries.
Best to sleep with 1 eye wide open.
1
Interesting - after all of the damage done by immensely corrupt US financial institutions (to cite only one example) with virtually no consequences for the offending characters. When its someone else the rules apparently apply.
3
Yes, and US companies always set a high bar for excellent corporate citizenship! How come no one from the GM ignition switch cover up has gone to jail?
3
Well, is VW going to fix it?
Knowing what we now know, how can I as a consumer protect myself from future purchase fraud at the hands of carmakers?? short of obtaining an engineering degree or working in a lab like the one who discovered the cheat, I now want reassurance the vehicle functions in the manner as advertised (and ethically so). I know, I know, so much to ask of something I am likely to spend thousands of dollars on...
1
Greed has no DNA.
It is merely a human affliction, in all nations and countries. It is not the exclusive domain of Germans, or Germany.
Very broad brushstrokes here...
It is merely a human affliction, in all nations and countries. It is not the exclusive domain of Germans, or Germany.
Very broad brushstrokes here...
6
Adoption of the euro was not a constraining measure designed to avoid German dominance of Europe.
By design the currency union was beneficial to the strongest export-oriented economy.
Even in time of double-digit unemployment rates in euro zone Germany keeps
inflation well below declared target level of 2%. You can call it German mark zone,
Mr. Cohen.
By design the currency union was beneficial to the strongest export-oriented economy.
Even in time of double-digit unemployment rates in euro zone Germany keeps
inflation well below declared target level of 2%. You can call it German mark zone,
Mr. Cohen.
2
Virtually all the comments here aim to defend Germany against the views expressed by the columnist.
If he hadn't published this column, it's hard to believe that the people who wrote the comments would have spoken up in favor of Volkswagen or Germany. They know that what was done was very, very bad--inexcusable. And that's what they'd say when the subject was raised, for instance in conversation.
What's piquant is that most "Times" columns pander to the left-of-center tastes of the readership--and even the minority that don't still draw overwhelmingly positive comments. Those who read a column regularly are primarily people who agree with it. "That's how you sell newspapers."
Check that out. Look at the other columns, their political leanings and the laudatory comments on them.
Now, are the readers to whom this newspaper is addressed (those who tend to like its editorials) primarily "anti-German" as opposed to "pro-German" overall? Surely they are. Who's "pro-German?" Almost no one. (But of course they're not anti-German as forcefully as they're anti-Republican, or anti business.)
Hence we have the odd experience of Cohen addressing anti-German (at best, neutral) people, largely his habitual readers, expressing anti-German sentiments--and getting blown away.
This "man bites dog" scenario is what requires explanation.
Here's mine. In bashing Germany, he's triggered the much stronger "bash- America, bash American business" instincts of these readers
If he hadn't published this column, it's hard to believe that the people who wrote the comments would have spoken up in favor of Volkswagen or Germany. They know that what was done was very, very bad--inexcusable. And that's what they'd say when the subject was raised, for instance in conversation.
What's piquant is that most "Times" columns pander to the left-of-center tastes of the readership--and even the minority that don't still draw overwhelmingly positive comments. Those who read a column regularly are primarily people who agree with it. "That's how you sell newspapers."
Check that out. Look at the other columns, their political leanings and the laudatory comments on them.
Now, are the readers to whom this newspaper is addressed (those who tend to like its editorials) primarily "anti-German" as opposed to "pro-German" overall? Surely they are. Who's "pro-German?" Almost no one. (But of course they're not anti-German as forcefully as they're anti-Republican, or anti business.)
Hence we have the odd experience of Cohen addressing anti-German (at best, neutral) people, largely his habitual readers, expressing anti-German sentiments--and getting blown away.
This "man bites dog" scenario is what requires explanation.
Here's mine. In bashing Germany, he's triggered the much stronger "bash- America, bash American business" instincts of these readers
1
This comment makes the most sense of all. Most of the comments defending Germany (or German automakers, or VW) are really in a proxy war with America - they defend Germany by attacking a "universal greed" and on the grounds that America is no better. Or, some take the argument that, of course someone named "Cohen' would attack German values...as if he has no right to his opinion on the opinion page. It's a transparent ploy, but maybe they can't see themselves through it while many can. I actually feel sorry for them, Cohen may be, as some claim, a self-hating Jew, but most of the comments here seem to be from America-hating Americas.
Germany is unreliable? This story is about Volkswagen, not about Germany. BMW and Daimler diesel cars perform very well in emissions tests without the need for any cheating. As many commenters have pointed out, the pressures to cut corners and cheat to boost sales are universal, and we are in no position to wag fingers.
4
Why no whistleblowers? That would be dirtying the nest - something that is rarely done in Germany. That few might have actually known what was going on is also fairly easy to surmise. The one thing that hasn't yet come to light and is truly German would be that somewhere, the details of what went on, how it started, and how to do it are stored neatly in triplicate.
3
This op-ed is an embarrassment. The VW scandal merits thoughtful reporting and analysis, rather than a column that amounts to little more than an anti-German screed.
I'm disapointed in the NYT for publishing this.
I'm disapointed in the NYT for publishing this.
7
Cohen goes out of his way to blame the German culture. What a blatant stretch. The great war is over! Doesn't Cohen get it?
10
You might say = Angela Merkles invitation to Refugees/Migrants regardless of how it impacts other European nations looks like Hubris.
VW's calculated deception in regards to emissions and Winterkorn's response? Hubris.
Is Germany the only country to suffer from leaders with hubris? Not if you decide to look at the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
What Cohen has described is not exclusively a "German thing".
VW's calculated deception in regards to emissions and Winterkorn's response? Hubris.
Is Germany the only country to suffer from leaders with hubris? Not if you decide to look at the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
What Cohen has described is not exclusively a "German thing".
5
Gawd this is a cooky column, even by Roger Cohen's solipsistic standards. So a large corporation is found to be cheating, getting around the rules in a major way. How is this an indictment of an entire culture? We have seen cheating by corporations in the US, Britain, France... you name it. Why is this different? Why the implicit link to Naziism, so obvious it oozes out of the text? When Chevrolet built the Corvair and Enron gamed the electricity supply chain, was American slavery to blame? Was British imperialism at fault for the trading scandals at British banks? The fact is that, as a culture, Germany has been a much better steward of the environment than most, even making some arguably stupid moves—decommissioning nuclear plants—to placate overblown fears. Columnists should base their analysis on more that a little world of private obsessions.
7
"Germany's leading company has toyed with the air people breath. That's shocking."
Not how I would have begun the piece. Like many others, my first thought was: they've done that before, but only certain people. Deniers then as now.
Not how I would have begun the piece. Like many others, my first thought was: they've done that before, but only certain people. Deniers then as now.
2
"It’s time for some serious German soul-searching. Leadership demands that."
There is plenty of that in the USA ! So lets start here.
There is plenty of that in the USA ! So lets start here.
5
What a desperate article created to promote hate of a country doing its fair share of assisting refugees. . Let's instead remember that al Opions are Vanity and not use this event to add another layer of negativity to global consciousness.
8
First LuftHansa now VWage.A step down for German arrogance-they should cease their attitude of being Uber Alles.
1
As others have noted, this is bizarre to equate Germany with VW. How about the US and GM? Or the peanut salmonella man? Or the drug companies? Or the tobacco industry?
13
Working with engineers for a long time, I find them overwhelmingly smart and honest; to the point of by being brutally honest with a customer, a sale might be lost. So what's up with German business culture that leads top technical talent to lie?
4
How much has Exxon paid for its sins? Or Chevron?
BP did pay a lot for Deepwater spill, but it's European.
What VW did was wrong, but it was not the first and it won't be the last.
BP did pay a lot for Deepwater spill, but it's European.
What VW did was wrong, but it was not the first and it won't be the last.
5
We've seen German "leadership" during the Greek crisis, during the Central European migrant crisis, and now at the world's largest carmaker (VW). Perhaps we just need to take a break from all this German "leadership". We have seen enough already.
5
Equating a country and a company is overly simplistic Mr. Cohen. Ultimately your essay is an aggregation of stereotypes, some old, some new, some positive, some negative. Which company would be the representative of the USA? Levi Strauss & Co or Timberland for our rugged individualism? McDonalds for our obesity? Nike for our fitness? Apple for our ingenuity. Colt for our violence? Chick fil A or Hobby Lobby for our bigotry? Google for our Imperialism?It all seems a bit too reductive to me.
13
This article made me sad. Why does Cohen assume Volkswagon represents Germany or Germans as a whole? "Germany is never quite what it seems"...I guess haters are going to hate.
12
Could we all agree, that every country has a chip on is shoulder concerning the misdeeds of citizens/ corporations of other countries? That said , wouldn't it be a good idea, if the Time's editors reminded Mr. Cohen, that countries and corporations are not the same?
8
Dear Mr. Cohen:
I am in agreement with many of opinions but I must disagree on this piece. I am not sure how you can say that VW is Germany, especially in this age when many governments have become nothing but proxies for powerful corporations. Look at how environments and people are sacrificed for the corporate earnings in the US, China and other industrial nations --- deadly salmonella poisoning, Tianjin explosion, lethal ignition switches and many more major corporate crimes such as libor rigging. For these crimes, your prejudicial argument incorrectly suggests that Americans are murders, Chinese are reckless incompetent homicidal chemical handlers, and English are financial manipulators, Fortunately for me, none of these crimes were ever blamed on the nation but only to the guilty party or I should be in prison for numerous US corporate crimes, along with the rest of the US populace. Thank goodness that you are totally wrong about this
Very truly,
Your Disappointed Reader
I am in agreement with many of opinions but I must disagree on this piece. I am not sure how you can say that VW is Germany, especially in this age when many governments have become nothing but proxies for powerful corporations. Look at how environments and people are sacrificed for the corporate earnings in the US, China and other industrial nations --- deadly salmonella poisoning, Tianjin explosion, lethal ignition switches and many more major corporate crimes such as libor rigging. For these crimes, your prejudicial argument incorrectly suggests that Americans are murders, Chinese are reckless incompetent homicidal chemical handlers, and English are financial manipulators, Fortunately for me, none of these crimes were ever blamed on the nation but only to the guilty party or I should be in prison for numerous US corporate crimes, along with the rest of the US populace. Thank goodness that you are totally wrong about this
Very truly,
Your Disappointed Reader
8
Although I frequently tend to agree with Mr. Cohen, I have to say that in this instance I believe VW's troubles stem from an international culture aptly known as corporate greed and not because it is a German company. For decades now, the auto industry has been riddled with corruption and scandals, some more serious than others. VW's overriding need to be # one in the world brought out the worst kind of extreme and destructive competitive behavior which was not particularly Germanic, but most certainly human. As a deterrent to future automotive scandals, I believe lengthy prison sentences for the guilty, starting with the executives at the top of the food chain, along with huge fines, might be a step in the wright direction.
5
"But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing, between high culture and low conduct, between angels’ wings and nitrogen oxides; and there is something peculiarly German about the devastating impact this has."
To be fair, one could say the exact same thing about the US?
To be fair, one could say the exact same thing about the US?
7
This seems a fair assessment....especially in light of our American tradition of quickly getting to the root of the problem and getting the guilty to pay its dues - like we did with the Financial crises and the big banks..fines were paid, outsiders brought in to run the banks, the book was thrown at the guilty...Oh wait, that was just a dream I had!
11
Mr. Cohen, Volkswagen's emissions cheating will have ramifications for the the company and the entire auto industry when it comes to dealing with regulators, and rightly so. But to blame the German people for a scandal at a Corporation shows your anti-German sentiments for whatever reasons.
A rising death toll of 57 American lives related to the General Motors ignition-switch defect does not get a comment. And GM was aware of the problem for more than a decade. Thanks for the moral judgment but no thanks.
A rising death toll of 57 American lives related to the General Motors ignition-switch defect does not get a comment. And GM was aware of the problem for more than a decade. Thanks for the moral judgment but no thanks.
11
To slow the tendency of corporate leaders to put profits ahead of ethics we must start with the business schools. Business Ethics should be a gradation requirement.
2
Remember the other fact to come out in all this is that Volkswagen said that by implementing the pollution controls the efficiency deterioates as well as performance. So in principle having pollution controls actually does nothing if in the long run you have to use more fuel.
So the same author who constantly says that each act of Islamic terror should not be held against all Muslims thinks VW should be held against all Germans?
7
We have had our share of auto related scandals...
3
Some time ago, there was a study claiming that corporate leaders score far above average in psychological assessments for psychopathy. When trying to understand how a corporation can make such risky decisions, you inescapably get the feeling that there might be somehting true about this claim.
4
Mr. Cohen's continual whining about Angela Merkel's and Germany's alleged lack of leadership on an array of issues is getting tiresome. Impugning the character of a country and its people because of some bad corporate actors would result in finding most nations and peoples of the world guilty.
6
1, As far "unreliability" goes, the results are still out on what all the other car companies, world-wide, have been doing with emissions testing. As an example, our own, unreliable, home-grown car company, GM, has been cited for the death of 124 people because of defects it knew existed, but never fixed properly. What else has GM been up to? Ford? Fiat-Chrysler?
2. Technically Germany has no "constitution". It has a "Basic Law" (das Grundgesetz), and not a "constitution" (die Verfassung). The "Grundgesetz" was supposed to a temporary fix for the country after the war, but no constitution has ever replaced it.
2. Technically Germany has no "constitution". It has a "Basic Law" (das Grundgesetz), and not a "constitution" (die Verfassung). The "Grundgesetz" was supposed to a temporary fix for the country after the war, but no constitution has ever replaced it.
My father in law died in a Toyota, possibly the result of an engineering flaw. I do not blame Japan for his death. This op-ed is offensive.
15
GERMANY'S ECONOMIC MIRACLE has been slowing of late. With the announcement of VW's so-called "cheating software" to put dirty cars on the road under the guise of being clean, German engineering, credibility and rectitude have been called into question. The punitive austerity programs forced on Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy have been mistakenly taken for moral rectitude on the part of Germany. Now it is clear that the Germans have a lot to do to get their own house in order. I imagine that Germany will expect good will, patience and beneficence of the nations whose air VW has polluted. That's all well and good, so far as it goes. But I think that Germany needs to apologize to the countries it afflicted with crippling austerity and to help them find a way out. Such a shift in attitude needs to be a requirement for Germany's receiving support, respect and cooperation in rectifying the colossal deceit of VW leadership. I believe that Angela Merkel is capable of being objective and fair; now she neeeds to prove that she is those things, both by calling her country to account and easing up on the countries that she has afflicted with her unrelenting demands for destructive austerity. Does it matter if the ill-gotten gains have gone in to the pockets of government employees and tax cheats in Southern Europe more or less than it matters that ill-gotten gains from VW auto sales have benefited the leaders of VW who, in essence, deceived its workers. Will justice prevail?
1
Please do not judge the people of the United States by the actions of General Motors.
VW made a huge and criminal mistake. What matters is whether they sweep it under the run as the U.S. Justice Department did with GM's irresponsible action to hide a faulty, driver and passenger-killing ignition switch or set a positive example of corporate responsibility for the entire auto industry.
The VW story is just starting. Let's see what the company and the Germany government do. Hopefully they will set an example for U.S. automakers and our Justice Department.
VW made a huge and criminal mistake. What matters is whether they sweep it under the run as the U.S. Justice Department did with GM's irresponsible action to hide a faulty, driver and passenger-killing ignition switch or set a positive example of corporate responsibility for the entire auto industry.
The VW story is just starting. Let's see what the company and the Germany government do. Hopefully they will set an example for U.S. automakers and our Justice Department.
2
I lived in Germany for a semester way back when when, a group of us students were at a corner where the "Don't Walk" sign was lit. The Germans stood, despite nary a car in sight. We asked, "why isn't anyone walking" and were told "What it we walked while the sign said "don't walk" and a child saw us? We wouldn't want to set a bad example." Don't paint the entire country with the VW brush.
11
If I'm blamed for ignoring the "Don't Walk" sign when no car is in sight, I reply that we should set an example for children not to blindly obey orders but only when it makes sense.
Really simplistic generalizations about Germany and Germans because of the terrible and criminal actions of....of whom exactly? Germans? VW engineers...all of them? Such a ridiculous rush to judgment. Quite unlike Mr. Cohen. What was his emotional state when he wrote this? Was it written by a Roger Cohen clone?
2
"There is a strain between its order and its urges" sums up Germany which must be constrained from becoming all-powerful again.
There is something really abhorrent about beating up on Germany at the very moment when it is acting in a totally selfless manner, opening its door wide to desperate people from a very troubled region. For God's sake, VW is not the German state! It's just one big German company! Unless, of course, if everybody is determined to hold the German people as a whole forever prisoner to a horrific period in their history. It's as if we are saying Germans lost their humanity, with all its capacity for good and bad, to that horrific period. To be honest, it's a very inhumane thing to do to the Germans. It's tasteless, it's totally unfair.
12
Your thesis is actually undone by your admission (paragraph 13) that cheating and corporate malfeasance is not unique to German companies or Germany itself. So why raise it other than to score points against a people and country you (understandably) don't like. It is not Germany's fault that the Greeks are everything you state about the latter's lackadaisical attitude toward tax collection, probity, and civic order. Germany simply told them to shape up, probably knowing the request was a fool's errand.
As to German power and financial success, that says more about the rest of the bigger countries in Europe and their work ethics and ambition (or lack) than it does about the Germans. They took a country quite literally in piles of rubble and built a shining success. I strongly suspect VW is not the only manufacturer with shady software. Until all the other companies are carefully checked, I must echo Pope Francis. "Who am I (or you Mr. Cohen) to judge?"
As to German power and financial success, that says more about the rest of the bigger countries in Europe and their work ethics and ambition (or lack) than it does about the Germans. They took a country quite literally in piles of rubble and built a shining success. I strongly suspect VW is not the only manufacturer with shady software. Until all the other companies are carefully checked, I must echo Pope Francis. "Who am I (or you Mr. Cohen) to judge?"
3
A very good article, except for the closing line "It’s time for some serious German soul-searching. Leadership demands that". It will not come.
3
To find professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing, we don't have to point at foreign companies. Just look at the GOP.
1
Malfeasance deserves appropriate punishment. That Germans should have toyed with the air people breathe is scandalous. Heck, don't they have an EPA and a Congress that fully supports such an administration?
An American CEO goes to prison for selling tainted peanut butter. Car manufacturers who sold defective cars get a fine. Dick Cheney and George Bush launch a devastating war, and get pensions.
An American CEO goes to prison for selling tainted peanut butter. Car manufacturers who sold defective cars get a fine. Dick Cheney and George Bush launch a devastating war, and get pensions.
4
Wow, lots of obvious astroturfing here, either Germany, VW or both must be paying people to comment. Very, very suspicious comments to this article, NYT should close the comment section for this one.
6
'Very, very suspicious comments to this article,'
Absolutely - and I'm one of these commenters who gets payed by 'Germany' to comment at the NYT. And I just cashed in my 6 weeks of vacations and blame the whole 'deal' on Italy. This Diesel thing never would have come out of the Italian Mafia still would be working properly and would have taken care of these dudes who try to kill the German Car industry.
-=(and don't take me wrong - as a typical German TreeHugger I'm all for killing the German Car industry - IF the American one can go with them too)
Absolutely - and I'm one of these commenters who gets payed by 'Germany' to comment at the NYT. And I just cashed in my 6 weeks of vacations and blame the whole 'deal' on Italy. This Diesel thing never would have come out of the Italian Mafia still would be working properly and would have taken care of these dudes who try to kill the German Car industry.
-=(and don't take me wrong - as a typical German TreeHugger I'm all for killing the German Car industry - IF the American one can go with them too)
When I read about this, it reminds me of Chris Christie and Bridgegate. Both Christie and Winterkorn claim no personal fault as they had no prior knowledge of what their hooligan underlings were up to. In Winterkorn's case, he had been the "victim of internal deception" for at least eight years.
Which means one of two things: Either he knew, and is now lying, which is very, very bad................or he was actually totally in the dark the entire time, which is much, much worse!!
I own one of these cars. I took pride in the fact that it was a very low polluter that got 45 miles per gallon in steady driving. Well, it still gets 45 miles per gallon, but now when I drive it, all I think about is the trail of Nitrogen oxides I am leaving behind.
Which means one of two things: Either he knew, and is now lying, which is very, very bad................or he was actually totally in the dark the entire time, which is much, much worse!!
I own one of these cars. I took pride in the fact that it was a very low polluter that got 45 miles per gallon in steady driving. Well, it still gets 45 miles per gallon, but now when I drive it, all I think about is the trail of Nitrogen oxides I am leaving behind.
14
...and don't forget the great torque you also get ;). So when your car gets its new sensor in the next pending recall, I'm really curious as to how actual performance will truly be affected. Does this mean diesels will no longer be sold as a premium product here in the US market? I'm hoping so because diesel is the usual choice in Europe, & they don't pay a premium for diesel in their markets. I still want a diesel with the new certified sensors at a lower price point!
After the end of the cold war the prospect of a reunited Germany filled me with dismay. Then I got used to the idea as Germany settled in and looked like a successful model for other nations. But now I'm not so sure. After all, Germany's existence as one country has been relatively brief.
3
@ mancuroc
Actually only about 12 current members of the UN existed as completely independent countries before 1914. Germany has existed since 1871 even if about a third the country was effectively occupied by Russia for 45 years.
Actually only about 12 current members of the UN existed as completely independent countries before 1914. Germany has existed since 1871 even if about a third the country was effectively occupied by Russia for 45 years.
4
Recognize some of these names do you Mr Cohen?
"The drama unfolded in 1998 when the Justice Department on behalf of the EPA straight up sued every major diesel engine manufacturer in the United States. The suit alleged these companies’ heavy trucks were “equipped with devices that defeat the engines’ emissions control system, resulting in the emission of illegal amounts of oxides of nitrogen.”
As the EPA recounts, the suit named Caterpillar, Inc., Cummins Engine Company, Detroit Diesel Corporation, Mack Trucks, Inc., Navistar International Transportation Corporation, Renault Vehicules Industriels, s.a., and the Volvo Truck Corporation."
I see some squeaky clean American names in there. The settlement was $1 billion in '98 dollars. Before Cohen launched on his ludicrous sermonizing about the Germans perhaps he should tell us what the actions of the US corporations listed here tell us about USA's reputation for scrupulous honesty, reliability, environmental sensitivity and dedication to the common good. Oh we haven't got such a reputation? Oh that's alright then. LOL. Really this man is a bit of a fool.
"The drama unfolded in 1998 when the Justice Department on behalf of the EPA straight up sued every major diesel engine manufacturer in the United States. The suit alleged these companies’ heavy trucks were “equipped with devices that defeat the engines’ emissions control system, resulting in the emission of illegal amounts of oxides of nitrogen.”
As the EPA recounts, the suit named Caterpillar, Inc., Cummins Engine Company, Detroit Diesel Corporation, Mack Trucks, Inc., Navistar International Transportation Corporation, Renault Vehicules Industriels, s.a., and the Volvo Truck Corporation."
I see some squeaky clean American names in there. The settlement was $1 billion in '98 dollars. Before Cohen launched on his ludicrous sermonizing about the Germans perhaps he should tell us what the actions of the US corporations listed here tell us about USA's reputation for scrupulous honesty, reliability, environmental sensitivity and dedication to the common good. Oh we haven't got such a reputation? Oh that's alright then. LOL. Really this man is a bit of a fool.
38
@ John: I don't get your point. The fact that American corporations have cheated does not absolve German corporations when they cheat. And is it fair to blame Americans when American corporations flout the law, or when German corporations flout the law? Of course it is. Who do you think runs those corporations? You can bet your bottom dollar that other countries blame America when American corporations commit atrocities, and this is only fair. Who else is there to blame? Society has created the corporate oligarchy, which has all the characteristics of a psychopathic personality and allowed it to flourish, and society is to blame, whether it is American or German or other.
2
My (German Jewish) father wouldn't buy a VW on account of its entanglement with the Nazis early in its development, but was willing to allow that a future generation can not be held responsible for its ancestors' behavior. But when there is this cheating in a subsequent generation by the same company, it does seem a little like two points through which a line can be drawn, namely that the company has a milieu in which adequate moral judgments are not made.
10
@ Diana Moses
Refused Bayer drugs did he? They were part of I. G. Farben with all that implies. Apparently you're also unaware US corporations have not been above emissions fraud in the past. And maybe you're also unaware that the US energy industry is right now fighting clean air policies by the EPA. VW's behavior is reprehensible but its just the latest episode in a long playing saga. They're certainly not unique.
Refused Bayer drugs did he? They were part of I. G. Farben with all that implies. Apparently you're also unaware US corporations have not been above emissions fraud in the past. And maybe you're also unaware that the US energy industry is right now fighting clean air policies by the EPA. VW's behavior is reprehensible but its just the latest episode in a long playing saga. They're certainly not unique.
18
John,
Did I say everybody else in the world makes adequate moral judgments? No, I pointed out that this latest episode at VW is not the company's only lapse. Regardless of other data points for other companies, the fact of two points for the same company seems to me significant.
Did I say everybody else in the world makes adequate moral judgments? No, I pointed out that this latest episode at VW is not the company's only lapse. Regardless of other data points for other companies, the fact of two points for the same company seems to me significant.
4
@ Diana Moses
Well you seem to have no problem making sweeping moral judgments about VW. Viz.
"namely that the company has a milieu in which adequate moral judgments are not made."
In fact VW has behaved absolutely NO DIFFERENTLY from a host of other corporations including many in the US in exactly the same area of diesel emissions. So what does this say about our milieu?
Well you seem to have no problem making sweeping moral judgments about VW. Viz.
"namely that the company has a milieu in which adequate moral judgments are not made."
In fact VW has behaved absolutely NO DIFFERENTLY from a host of other corporations including many in the US in exactly the same area of diesel emissions. So what does this say about our milieu?
8
The manipulation surrounding VW just happens to be the tip of the iceberg. The bottom line is: the entire nation is in grip of materialism. Cutomer's rights are being neglected on a regular basis in favor of corrupt companies. Those with (economic) power enjoy (tacit) favoritism from puplic agencies. Professional standards are falling short of being enforced by authorities. Etc, etc.
4
The author should have also mentioned that Germany has long been a major exporter of white collar crime - Siemens gets caught in major bribery scandals with alarming regularity, and Deutsche Bank is a serial violator of banking laws. VW is just the latest German company to be caught.
11
But then, of course, we have Wall Street. And it's big banks.
And, in fact, they, unlike any auto company, DO Define American
culture. or at least a New York part of it.
And, in fact, they, unlike any auto company, DO Define American
culture. or at least a New York part of it.
If the CEO of a Germany automobile manufacturer raises so many questions, what can we conclude about Japan from the Toyota scandal, or the US from the GM scandal? The answer- not much.
There are good CEOs and bad CEOs in all countries, and we need proper regulation and punishment to keep everyone in line.
There are good CEOs and bad CEOs in all countries, and we need proper regulation and punishment to keep everyone in line.
18
First it is capitalism, that means get people get paid less than they are worth, and folks get less than they pay for. Chicanery and swindling are to be expected. The folks at VW are capitalists, but nothing exceptional. Why is no one mentioning that the "good-guys" at Cummins Engine Company were busted for exactly the same cheat in the late 1990s not long after they introduced their first electronically controlled injection system? They were fined around $20 million or so on a few hundred thousand 10 and 14 liter semi engines (versus the 2L VW engines). On a pollution per liter basis, Cummins did more damage especially given the 200k+ miles driven per year by many over the road trucks.
Only someone who is delusional or dishonest enough to whitewash an oppressive inhumane occupying fascist government in the eastern Mediterranean as a modern humane society would make all the specious inductive arguments made in this utterly worthless rubbish. This article is not even fit for compost. But it is typical Cohen-quality.
Only someone who is delusional or dishonest enough to whitewash an oppressive inhumane occupying fascist government in the eastern Mediterranean as a modern humane society would make all the specious inductive arguments made in this utterly worthless rubbish. This article is not even fit for compost. But it is typical Cohen-quality.
8
there is something quite disgraceful about this article really,is ethnicist a term? "But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing,"...really?
water boarding & torture? the U.S
Sabra & Chatila? Israel
Jallianwalla Bagh?the British
sadly the list is endless.......one should perhaps mistrust anyone who professes too much moral rectitude
water boarding & torture? the U.S
Sabra & Chatila? Israel
Jallianwalla Bagh?the British
sadly the list is endless.......one should perhaps mistrust anyone who professes too much moral rectitude
23
I was just thinking about this yesterday and I came to the conclusion rather quickly that most rational people who have lived in a western capitalist society will have as well;
The fact is no matter how good regulations are and how diligently they are enforced a bad actor determined to undermine them, can for a period of time.
What we have here is just one more multinational corporation operating with impunity because they think they can, and well they could for a very long time.
The racism and bigotry connecting 21st century executives at VW to the behavior of Germany in the 1930-45 era is so strained I find it hard to believe an editor at NYT let it pass. I would expect such baloney from Fox or the WSJ.
The fact is no matter how good regulations are and how diligently they are enforced a bad actor determined to undermine them, can for a period of time.
What we have here is just one more multinational corporation operating with impunity because they think they can, and well they could for a very long time.
The racism and bigotry connecting 21st century executives at VW to the behavior of Germany in the 1930-45 era is so strained I find it hard to believe an editor at NYT let it pass. I would expect such baloney from Fox or the WSJ.
35
mr Cohen, I suspect it is difficult for you to believe but do some research for a change and you might find the auto industry, especially ours has been involved in many scandals over the last several decades. many lives lost with those directly responsible receiving no punishment. more often multi-million departure.
GM?? how about broadening your perspective? VW deserves severe punishment if accusations are correct. Why did you broaden your article to condemn Germany? think about it.
GM?? how about broadening your perspective? VW deserves severe punishment if accusations are correct. Why did you broaden your article to condemn Germany? think about it.
14
Totally. Why such a leap? Given the scandals in US companies it would be more justified to describe such deception as "peculiarly" American. Do we want to go there?
What newspaper or editor could predict, or guard against, something
obviously being insane being written.
But what excuse is there for it's being printed?
obviously being insane being written.
But what excuse is there for it's being printed?
22
In all fairness, I think you have to put aside the nationalities involved, and the post-war history, and efforts at economic leadership, and everything else, because this could very well be the end-result of a few scientists who were initially just looking to tweak emissions test results for the right reason and then realized that they could back-engineer the software. But you have to wonder 'what in the world were they thinking?' when they actually did.
8
I wonder how embarrassed Roger Cohen will be when Mercedes and BMW are cleared of any wrong doing? Or how emboldened he might be if they are caught for having created "cheatware" on their cars as well. The point is, don't be presumptuous to make such sweeping generalizations about the German government when one very large company is caught committing fraud. There's no credible reason to presume there is a connection.
Innocent until proven guilty, right?
Innocent until proven guilty, right?
14
Unreliable Germany? One of America's strongest and staunchest allies?'
Perhaps it is a fact that no writer named Cohen can resist the chance,
however slim, to take a blast at Germany.
Elsewhere the American press, same sort of writer, takes paragraphs
and pages to blast Russia new plans, however self centered and
aggrandizing, to join a multi nation fight against ISIS.
Some writers, all too many, cannot cont4enance any world action, or
any coalition put together by the US that doesn't include Israel.
A real problem, because there's never anything from Israel than calls for war and war and war or more aggression.
Do these writers fear diplomacy will work, or at least begin to begin to
work?
Perhaps it is a fact that no writer named Cohen can resist the chance,
however slim, to take a blast at Germany.
Elsewhere the American press, same sort of writer, takes paragraphs
and pages to blast Russia new plans, however self centered and
aggrandizing, to join a multi nation fight against ISIS.
Some writers, all too many, cannot cont4enance any world action, or
any coalition put together by the US that doesn't include Israel.
A real problem, because there's never anything from Israel than calls for war and war and war or more aggression.
Do these writers fear diplomacy will work, or at least begin to begin to
work?
8
It's time for a new world paradigm - away from corporates setting the agenda to the PEOPLE setting the agenda.
Earth belongs to every single living being - and that does not include artificial entities created for the profit of a few.
Earth belongs to every single living being - and that does not include artificial entities created for the profit of a few.
4
Many people here seem to be arguing that 1 german company's misdeeds doesn't represent the country as a whole. Ok that is fine, but where were these same apologists when Germany was calling the greeks lazy and tax cheats?
17
Germany never called the Greeks lazy or said that they were tax cheats that I know of. Where are you getting this data? Germany correctly said that Greek failure to reform its own laws, assure compliance, and address excess public spending created a crisis that others had to pay to help fix.
"But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing ..."
Really? You can't think of any American CEOs (and politicians and religious leaders and for that matter, political pundits) who have manifested the same gaping chasm?
Anyway, drawing a connection between VW's wrongs and German moralizing toward Greece is the bridge too far. It's a strained excuse for a column.
Really? You can't think of any American CEOs (and politicians and religious leaders and for that matter, political pundits) who have manifested the same gaping chasm?
Anyway, drawing a connection between VW's wrongs and German moralizing toward Greece is the bridge too far. It's a strained excuse for a column.
20
This is an interesting piece, persuasive and subtle, but the commentators rip it to shreds for unfairness. I have collected the piece at my blog, LindsayOnVietnam.wordpress.com as an example of persuasive journalism, that might be terrible over-reaching. The commentators argue that it is absurd to take one corporate miscreant, and draw conclusions about an entire nation. As an analyst, I sometimes feel like a ping pong ball, going from one strong argument to its critique. Though I was captivated by his critics, I suggest that Roger Cohen is on to something sad and profound, though he didn’t throw out enough caveats. It is hard to discuss complex grey matter in 800 words.
The only exciting thing about the horrible Volkswagon story, is that it makes a gigantic case for strong government regulation and criminal penalties to protect the public from corporate malfeasance. So, one might argue that Roger missed mentioning the hottest part of the story.
Cohen might be right however, that there might be something German about the size and scope of this epic-sized fraud. It is hard to believe in a free country, that there would be no whistleblowers over such a huge scam, that hurt the public's health so seriously.
The only exciting thing about the horrible Volkswagon story, is that it makes a gigantic case for strong government regulation and criminal penalties to protect the public from corporate malfeasance. So, one might argue that Roger missed mentioning the hottest part of the story.
Cohen might be right however, that there might be something German about the size and scope of this epic-sized fraud. It is hard to believe in a free country, that there would be no whistleblowers over such a huge scam, that hurt the public's health so seriously.
6
Shall all Americans be indicted for the Iraq war and torture? This was a corporation doing what corporations do. It was wrong, very wrong but at least no one was killed a la GM!
What's amazing to me is there were no leaks or whistleblowers.
Those Germans sure now how to line up and protect the chain of command from outside interference and block transparency.
Ach Tung!
Those Germans sure now how to line up and protect the chain of command from outside interference and block transparency.
Ach Tung!
8
It's even more amazing there are no leaks or whistleblowers at Goldman Sachs.
12
No, it's not amazing.
It's the claque sticking together as they've always done...thousands
of years, isn't it?
the suckers are the rest of us.
It's the claque sticking together as they've always done...thousands
of years, isn't it?
the suckers are the rest of us.
Is open season in the American media for some (rare) German schadenfreude. The country's top global car maker - Volkswagen - is caught up in the act of cheating American customers and air quality regulators. Fair enough, Roger could not resist such opportunity.
Volkswagen's CEO is expected to be punished exemplary. If he has violated German laws, prison sentence cannot be ruled out.
Now, to link a major business cheating scandal to Germany's leadership position in Europe --as Roger and others media opinion makers are doing -- is a bridge too far.
American transnational companies have committed acts equal or worse than Volkswagen. However, not a single voice in the global media did link such deplorable deeds to US leadership in the so called free world.
Bottomline: There is a simple lesson from the Volkswagen affair. Its CEO has behaved like any other business leader in today's highly competitive and global world. That is, cutting corners for profit making and market share.
Take five and chillout Roger :)
Volkswagen's CEO is expected to be punished exemplary. If he has violated German laws, prison sentence cannot be ruled out.
Now, to link a major business cheating scandal to Germany's leadership position in Europe --as Roger and others media opinion makers are doing -- is a bridge too far.
American transnational companies have committed acts equal or worse than Volkswagen. However, not a single voice in the global media did link such deplorable deeds to US leadership in the so called free world.
Bottomline: There is a simple lesson from the Volkswagen affair. Its CEO has behaved like any other business leader in today's highly competitive and global world. That is, cutting corners for profit making and market share.
Take five and chillout Roger :)
19
Amen to Lawrence's comment below. When back in 2007 the EPA sued American, French, and Swedish companies producing diesel engines over a similar offense, were their entire nations and governments suddenly suspect? Corporations and their leaders need to be held accountable. But it's completely unjust (not to say absurd) to paint an entire nation as "unreliable."
17
Who cares. I love my VW. Always will. I care more though that I can undo the "fix" and keep the extra power. Screw the epa
4
Germans didn't indulge in any soul searching from 1933 to 1945.
4
@Sharon5101 Rockaway Beach NY
Not true. There were many Germans who had a conscience, and paid with their lives for it. Beware of generalizations and do some research.
Not true. There were many Germans who had a conscience, and paid with their lives for it. Beware of generalizations and do some research.
1
So the WV story is only about Jews?
Please consider that the number of German citizens who were alive during the period that you reference is decreasing each year. The great majority of Germans living today have been born after the Second World War and have grown up in a very different culture than that of the Third Reich.
Consumers need longer memories. When corporations have been shown to have deliberately broken the law for profit, and the government, which are in their pockets will not adequately punish them, consumers need to. Like Johnson and Johnson for illegally promoting Risperdal to children and the elderly. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/steven-brill-johnson-and-johnson_55f...
Or banks like Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., HSBC Holdings PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and UBS that manipulated for foreign-exchange prices. http://www.wsj.com/articles/no-more-regulatory-nice-guy-for-banks-141995...
Or banks like Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., HSBC Holdings PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and UBS that manipulated for foreign-exchange prices. http://www.wsj.com/articles/no-more-regulatory-nice-guy-for-banks-141995...
3
Roger- Judge the current German political culture by how it responds to this corporate malfeasance (and compare and contrast that to how the U.S. EPA will react). Sure Germany doesn't appear to be very sympathetic given the highhanded way they treated Greece. But, it strikes me as quite odd for a U.S. newspaper columnist to set up themselves as the critic and conscience of the German culture as a quick scan through your past columns reveals. WWII ended 70 years ago. Almost nobody in Germany who was involved and responsible is alive today. You need to get over your hate for everything German and move on.
12
Hurrah for the California EPA and the University of West Virginia for exposing this historic fraud. But they acted five years after VW started perpetrating it. Where was the U.S. EPA? Where were the European regulators? Where were the other auto makers whose self-interest clearly lay in making sure VW was producing the kind of cars it claimed? Where were Consumers Union and Consumer Reports magazine, who represent themselves as paragons of rigor in testing cars?
4
Mr. Cohen is right. Sins of few reflect on the whole culture.
We can't be selective in exonerating Germany for the
massive deception of VolksWagen and blame 1.7 B
Muslims for the terrorism of few misguided among them.
Americans should also be blamed for the deception
of the banks, ignition problem of GM that killed 124
people and injured 275 and yet got away with the
fine of $900M, paid out of petty cash. May be they
will impose a big one on VW for deception despite
the difficulty of proving deaths from NOX emission.
Hopefully it will restrain Germany from blowing its
horns in Greece or Italy. It is time to punish the
senior managers at VW in criminal prosecution.
Firing them is not enough. It is inconceivable that
such a massive deception will be conspired by a
handful of engineers with the senior managers in
the dark. The restraints on the run away corporate
greed need to be put in place not only for deceiving
the customers but the governments through tax cheating.
We can't be selective in exonerating Germany for the
massive deception of VolksWagen and blame 1.7 B
Muslims for the terrorism of few misguided among them.
Americans should also be blamed for the deception
of the banks, ignition problem of GM that killed 124
people and injured 275 and yet got away with the
fine of $900M, paid out of petty cash. May be they
will impose a big one on VW for deception despite
the difficulty of proving deaths from NOX emission.
Hopefully it will restrain Germany from blowing its
horns in Greece or Italy. It is time to punish the
senior managers at VW in criminal prosecution.
Firing them is not enough. It is inconceivable that
such a massive deception will be conspired by a
handful of engineers with the senior managers in
the dark. The restraints on the run away corporate
greed need to be put in place not only for deceiving
the customers but the governments through tax cheating.
1
Mr. Cohen, it is absurd to think of VW as representative of Germany as a whole. You sound gleeful tearing apart the German nation and its standards. Crummy corporate behavior in our international economy is de rigeur, typical. I will be so glad when your generation retires, you are too close to 20th century history and too far from the present and the future.
14
Brilliant last sentence.
“The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.” William Faulkner.
2
That's a lot of words to say "the German pot is calling the Greek kettle black"
Nothing in this scandal, deplorable though it may be, is uniquely German. Neither does anything here reflect specifically on German mores, values, and attitudes in today's world. Conflating this mess with Germany's role in European leadership presents a very 'I-art-holier-than-thou' attitude that misses the point of both topics entirely.
On the one hand, you have a global corporation behaving as though the company's well-being supersedes any law the business can reasonably avoid.
On the other, you have a constrained and reluctant leader bending first to local nationals and only then conceding to broader governance.
What about either scenario has very much to do with the other much less Germany in general?
Nothing in this scandal, deplorable though it may be, is uniquely German. Neither does anything here reflect specifically on German mores, values, and attitudes in today's world. Conflating this mess with Germany's role in European leadership presents a very 'I-art-holier-than-thou' attitude that misses the point of both topics entirely.
On the one hand, you have a global corporation behaving as though the company's well-being supersedes any law the business can reasonably avoid.
On the other, you have a constrained and reluctant leader bending first to local nationals and only then conceding to broader governance.
What about either scenario has very much to do with the other much less Germany in general?
5
Please tell me again why I'm paying several hundred dollars a year for this kind of nonsense from NY Times commentators. As numerous others (and the majority) here have pointed out, the stretch to judge all Germany in this piece and bring in the cliches about dominance along with baggage from the end of World War Two is intellectually lazy and predictable. How he got there is a mystery, but I'm sure in the back of his mind are a bunch of Hollywood movies. Germany is a complex modern nation trying to figure out the modern world just as other western nations are. A simple read of the current Yahoo home page has the latest on the scandal in a red breaking new box at the top with stories about JayLo, a soccer star, and how to lose weight. Germans are shocked by what VW did. How Cohen uses this to pontificate about a whole nation is sloppy at best. And what in the world does, "There is a strain between its order and its urges. " mean? Especially when applied to a nation.
21
I am a German, who has lived for a long time in the US, I love this country, especially NYC, I am a big fan of the NYT, and rarely disagree with it's opinions. This piece however feels totally inappropriate, below-the-belt, extremely one-sided and patronizing. While I am of the position that VW did wrong, to lump in all of Germany into this argument and use the platform of the NYT to publish this is deeply troubling to me. The flip-side would be if a leading German newspaper would lump in all American people in a piece about Wall Street or US carmakers and the problems of these industries, who have put risk and pain on millions of people.
I'd expect a more balanced approach by this paper and its editorial board.
I'd expect a more balanced approach by this paper and its editorial board.
26
Whoa Roger!
Let's just remember the many instances of corporate malfeasance which pervade US businesses.
To name one: the US chamber of commerce's dedication to assure people around the world will invariably become addicted and suffer painful deaths in the name of tobacco profits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/business/international/us-chamber-work...
Yes, there is something peculiarly American "about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing".
Let's just remember the many instances of corporate malfeasance which pervade US businesses.
To name one: the US chamber of commerce's dedication to assure people around the world will invariably become addicted and suffer painful deaths in the name of tobacco profits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/business/international/us-chamber-work...
Yes, there is something peculiarly American "about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing".
11
If we are to judge the German government by the actions of Mr. Winterkorn, and claim that is shows how hypocritical they are, then we should equally judge the US Government by the actions of Bernard Madoff and claim that US programs are based on pyramid schemes that must eventually collapse and leave the participants nothing. Oh, wait, they are, sorry about that.
4
I've seen, 1 article - perhaps 2 regarding the VW incident over here in Sweden. They told the story of a company which apparently unlawfully evaded environmental tests in the US. Shame on them, now lets see if they did the same to our tests.
The New York Times seems to be obsessed with it though, as if desperate to find something -anything- wrong in Germany. It is a bit creepy to read to be honest.
The New York Times seems to be obsessed with it though, as if desperate to find something -anything- wrong in Germany. It is a bit creepy to read to be honest.
22
I can't remember of what country Roger is a citizen, but if he's American he should retract this piece immediately. Few countries have the moral chasm between posture and actions that America does.
21
Obviously, Germany is catching up...
Germany, as I remember it, was always a place where top-down authority masked a certain wildness. I saw this especially abroad, where platoons of young Germans on holiday would be traveling together (unlike the English, they always seemed to be traveling in large groups) under the watchful eye of one or more group leaders. Once the leaders departed for the bar, the kids would party, and then things would start to get wild.
Within Germany, there was the sense of orderliness and above all discipline applied from above, except when people sense that nobody was looking at them. Driving the autobahns in those days, half a century ago now, was an exhilarating experience to say the least. Again there was a certain wildness, tempered with consummate driving skill, except when it didn't.
I am not conflating German business behavior with wildness and risk-taking, but there is a certain correlation between a rigid acceptance of authority to achieve particular goals even if it involves illicit behavior on the part of underlings. But it does resonate, when we look at the types of European regimes that tend to dominate eastern and central Europe. Certainly the Soviet Russian model, including the current regime, represents an arch-type. The successor states of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire tend to be milder, more variegated versions of the Russian model.
Germany whether in 1905, 1945, or 2015 is consistent with that model, and the implication of disrespect for others it implies.
Within Germany, there was the sense of orderliness and above all discipline applied from above, except when people sense that nobody was looking at them. Driving the autobahns in those days, half a century ago now, was an exhilarating experience to say the least. Again there was a certain wildness, tempered with consummate driving skill, except when it didn't.
I am not conflating German business behavior with wildness and risk-taking, but there is a certain correlation between a rigid acceptance of authority to achieve particular goals even if it involves illicit behavior on the part of underlings. But it does resonate, when we look at the types of European regimes that tend to dominate eastern and central Europe. Certainly the Soviet Russian model, including the current regime, represents an arch-type. The successor states of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire tend to be milder, more variegated versions of the Russian model.
Germany whether in 1905, 1945, or 2015 is consistent with that model, and the implication of disrespect for others it implies.
5
Doesn't that also apply to those gentle British soccer fans on their trips to continental matches?
"Volkswagen is not the first company to cut corners to make money." It doesn't take long to count a dozen such American companies, but our self-perception and national arrogance sometimes makes it hard to admit.
3
VW was founded by Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, when most Germans 'thought the Nazis a little absurd here, too obsessive there, but the time for thinking over' - but Mr Cohen's is incorrect to drawn any grand historical or cultural lessons - which country does not have a scandal, even a corporate scandal - it was after all the Banks and financial engineers of the United states which sold fake financial instruments to the rest of the world including Germany, causing the 2008 financial crisis, the world's biggest since even before VW was founded.
3
If corporations are people, they are a peculiar kind: psychopaths.
1
Corporate malfeasance is not uniquely German.
However there is an arrogance, a belief in their superiority as a people, that they look down on others, Greeks, Italians, eastern Europeans etc. that is somewhat unique.
One need only spend time in Europe in any of the other non German countries to see and feel it.
However there is an arrogance, a belief in their superiority as a people, that they look down on others, Greeks, Italians, eastern Europeans etc. that is somewhat unique.
One need only spend time in Europe in any of the other non German countries to see and feel it.
3
I agree that there is an arrogance among Germans, and that they do look down on others whether they be Greeks, Italians, eastern Europeans, etc. I work with Germans, and know this trait firsthand.
One need only work for a large German company to see and feel it.
By the way, have you noticed the arrogance of the Republican front runner? He's an arrogant amusement who will never become POTUS.
One need only work for a large German company to see and feel it.
By the way, have you noticed the arrogance of the Republican front runner? He's an arrogant amusement who will never become POTUS.
Accounting fraud by Enron/Andersen in the US, Libor-rigging by Barclays in the UK, loss-concealment by Olympus in Japan, corruption by Petrobras in Brazil. All of these were huge, front-page stories about corporate malfeasance, and none took place in Germany.
To support his notion that the VW scandal was about Germany's culture, he should have written about popular laws that shield individuals from accountability. He didn't because, in fact, corporations cannot be prosecuted for crimes in Germany and individuals are instead the direct targets of corporate criminal activity. Or the author should have written about public polling that suggests apathy to fraud and corruption if profit is yielded. He didn't because, in fact, no such evidence exists.
The notion that the VW scandal is less about corporate greed and more about Germany's national character is wholly unsupported in this article--as an op-ed piece, it is an abject failure.
To support his notion that the VW scandal was about Germany's culture, he should have written about popular laws that shield individuals from accountability. He didn't because, in fact, corporations cannot be prosecuted for crimes in Germany and individuals are instead the direct targets of corporate criminal activity. Or the author should have written about public polling that suggests apathy to fraud and corruption if profit is yielded. He didn't because, in fact, no such evidence exists.
The notion that the VW scandal is less about corporate greed and more about Germany's national character is wholly unsupported in this article--as an op-ed piece, it is an abject failure.
11
It is not the citizens who make up what you refer to as Germany who brought about this problem rather a small group of people found in every country who put the personal aggrandizement before any other consideration.
They are known as criminals and found in every nation of our planet. They like their brethren here and elsewhere throughout the world should be brought to trial and jailed for their crimes.
There is nothing "peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing......" but there is something peculiarly fearful about those who separate themselves from the rest of humanity through wealth and the power they buy.
Greed is the name of the problem.
They are known as criminals and found in every nation of our planet. They like their brethren here and elsewhere throughout the world should be brought to trial and jailed for their crimes.
There is nothing "peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing......" but there is something peculiarly fearful about those who separate themselves from the rest of humanity through wealth and the power they buy.
Greed is the name of the problem.
2
How ironic it is that a country and company noted for their "honesty" became so crooked!
2
What Volkswagen did is not new; it is called “capitalism”. When we truly understand capitalism it becomes clear that it has a limited lifespan for prosperity. Eventually outsourcing and cheap tricks are needed to feed the never satisfied beast.
Al Capone: Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class
Al Capone: Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class
1
Honestly! Mr. Cohen thinks he can glibly generalize about "the entire culture of a nation" by pointing the finger at VW? Can we likewise form a valid all-encompassing generalization about American culture since World War 2 simply by pointing out the lies of R.J. Reynolds to its loyal customers, the courts and regulatory agencies?
Ah, but we are sagely told that "Germany is never quite what it seems. There is a strain between its order and its urges. Formality may mask frenzy. When things go wrong, they tend to go wrong in a big way." "Its urges?" What, exactly, might these be? The eternal need to break windows, burn books, murder people in concentration camps? Does America also have similar "urges?" The need to hang blacks from trees? Attack peaceful Indian villages at dawn? Hunt colorful pigeons to extinction?
Time for "German soul-searching?" Over the misdeeds of a single company? Get serious. Germany has its VW. We have AIG, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Enron, RJ Reynolds, Monsanto, Madoff.....Maybe we should be the ones engaged in a little soul-searching, as we preach to the rest of the world from our moral high ground.
Ah, but we are sagely told that "Germany is never quite what it seems. There is a strain between its order and its urges. Formality may mask frenzy. When things go wrong, they tend to go wrong in a big way." "Its urges?" What, exactly, might these be? The eternal need to break windows, burn books, murder people in concentration camps? Does America also have similar "urges?" The need to hang blacks from trees? Attack peaceful Indian villages at dawn? Hunt colorful pigeons to extinction?
Time for "German soul-searching?" Over the misdeeds of a single company? Get serious. Germany has its VW. We have AIG, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Enron, RJ Reynolds, Monsanto, Madoff.....Maybe we should be the ones engaged in a little soul-searching, as we preach to the rest of the world from our moral high ground.
24
What ridiculous nonsense Cohen writes.
"But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing."
Let me re-cast that.
"But there is something peculiarly American about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing."
Iraq, anyone?
Mr Cohen, shame on you.
"But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing."
Let me re-cast that.
"But there is something peculiarly American about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing."
Iraq, anyone?
Mr Cohen, shame on you.
14
We have our own corporate greed. Does that make the whole country liable?
3
This column represents thr dangerous mode of thinking that underlies some of the most troubling events in history. I would expect follow-up from the public editor.
13
I cannot find the words to sufficiently express my outrage at this article. Your fingerpointing and underlying bias, "in historical context", is outrageous, and were it to be pointed at most any other culture or nation, you would be out of a job, Cohen.
This scandal is about sheer corporate greed of a multinational company, the overinflated egos of INDIVIDUALS, not the culture and morals of an entire nation. Perhaps you ought to start your own waggly finger pointing right here at home, with some US names. I think the soul-searching, Mr Cohen, ought to begin in your own head, perhaps you ought to analyze why and how you wrote this piece in the first place.
This scandal is about sheer corporate greed of a multinational company, the overinflated egos of INDIVIDUALS, not the culture and morals of an entire nation. Perhaps you ought to start your own waggly finger pointing right here at home, with some US names. I think the soul-searching, Mr Cohen, ought to begin in your own head, perhaps you ought to analyze why and how you wrote this piece in the first place.
14
"I love Germany so much I'm glad there are two of them."
- François Charles Mauriac
- François Charles Mauriac
2
as always Roger Cohen does not hide his dislike for all things German. I do wonder why the NYT has to give him a forum to express such feelings.
19
It's the white collar crime that the society should focus on rather than how poor folks are pilfering from the system. Again and again the big powerful folks cheat and get rich and get away with it while the poor are shamed for survival. The white collar crime is the bane of the society, while the poor pay the price.
What an intellectually bizarre op-editorial. There certainly is little concealed racial and cultural animosity. The NYT tried to paint all of German culture as somehow culpable for the Germanwings accident (with no formal professional investigation yet complete) and indulges in the same fantasy here. Add to it Germany's asserted responsibility for Syrian refugees and Greek debt, and one can reasonably conclude that Germany is subject to bald special interest propagandizement.
12
We as the nation should be far more interested in the power of principles than in a personal power.
During our election campaigns we talk more about the individuals, their personal wealth, their gender, their age, and their party affiliation than about the principles they stand for.
The problem might be that our candidates change their guiding principle faster than their shirts...
As one candidate famously said, he was for it before he was against it...
If a candidate doesn’t believe in the guiding principles than he or she believes only in having a personal power and getting elected.
Such the leaders want us to serve them in lieu of them serving us...
Thus our presidents are strongly against the budget and trade deficits as long as they are in the opposition. As soon as they get elected, they suddenly transform into the strongest proponents of the status quo.
We don’t need in the White House the transformers but the people of the steady principles that plan to implement their promises from the campaign trail.
The promises given solely to get elected represent mockery of democracy, something like VW claims that their cars are environmentally friendly and true leaders in cutting the pollution.
The Germans forgot that the American customers do care more about the corporate products than the voters about the politician promises...
During our election campaigns we talk more about the individuals, their personal wealth, their gender, their age, and their party affiliation than about the principles they stand for.
The problem might be that our candidates change their guiding principle faster than their shirts...
As one candidate famously said, he was for it before he was against it...
If a candidate doesn’t believe in the guiding principles than he or she believes only in having a personal power and getting elected.
Such the leaders want us to serve them in lieu of them serving us...
Thus our presidents are strongly against the budget and trade deficits as long as they are in the opposition. As soon as they get elected, they suddenly transform into the strongest proponents of the status quo.
We don’t need in the White House the transformers but the people of the steady principles that plan to implement their promises from the campaign trail.
The promises given solely to get elected represent mockery of democracy, something like VW claims that their cars are environmentally friendly and true leaders in cutting the pollution.
The Germans forgot that the American customers do care more about the corporate products than the voters about the politician promises...
This behavior is nothing new for the Germans. E.g., Siemens was also involved in a scandal of bribing Greek officials in order to get preferential treatment for a large telecom contract ( http://www.dw.com/en/greece-indicts-13-germans-over-siemens-bribery-scan... ) Apparently they were very happy to work with the Greeks on that one!
What is new is the realization by the world that Germans can behave in ways they denounce as un-German if it is to their advantage.
What is new is the realization by the world that Germans can behave in ways they denounce as un-German if it is to their advantage.
5
And do not forget how the U.S. Government got Siemens to help us with some serious and successful industrial espionage attacking Irans nuclear program a mere few years ago. Those evil Germans. ?????
Is Germany the problem or is it corporate greed? The U-S has certainly had its share of shameful corporate antics GM, Exxon, Nestle, Tyco, Enron, Lehman Bros....
3
Wow, that's a stretch! If you follow the same train of thought, Japan should be soul searching since Toyota covered up the "unintended acceleration" problem, or the US should since GM ignored the ignition switch fatal design for 10 years?
It is greed, a relentless pursuit of profit, and a corporate culture that squashes the whistle blower that caused these problems. Perhaps a column opining solutions to these issues would be more instructive.
It is greed, a relentless pursuit of profit, and a corporate culture that squashes the whistle blower that caused these problems. Perhaps a column opining solutions to these issues would be more instructive.
6
Maybe I can't buy a VW right now, but I would never buy a car that said, "Made in the USA".
1
VW insiders and Winterkorn made a deal with the devil and if history is any guide, they will come out huge winners.
It's the old "heads we win, tails you lose" capitalism played masterfully.
The huge corporation is found guilty of fraud, entirely unknown to the CEO, his board and the insiders, who then keep the billions of ill gotten loot by playing the stupid card to regulators and accept a little out of court settlement tap on the wrist.
Winterkorn is on track to take just shy of a 100 million golden parachute and doubtless so will board members and insiders, while small VW stockholders, workers and stockholders take it in the shorts.
Winterkorn noted, as a CEO he didn't do anything wrong.
You pump up short term stock values by cheating, cover the tracks legally so the board and insiders can make out like bandits and bail out before the company crashes.
Which is why they are called "the best and the brightest".
It's the old "heads we win, tails you lose" capitalism played masterfully.
The huge corporation is found guilty of fraud, entirely unknown to the CEO, his board and the insiders, who then keep the billions of ill gotten loot by playing the stupid card to regulators and accept a little out of court settlement tap on the wrist.
Winterkorn is on track to take just shy of a 100 million golden parachute and doubtless so will board members and insiders, while small VW stockholders, workers and stockholders take it in the shorts.
Winterkorn noted, as a CEO he didn't do anything wrong.
You pump up short term stock values by cheating, cover the tracks legally so the board and insiders can make out like bandits and bail out before the company crashes.
Which is why they are called "the best and the brightest".
1
"This development probably makes Germans themselves and other Europeans uneasy in equal measure. Europe needs leadership. But Germany is reluctant to lead"
I think Ms. Cohen misreads the signs. True, for over 60 years Germany has deflated itself in front of its horrendous recent past. It had to regroup, refocus, redevelop an understanding of what Germany is, what it means to be German. In general, it has done a better job in that than most of its neighbors who were almost as guilty as the Germans themselves.
But the Germany of today is different. The second world war ended in 2006 with the world soccer champion ship, and this is only half way a joke.
German can lead and does lead a Europe that is otherwise void of leadership in the face of so many crises. A Chancellor Merkel who goes out in front and invites thousands of refugees, at the peril of her own re-election, is the new face of Germany.
If anybody else wants to lead in Europe, please be my guest.
Volkswagen is a scandal, more about that somewhere else. But Volkswagen is no more Germany as GM is America. When GM screws up, all America will be scrutinized, whether right or wrong. So with Volkswagen.
I think Ms. Cohen misreads the signs. True, for over 60 years Germany has deflated itself in front of its horrendous recent past. It had to regroup, refocus, redevelop an understanding of what Germany is, what it means to be German. In general, it has done a better job in that than most of its neighbors who were almost as guilty as the Germans themselves.
But the Germany of today is different. The second world war ended in 2006 with the world soccer champion ship, and this is only half way a joke.
German can lead and does lead a Europe that is otherwise void of leadership in the face of so many crises. A Chancellor Merkel who goes out in front and invites thousands of refugees, at the peril of her own re-election, is the new face of Germany.
If anybody else wants to lead in Europe, please be my guest.
Volkswagen is a scandal, more about that somewhere else. But Volkswagen is no more Germany as GM is America. When GM screws up, all America will be scrutinized, whether right or wrong. So with Volkswagen.
6
Why such pessimism about the New Germany? At least the gases the Germans released upon humanity were nitrogen oxides and not Zyklon B.
3
Let's remember that gm knew about a defective 49c part for years & covered it up, murdering at least 124 people. The penalty?- a few bucks. Did anyone make broad sweeping judgments about the American character as a result?
But maybe that's because our business culture has long since been assumed to be a corrupt, anything goes world. At least German business HAD a good name to begin with. I don't know how they get it back but our country should pay some attention to its own ethic.
But maybe that's because our business culture has long since been assumed to be a corrupt, anything goes world. At least German business HAD a good name to begin with. I don't know how they get it back but our country should pay some attention to its own ethic.
4
This is an article reeking of obsessive anti-Germaness. Fallacy after fallacy, this must be the new tea party style of journalism. It speaks for the NYT readers and commentators that they are not falling for this nonsense.
18
How does an educated adult seriously consider submitting an article like this for publication?
15
Winterkorn is unaware of "wrongdoing" in exactly the same way that Lufthansa
was entirely confident about the mental health of the pilot who committed mass murder this past spring. Mr. Cohen is right.
was entirely confident about the mental health of the pilot who committed mass murder this past spring. Mr. Cohen is right.
3
Unlike the U.S. anti-bribery and corruption regulations, German law directly only applies to individuals active for the companies i.e. employees or agents of commercial practices. My i.e. Volkswagen goes scot free permitted to continue in their corrupt practice.
1
Sometimes cheating is just cheating. Customers want something for nothing. In this (as another NY Times columnist said this weekend) he wanted a cute zippy car that wasn't a Prius--using the logic that Prius brakes were spongy (never confirmed) and besides a Prius looks funny and the people who drive them are dorky. He wanted something cute and fast and that didn't make him look middle aged. I remember looking at the VW's and thinking to myself: how do they make an environmentally clean diesel? I also remember that the VW's and Audi's that I owned or drove sure were fun to drive, but they were also no fun at all at the repair shop. Having and knowing about engines that barely lasted 30,000 miles before they needed a rebuild cured us for sure of VW mania. Meanwhile, our ten year old Prius with 150,000 miles on it chugs along merrily, even with its recent sad compliment of dimples from hail damage that caused the insurance company to total it. We chose the buyout and figure we'll get another 50,000 miles out of it. Sometimes hubris is just hubris and VW is just what it always has been since its first non bug was sold: a lousy car company that sells unreliable flash. Maybe that's Germany; maybe it's not. But there is nothing particularly German about a car company that cheats.
4
Mr. Cohen, I always read your thoughtful columns with great interest; this one left me flabbergasted. (In fact, I reread it a number of times to see if I'd missed some crucial, convincing point. I hadn't.) Your sweeping indictment of Germany and its culture is entirely unsupported by any of the points you've made, and smacks uncomfortably of bias. I just returned from one of many visits to Germany and was impressed, as always, with peoples' commitment to the environment (i.e. the thousands of bike commuters, the relentless recycling, the large number of one-car and no-car families). I was inspired and moved by their heartfelt generosity in welcoming hundreds of thousands of refugees (800,000, this year alone). And I was also struck by how excessively conscientious people seem to be (stand at a pedestrian crossing when the little man is red, with nary a car in sight, and everyone - wth the exception of this reckless American - waits patiently for the light to turn green). This is the Germany that I have experienced over the years. I happen to own one of the "clean" VW diesels, and to say that I am outraged by the deception of VW would be an undertatement. However, one company's misdeeds do not define a nation.
21
"But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing, between high culture and low conduct"
Oh come now. Have you read any of the daily hypocritical propagandizing in this paper and all other American media about the wonderfulness of the American business system and its "job creators", who plunder our nation daily without the Justice Department or the SEC doing one thing to prosecute them?
Oh come now. Have you read any of the daily hypocritical propagandizing in this paper and all other American media about the wonderfulness of the American business system and its "job creators", who plunder our nation daily without the Justice Department or the SEC doing one thing to prosecute them?
4
Volkswagen is run by the German government?
5
VW lied, cheated, etc.... Did all of the German people join in this conpiracy? Not likely. Germany now dominates Europe in an economic sense. Is this so-called domination all part of the VW scandal? Not likely. Apparently Germans work hard. live responsibly, take pride in what they do. China sees Germany as a threat to their economy. Not surprising, German products cost a bit more but are orders of magnitude superior in quality. So what's your beef with Germany Roger?
10
Oh dear, another concept fell off it's pedestal (albeit placed on the pedestal by me).
But oh how I loved my Volkswagen beetle, a 1960; my first car.
The design was so smart & so simple, it never complained.
No gas gauge, when it started to sputter, I just kicked the lever to open the reserve tank.
Then, I had 30 miles to find a gas station, to fill up @ $ 0.59 a gallon.
This gem was followed by a Karmann-Ghia (which my 3 year old called the "Kharma Ghia"), then a square-back & ending with a bus.
But, I guess, that was then & now is now.
But oh how I loved my Volkswagen beetle, a 1960; my first car.
The design was so smart & so simple, it never complained.
No gas gauge, when it started to sputter, I just kicked the lever to open the reserve tank.
Then, I had 30 miles to find a gas station, to fill up @ $ 0.59 a gallon.
This gem was followed by a Karmann-Ghia (which my 3 year old called the "Kharma Ghia"), then a square-back & ending with a bus.
But, I guess, that was then & now is now.
2
There are things to be criticized about German culture or politics, the same with any culture, and hypocrisy and saying one thing and doing another seem common across all countries, including the US. Not to mention that VW in a sense is not uniquely German, it is the prototype of the international corporation of these times, that has no tie to one particular country, no matter where headquartered, and where the name of the game is to boost the stock price and brand of the company, or as with VW and Toyota just recently, to be the '#1 carmaker'. What they did was no different than Toyota covering up issues with the Camry, or GM with the ignition switches, it is corporate think that 'a few deaths' don't matter. Sure, VW was smug as hell about their TDI "clean diesel", that they sold particularly to the granola head crowd as an environmentally friendly diesel that also had 'good performance", but that is not uniquely German, that is corporate profits over greed.
And we shouldn't be all smug, the US has the huge tobacco industry that kills millions of people each year all over the world, and yet the government subsidizes tobacco farmers and gives corporate largesse to the tobacco industry (let alone not finally doing the smart thing, and figuring out a way to ban tobacco entirely), we literally are subsidizing something that gets people addicted then kills them.
And we shouldn't be all smug, the US has the huge tobacco industry that kills millions of people each year all over the world, and yet the government subsidizes tobacco farmers and gives corporate largesse to the tobacco industry (let alone not finally doing the smart thing, and figuring out a way to ban tobacco entirely), we literally are subsidizing something that gets people addicted then kills them.
5
Nice, mostly on point. But, talk about snip when you describe those that purchased these cars. Complaining about blanket characterization and then hurl one yourself. Well played.
So we should self-righteously blame the entire country because one of its companies committed fraud? As if there had been no Enrons or Worldcoms, let alone most of Wall Street?
Oh, I forgot - we must keep in mind Germany's "historical context". Well, Roger, maybe you should give some thought to a prominent nucear physicist, a Jew who left anti-semitic Hungary to study happily in Germany under Werner Heisenberg until the Nazis chased him out, namely Edward Teller. In the preface to his "Legacy of Hiroshima" he stated his conviction that had the Allies given Germany Marshall-plan-type aid instead of robbing it blind after WW1, Hitler would never have come to power. So let's try to keep things in perspective, shall we?
Oh, I forgot - we must keep in mind Germany's "historical context". Well, Roger, maybe you should give some thought to a prominent nucear physicist, a Jew who left anti-semitic Hungary to study happily in Germany under Werner Heisenberg until the Nazis chased him out, namely Edward Teller. In the preface to his "Legacy of Hiroshima" he stated his conviction that had the Allies given Germany Marshall-plan-type aid instead of robbing it blind after WW1, Hitler would never have come to power. So let's try to keep things in perspective, shall we?
11
To make an example of an entire country, based on the faulty decision of one CEO's bad behavior is simply ludicrous. If such were the case, why not take the U.S. to task over the debacles by General Motors---or even better, the banking institutions, which American taxpayers had to bail out?
And then to somehow connect this all the Greek economy, that tragic Germanwings accident?
You've really outdone yourself this time, Mr. Cohen.
And then to somehow connect this all the Greek economy, that tragic Germanwings accident?
You've really outdone yourself this time, Mr. Cohen.
17
Another example of the dysfunction in Germany is their obsession with PhDs. It is almost mandatory to have one to reach the highest levels of government or industry. So of course since they are so important people regularly get caught having cheated or plagiarized getting the degrees.
5
Mr Cohen's column isn't very good as many contributors have noted.
What I would like to know: is this 'clean diesel' as good as it is technically possible to get?
If so, VW will need to make many substantial changes to its power
system.
In time, we will probably find out, but in the meantime, we may have to bear some silly columns about the German people.
Wouldn't it be nice if columnists could write: "Nothing comes
to mind" this week instead of forcing their squared logic into
round realities?
What I would like to know: is this 'clean diesel' as good as it is technically possible to get?
If so, VW will need to make many substantial changes to its power
system.
In time, we will probably find out, but in the meantime, we may have to bear some silly columns about the German people.
Wouldn't it be nice if columnists could write: "Nothing comes
to mind" this week instead of forcing their squared logic into
round realities?
4
I suppose Herr Winterkorn can't use the "I was only following orders" excuse this time. Last week I heard Michael Horn, the CEO of Volkswagen USA, say "We have totally screwed up." My immediate thought was no, you didn't screw up. You knew exactly what you were doing. Since corporations are people, can we now expect to see Volkwagen locked up in San Quentin for a long time?
8
Right on!
2
"Since corporations are people, can we now expect to see Volkswagen locked up in San Quentin for a long time?"
No, corporations are only people for campaign contributions. For everything else, they have immunity. Incorporation gives limited liability.
No, corporations are only people for campaign contributions. For everything else, they have immunity. Incorporation gives limited liability.
"But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing, between high culture and low conduct, between angels’ wings and nitrogen oxides; and there is something peculiarly German about the devastating impact this has."
You could say exactly the same thing about the U.S. Just replace "nitrogen oxides" with (take your pick): the atom bomb. Napalm. Drones. Relocation camps. Wars of choice. Spying on citizens. Secret rendition. Secret courts. Torture.
You could say exactly the same thing about the U.S. Just replace "nitrogen oxides" with (take your pick): the atom bomb. Napalm. Drones. Relocation camps. Wars of choice. Spying on citizens. Secret rendition. Secret courts. Torture.
8
I agree that the German condescendence towards the rest of Europe, and obviously Greece, is now on thinner ice. I hope this influences the policies of the Euro group going forward. But the real lessons here, and never more starkly illustrated than this year in literature and politics, is the global failure of capitalism to be a force for the common good. It is no longer clear that all the boats are being lifted, it seems that the dishonesty in the business world, having the result of propping up a privileged de-facto plutocracy, is the norm now, this VW debacle being the best recent example. What do Bernie Sanders, Thomas Piketty, the VW debacle,Donald Trump, the election of an old controversial socialist to the head of the Labor Party in England all have in common? Recognition that Capitalism is now far too rigged. that we need now to go outside the corrupt halls of power. Theodore Roosevelt saw this coming; only government now can level the playing field.
4
Dear Republican Congress, please explain how this malfeasance would have been uncovered without government regulation?
Capitalism is only as sound as the government that regulates it. The U. S. government caught Germany on this one- maybe we need Germany to monitor American corporations.
Clearly we are not superior to Germany in assuring that corporations are restrained from damaging the citizens of their country and the rest of the world- not with a congress completely in their pockets and coporate money in the pockets of said congressmen.
Capitalism is only as sound as the government that regulates it. The U. S. government caught Germany on this one- maybe we need Germany to monitor American corporations.
Clearly we are not superior to Germany in assuring that corporations are restrained from damaging the citizens of their country and the rest of the world- not with a congress completely in their pockets and coporate money in the pockets of said congressmen.
1
Too many commentators are missing the underlying importance of Cohen's article by focusing, as he does himself, on VW. Germany has been bullying the rest of Europe in recent years in one case after another and its disastrous unilateralism on mass migration from Islamic countries promises to turn Germany into another France, where mass immigration from North Africa has led to a phenomenal rise in antisemitism and an exodus of French Jews to Israel and the U.S. In this context, Cohen ought to be even more concerned that he is, not least because Germans are so blinded by their complacent self- congratulation about atoning for the Holocaust that they think they now have the right to determine for the rest of Europe what constitutes financial rectitude (see Greece) and humanitarianism (see the migrant crisis). For you Americans out there, imagine if China determined your national budget while Canada was in charge of your border with Mexico and called you moral underlings for objecting to the abolition of the border in Texas. The EU ought not be a German (or Franco-German) empire.
4
"biggest corporate scandal in the carmaker’s history "
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/11/world/volkswagen-to-create-12-million-...
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/11/world/volkswagen-to-create-12-million-...
1
I can't imagine Germans are any less disgusted by VW's deception. They breathe the same air, don't they?
As far as "Greek cheating" - its getting tiresome to hear of it without consistently omitting to mention the big helping Greece had from Goldman Sachs. Without their complicity in falsifying the viability of Greece as a potential EU member, Greece would never have been accepted in the first place. And that would have been the correct choice given what we now know about the Greek economy and how it was run.
As far as "Greek cheating" - its getting tiresome to hear of it without consistently omitting to mention the big helping Greece had from Goldman Sachs. Without their complicity in falsifying the viability of Greece as a potential EU member, Greece would never have been accepted in the first place. And that would have been the correct choice given what we now know about the Greek economy and how it was run.
9
I could not agree more with Cohen's observations. Having lived in Germany and having even today close friends there, I am appalled at the change of the standards in that country.
Volkswagen is the latest revelation. Just prior to that, Siemens paid the highest fines for bribing foreign officials. Deutsche Bank paid billions of US fines for questionable deals. Two ministers of the Merkel government resigned after it was established that they plagiarized their dissertations. A third minister, of the German Department of Defense, is now accused of plagiarizing articles of her thesis advisor.
As for the racist atrocities in former East Germany the facts are well known.
This is not the Germany I knew.
And those who claim that Mr. Cohen has historical reasons to criticize the Germans have probably historical and present reasons to criticize him.
Volkswagen is the latest revelation. Just prior to that, Siemens paid the highest fines for bribing foreign officials. Deutsche Bank paid billions of US fines for questionable deals. Two ministers of the Merkel government resigned after it was established that they plagiarized their dissertations. A third minister, of the German Department of Defense, is now accused of plagiarizing articles of her thesis advisor.
As for the racist atrocities in former East Germany the facts are well known.
This is not the Germany I knew.
And those who claim that Mr. Cohen has historical reasons to criticize the Germans have probably historical and present reasons to criticize him.
1
The VW sin here is not one of omission, failing to fix some problem that should have been fixed, but rather one of commission, doing something reprehensible on purpose. Both are sins, but the later is more blameworthy, and more indicative of evil intent.
In terms of national character, the lesson I draw is that the Germans are no better than the rest of us. Did we expect otherwise?
In terms of national character, the lesson I draw is that the Germans are no better than the rest of us. Did we expect otherwise?
2
I am German and I must admit the author has a point. We tend to lecture others and we can be obsessed with morality, unfortunately. On the other hand, this scandal combined with the Lufthansa crash isn't proof that Germany is a corrupted country either. It is still a well-run country and honesty and reliability are not just empty words. Therefore I find this article unfair. Especially reasoning that German power needs to be contained, is disgusting. You could say that about every major power, including Britain and the US. If a powerful country is wrong it is worse than a small country being wrong. And the US and UK have been very wrong in the past.
11
My mother, having been a teen during the war, never was comfortable with a United Germany. Never expressed any anti German sentiment before 1989, but when it happened she was un easy
1
My parents married during WWII and my father fought in the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he came home they started their family, and the one country that they wanted to visit was....West Germany. Neither of my parents held any animosity toward the country that grew after the horrors of the Second World War. I am thankful that they did not pass any fear or hatred to their children and grandchildren.
The Volkswagen fiasco needs the same kind of detailed, public investigation that disasters in NASA's space programs get. There had to be some moment when someone at VW made the decision to program the software to detect that emissions testing was taking place. Someone had to write the code. This seems to me to be the kind of decision that is very difficult to blur. I see no valid reason why the software should have been asking the question "Is this car currently being tested for emissions?".
The hypocrisy of Americans never ceases to amaze me.
The American Government illegally invades Iraq and systemically tortures thousands of Iraqis in violation of the Geneva Convention, yet not one American official is charged with war crimes, not one American official is sent to the Hague for trial.
American banks illegally dump trillions of dollars of toxic collateral debt obligations onto world markets causing a collapse of the entire global financial system, yet not one American corporate officer is charged with fraud; not one American corporate officer is brought to a criminal court for trial.
But let one German company install environmental cheat technology in its cars and it becomes a national disgrace that demands soul searching by all of Germany.
Mr. Cohen, I live in America. I know all about national disgrace. I don’t know much about soul searching.
Kevin Comeau,
California
The American Government illegally invades Iraq and systemically tortures thousands of Iraqis in violation of the Geneva Convention, yet not one American official is charged with war crimes, not one American official is sent to the Hague for trial.
American banks illegally dump trillions of dollars of toxic collateral debt obligations onto world markets causing a collapse of the entire global financial system, yet not one American corporate officer is charged with fraud; not one American corporate officer is brought to a criminal court for trial.
But let one German company install environmental cheat technology in its cars and it becomes a national disgrace that demands soul searching by all of Germany.
Mr. Cohen, I live in America. I know all about national disgrace. I don’t know much about soul searching.
Kevin Comeau,
California
23
This article screams of misinformation, bias and small-mindedness. You are holding an entire population hostage for one man's crimes. You are blaspheming an entire culture of which, it appears you have little understanding. Self righteous finger wagging??? Really?
According to this, I think you ought to go get a clue, or find other employment. Shame on you!
According to this, I think you ought to go get a clue, or find other employment. Shame on you!
11
no, he's right. there is that little glitch in the german character which comes about from trying to be perfect. it won't happen and the inbred arrogance that stops it goes all the way back to Neanderthal fire drill, by reprimand of the gods themselves. as a sop to take-offense germans, Roger did not mention the Wall Street implosion which was a similar crime against credulity, but for the
ethnic divide, with the same results.
ethnic divide, with the same results.
Germany has a post WWII history of being rigorously law abiding withIN the country, and a fundamental shrewd understanding of what it takes to come out on top with regard to international business. Bribery is illegal within Germany. There are no laws, however, prohibiting bribery of companies based outside of Germany. How else to compete with the Chinese and Italians and everyone else? There's a strained duality between what is acceptable at home and what is considered the only way to compete abroad.
It can be annoying to listen to Jews talk about Germany. Annoying but necessary. When a country has committed a world-historical cime on the scale Germany did to the Jews, the Jews have a right to be annoying. For, oh, say, another 100 years or so. This is also why we support Israel and cut her slack we would cut no other country in the world. She deserves this (and yes, she misuses it.) And yes, it's annoying to have your Jewish friends play the 'anti-Semite' card over and over again. Annoying. But necessary. Never again.
3
The author made no such connection between the VW scandal and the atrocities committed in WWII. If he thinks they're connected, he should have had the courage to say so explicitly. If he doesn't, you should have the clarity to not make that connection for him.
You could not be more wrong nor could the US, in re: Israel
Suggestion to the Greek government: fine Volkswagen for polluting the environment in the amount of the loan required to settle your financial troubles. It might break the bank in Lower Saxony ... and the Porsche family.
2
Saying "...there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing..." reflects a clear anti-German prejudice in Mr. Cohen's comments. I assume he must also have the same opinion of the US, Japan, England, and (insert your own favorite country) all of which have harbored rogue businesses. To name just a few, I would give you GM, Massey Coal, and Big Tobacco in the US. You simply cannot denigrate the character of an entire nation or people in such a manner.
14
I'm pretty upset by the scandal, especially since I own a TDI. But this piece goes too far, assumes too much. Punish the corporation and the guilty within it, not the German people.
13
"But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing..."
Uh... can you spell Abu Ghraib? How about water-board? We Americans are award winners in this arena. There is absolutely nothing peculiar about the Germans other than the author's bias.
Uh... can you spell Abu Ghraib? How about water-board? We Americans are award winners in this arena. There is absolutely nothing peculiar about the Germans other than the author's bias.
262
I still love my Tiguan.
15
Your model isn't what is being scrutinized here. Your Tiguan isn't even offered with a Diesel engine here in the US. It's not like anyone died at the revelation of this automotive scandal, unlike Ford/Firestone's SUV rollover scandal, GM's ignition switch fiasco, Toyota's unintended acceleration/safety debacle, or Takata's airbag failures in several automotive brands.
The ones with glass houses covered with defeat devices shouldn't throw stones...it is easy to condemn others when you are the ones doing everything right, but this huge, international and powerful company makes the Greeks smile, a little. It is very sad for the Germany though.
1
Time for the President to instruct AG Loretta Lynch to start preparing extradition proceedings for Mark Winterkorn if the Germans won't/can't prosecute for fraud.
In addition I would urge the President to remind the Chancellor of how many times in the last 100 years the American taxpayer has bailed out Germany from disasters that they caused themselves. We have never been paid back and would not expect to be as long as we are comrades in arms and open markets for both. Reform Greece yes. Austerity No!
In addition I would urge the President to remind the Chancellor of how many times in the last 100 years the American taxpayer has bailed out Germany from disasters that they caused themselves. We have never been paid back and would not expect to be as long as we are comrades in arms and open markets for both. Reform Greece yes. Austerity No!
1
I've never said this about an article before, but this article is beneath the NY Times. The author admits that VW is no worse than any number of companies that span the globe (including the U.S.). Pharmaceutical companies have conducted illegal experiments in developing nations, mining companies have decimated landscapes, oil companies have poisoned countless people, and they've all covered them up. If, as the author points out, "there is nothing peculiarly German" about VW's crimes, WHY does he persist in acting as if VW is just a symptom of some inherent German duplicity? There is also no reasonable link between Germany's stance (as a nation) on Greek debt and the actions of VW. There is even less of a link between VW and the Germany of WWI and WWII. If the author was disparaging an individual person this way, I'd call it libelous! Since he chose to slander an entire nation, I suppose it's bigoted instead.
18
I submit that Mr. Cohen dislikes and distrusts Germany and is not able to write an objective, genuinely thoughtful analysis of the VW scandal.
Not Roger's best effort. Unfair to conflate the average citizen of Germany with the corporate malfeasance of VW. I sure do not accept any role in the actions of our major banks which led to the global financial meltdown of 2008, nor did I have anything to do with GM's decision to let people die rather than to spend money to repair a problem. The engine behind these disasters is capitalism run amok, and that is a global problem, for these multi-national corporations are surely not "people," they have no nationalistic mantra, and they certainly do not have personality traits.
2
The VW scandal is about human failure and hubris. Let's consider that all of us humans are weak and subject to corruption. None of us is above temptation. We need daily rituals and meditations to remind us that we are flawed and in need of assistance to avoid the grotesque pits of deception highlighted by this horrible tale.
1
Every day this Newspaper sponsors a rant of some Country. Today it is Germany. tomorrow China followed by rants against Russia, or Cuba or mexicans or Muslims. It is so tiring, but predictable. Why can't these people live up to the lofty standards of the US? Why can't the World embrace wiretapping, email reading, militarism and concentration camps, invasions of Nations like we do. praise the US prison system, the largest prison system on Earth? The World could learn so much by reading the New York Times and following our sterling example.
10
If Volkswagen needs new leadership, they should have considered Carly Fiorina. My understanding is that since leaving Hewlett-Packard in death-throes, she has been unemployed, and is looking for a new job. Please, someone, hire her and take her off the job market.
7
There may be a “defeat device” within the German psyche that prevents them from getting a good look at themselves.
3
Though I agree with many commenters, don't damn a nation for the acts of a few (please world, we can't control Trump or most of our Congress), having worked for German companies for 20 years, be assured that they are on the whole, an arrogant and ethnocentric people. Many are good, reflective and self-aware, to be sure, but the corporations are not headed by that generation. The current generation of leaders are more than willing to demand that people just shut up and follow orders; they blindly follow the biggest strong-man they can find; and they are in fear of being found to have been wrong. The first step in any problem solving that I've seen done by Germans is "who do we blame?" It's a pity.
3
I have criticized German policy and German public opinion for specific reasons and transgressions. I have worked with Germans, visited Germany, and can speak in very nuanced tones about cultural differences and similarities. There is a zeitgeist, a prevailing set of principals and thinking in every culture and society.
This column is relying on some broad generalizations. It starts off with "Germany's leading company [...]". And by the 3rd sentence, we are onto "the entire culture of a nation".
This is similar to how Greece has been portrayed and treated in the media. "A nation of slackers", or "friendly, hospitable, decent hardworking people".
I could think of capitalism-run-amok, self-regulation, perverse incentives, legislative capture, crisis of democratic institutions, and a whole lot more as explanations for the deluge of malfeasance we are inured to.
Simplify much, Mr. Cohen?
This column is relying on some broad generalizations. It starts off with "Germany's leading company [...]". And by the 3rd sentence, we are onto "the entire culture of a nation".
This is similar to how Greece has been portrayed and treated in the media. "A nation of slackers", or "friendly, hospitable, decent hardworking people".
I could think of capitalism-run-amok, self-regulation, perverse incentives, legislative capture, crisis of democratic institutions, and a whole lot more as explanations for the deluge of malfeasance we are inured to.
Simplify much, Mr. Cohen?
9
VW is not worse than Big Oil. Together with our capitalist governments, they foul the air and make children sick. Why aren't these polluters paying for asthma inhalers?
5
As a long-time American resident of Germany, I want to say that in this column Roger Cohen has produced the most intelligent and insightful analysis of Germany at this point in time that anyone could imagine.
"The Volkswagen scandal elicits more than dismay. It is one of those moments when the entire culture of a nation — in this case one of scrupulous honesty, acceptance of rules, reliability, environmental sensitivity and atoning dedication to the common good — is called into question."
It seems to me that Germans don't quite understand that yet.
How Roger Cohen can understand it - along with everything else he discusses in this column - without actually living here is, well, utterly astonishing.
"The Volkswagen scandal elicits more than dismay. It is one of those moments when the entire culture of a nation — in this case one of scrupulous honesty, acceptance of rules, reliability, environmental sensitivity and atoning dedication to the common good — is called into question."
It seems to me that Germans don't quite understand that yet.
How Roger Cohen can understand it - along with everything else he discusses in this column - without actually living here is, well, utterly astonishing.
4
Without actually living there? Wasn't he a correspondent previously based in Germany?
I couldn't agree with you more. I am also a American resident of Germany and it is clear from other comments that it's very difficult to fully grasp Mr. Cohen's analysis without living in or spending a great deal of time in Germany. BTW, I believe Mr. Cohen lived in Berlin for at least a decade, hence his understanding of the issue.
What about American auto executives? If Germany needs to soul search, at least it implies it has a soul, America should be so lucky. After the history of deceit by the big three in Detroit, our banking industry, A telecommunications industry that helps our government spy on it's citizens. ...Mr. Cohen, please do not go there.
17
Even though I harbor the same fears as most Jews, I found this article tasteless. After WWII, the idea of an authoritarian personality (read fascist) was all the rage for psychologists. It was an easy answer to explaining the Nazi's and the Holocaust. Unfortunately it turns out authoritarianism is hardly restricted to Germany.
Corporate greed is universal. There may be something peculiar to corporate leaders worldwide that makes it possible for them to make decisions that bolster the bottom line without regard to consequences, but this peculiarity is not a German invention. Let's wait and see how Germany handles the VW miscreants before making any judgments.
Corporate greed is universal. There may be something peculiar to corporate leaders worldwide that makes it possible for them to make decisions that bolster the bottom line without regard to consequences, but this peculiarity is not a German invention. Let's wait and see how Germany handles the VW miscreants before making any judgments.
199
Unfortunately it turns out authoritarianism is hardly restricted to Germany.
You want authoritarianism, try political correctness.
You want authoritarianism, try political correctness.
It's very simple: You must be unscrupulous to a certain degree to become a corporate leader. People who are too self-critical do not become corporate leaders. That should be enough to explain why big corporations fail ethically so often.
Authoritarianism, racism and bigotry are not unique to any country. Perhaps Mr. Cohen should stop equating the current German government with the Volkswagen company. To do so is intellectually lazy, at the least.
As a dual US-German national, perhaps I have leave to say that there is something particularly American about sentences that start with, "There is something particularly German about" [fill in perceived Teutonic failing here]. We aren't nearly as bad as the clichés about us report us to be, and by "we" I mean both Germans and Americans.
132
As a German American who served 26 years as a US Marine I deeply resent this kind of writing/thinking by a man who was a cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq!
1
I am US - German national and I think it is a very narrow minded view this article ! Corporation does not = equal german people ! This kind of behavior is everywhere where profit is God !!
1
I did not condone the way Germany dealt with the Greek crisis. But for Mr Cohen to blame an entire country for the fault of VW or Lufthansa, is as anti German as Carson anti Islam rants.
When will Mr Cohen write a piece blaming America for Wall st bankers who almost destroyed the world economy ? Or the Iraqi invasion that you supported and which directly and indirect destroyed Millions of lives and turned the Middle East into the war zone that it is today?
Mr Cohen would certainly not hold The US to the same standard as Germany for fear to be call Anti American. It's always easy to go after Germany.
When will Mr Cohen write a piece blaming America for Wall st bankers who almost destroyed the world economy ? Or the Iraqi invasion that you supported and which directly and indirect destroyed Millions of lives and turned the Middle East into the war zone that it is today?
Mr Cohen would certainly not hold The US to the same standard as Germany for fear to be call Anti American. It's always easy to go after Germany.
9
This is hardly a German disease. Fraud has become a business plan or the business plan for many if not all large American corporations including but not limited to banks and big Pharmacy. The "nice" thing is that Germans are furious with VW not just because they cheated but because they tainted the country's reputation.
6
I'm a shiksa married to a man of Jewish heritage. Roger Cohen is also of Jewish heritage. Over and over I hear that German culture is faulty for this or that reason, always with the Nazi example in the background. Now Volkswagen is the scapegoat for condemnation of German culture. Don't they realize that approximately 5/8 of United States' population is of German heritage? If there has to be a scapegoat for Volkswagen's bad acts, it is corporate culture, not German culture.
20
Uh oh here we go again with the need for some nation to do some serious soul searching after some wrongdoing after some multinational corporation has been busted. Why does the Times OP ED section constantly harp on soul searching as a solution for every problem?
3
"Holier Than Thou" is what NYT does best.
2
There is a German expression that personifies the "chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing". We say "Oben hui, unten phui". On top splendid, underneath filthy.
I've railed against that ethos my entire life. We were taught about the absolute necessity of maintaining that splendid face. There was little attention paid to the filth. As long as you couldn't see it, all was fine.
As a German Canadian growing up in this hypocrisy was crazy making. We couldn't consort with our farming neighbor's children because they were proletarians. We had no friends other than those of other German families who visited on Sundays. We had no television for the same reason. Our world was proscribed the way the world was proscribed to all German children of that time - indoctrinated at birth to accept the system.
Deutschland Uber Alles was banned as the German anthem for obvious reasons after the Second World War. It's now back. Volkswagen's CEO, engineers, and countless others in the company, knew and accepted the necessity of installing the work around software. It's not cheating. It's not even remotely cheating when its done by Germans. Here's another gem from the mouth of father, "Quod licet Jovi, non licit bovi" Jupiter is allowed. The plebs are not.
You'll see no soul searching here.
I've railed against that ethos my entire life. We were taught about the absolute necessity of maintaining that splendid face. There was little attention paid to the filth. As long as you couldn't see it, all was fine.
As a German Canadian growing up in this hypocrisy was crazy making. We couldn't consort with our farming neighbor's children because they were proletarians. We had no friends other than those of other German families who visited on Sundays. We had no television for the same reason. Our world was proscribed the way the world was proscribed to all German children of that time - indoctrinated at birth to accept the system.
Deutschland Uber Alles was banned as the German anthem for obvious reasons after the Second World War. It's now back. Volkswagen's CEO, engineers, and countless others in the company, knew and accepted the necessity of installing the work around software. It's not cheating. It's not even remotely cheating when its done by Germans. Here's another gem from the mouth of father, "Quod licet Jovi, non licit bovi" Jupiter is allowed. The plebs are not.
You'll see no soul searching here.
6
The central issue is trust in Germany, something the rest of the world has been trying to do since WWII. This scandal illuminates the dichotomy the world faces with Germany. Will they be the hailed engineers of technical expertise or will they use that expertise underhandedly? The historical freight of precisely what the Germans did in the 1930's and 1940's hangs over this scandal; they are brilliant but proven prone to deviousness and worse. What rankled me was VW's statement that the cars were safe to drive. Safe? For whom?
2
What is missing here is a look at the hypocrisy. Germany isn't worse than other countries. It is that other countries haven't built their national brand on being exactly the opposite as has their single largest most successful company has acted. Spare me the righteous indignation.
When the US, and our masters of the universe bankers, ran the world economy into a ditch in 2008, the rest of the world rightfully took us to task. The bankers didn't like it, and the reflexive apologists didn't like it, but many did like it and thought it deserved. And we were better off for it. The next stage of bank crises hit Europe over sketchy real estate loans in Spain, and China over shady underwriting to the favored firms of local "communist" party bureaucrats, but passed over the US because we had started to clean up our act.
Germany needs to suck it up and get over themselves.
The real problem is that when Europe needed leadership, Germany decided they wouldn't pay the price and lead the continent. They decided to wag a finger. They, all of a sudden, discovered they were not European, but rather, German. Hypocrisy can be mighty lonely.
Now, with a refugee crisis and a corporate malfeasance scandal plunked squarely in their collective lap, when they could use some unified European support, their continental partners need to only look a couple of months back to realize where the Germans stood when the chips were down and leading the European block was going to cost them something,
When the US, and our masters of the universe bankers, ran the world economy into a ditch in 2008, the rest of the world rightfully took us to task. The bankers didn't like it, and the reflexive apologists didn't like it, but many did like it and thought it deserved. And we were better off for it. The next stage of bank crises hit Europe over sketchy real estate loans in Spain, and China over shady underwriting to the favored firms of local "communist" party bureaucrats, but passed over the US because we had started to clean up our act.
Germany needs to suck it up and get over themselves.
The real problem is that when Europe needed leadership, Germany decided they wouldn't pay the price and lead the continent. They decided to wag a finger. They, all of a sudden, discovered they were not European, but rather, German. Hypocrisy can be mighty lonely.
Now, with a refugee crisis and a corporate malfeasance scandal plunked squarely in their collective lap, when they could use some unified European support, their continental partners need to only look a couple of months back to realize where the Germans stood when the chips were down and leading the European block was going to cost them something,
3
Well, of course the VW breach of trust is a total mess. It will cost an enormous sum of money to get past, as well as a monumental amount of pain -- pain for employees, pain for shareholders, and pain for other stakeholders. And then there is something worse, at least from a certain perspective: one more occasion for the erosion of trust in our commercial institutions. But I find this piece full of conflations and odd equations. There are intimations here about the German character per se, about German hypocrisy, about the German government's desire for austerity. John from Hartford, who has posted here, provides some apt reminders. Some of the worst scandals in recent years have been home grown, including scandals involving our own auto industry, and several other industries. Why the leap from a single -- albeit very important -- corporation's instance of management and ethical failure to a general critique of the German ethos cum intimations of a supervening spookiness concerning a country that has become a powerful force in leading and stabilizing Europe?
1
The problem might lie less with an inherently morally questionable German nation than with a system that values jobs above all else. VW has tried to grow its market share in order to insure full employment in its region: on its board sit representatives of the local state government, and trade union representatives. This is all well and good--it's a response to the tendency among US and international firms in general to close factories and chase cheaper labor elsewhere--but it results in policies that ensure that big manufacturing companies are "too big to fail." The full employment imperative no doubt also creates, among the executives of the company, the sense that the firm is invulnerable, and beyond morality (as long as it gets the job done).
Thus we now have two kinds of corporate immorality: the one we are most familiar with--closing factories and exporting jobs, or eliminating them if it's better for the bottom line--and the other, something of a novelly to us here in the US, and represented by VW--high employment at all costs, state-corporation union and hence, in principle at least, corporate invulnerability. Another effect is that while the first model leads to underemployment and more generalized unemployment, the second leads to full employment (as in VW's home state), but linked with a larger inefficiency: VW requires twice as many employees to build only slightly more cars than Toyota.
Thus we now have two kinds of corporate immorality: the one we are most familiar with--closing factories and exporting jobs, or eliminating them if it's better for the bottom line--and the other, something of a novelly to us here in the US, and represented by VW--high employment at all costs, state-corporation union and hence, in principle at least, corporate invulnerability. Another effect is that while the first model leads to underemployment and more generalized unemployment, the second leads to full employment (as in VW's home state), but linked with a larger inefficiency: VW requires twice as many employees to build only slightly more cars than Toyota.
2
I happen to be rather a fan of Germany and its culture, although I won't buy a German car given the manufacturers' likely involvement in the Holocaust. I think Germany in some ways is a model for a successful nation. But Volkswagen's actions and reactions to the scandal exemplify a particularly endemic European/UK problem: arrogance. It has been breathtaking to see the disconnect between leaders and the millions suffering under the euro crisis and recession. Not that the US is immune: we have a long history of corporate malfeasance. But Germany has been conveying a high and mighty message to its neighbors about moral rectitude. Guess what--German leaders can be as venal and opportunistic as the rest of the world.
3
A VW commercial which has recently run on TV and in print media sports the catchphrase: "Isn't it time for German engineering?" The message, I suppose, is that 70 years after the defeat of the Nazi war machine, with Germany now a force for good in the world, we can relax and enjoy all that precision tooling and devotion to detail without untoward associations. I don't imagine we'll be seeing that commercial again any time soon.
2
Sorry, but I find this conflation of a company with a nation offensive. Was Japan pilloried for Toyota's misbehavior? Are we falling on our swords because GM turned the country into a killing field? This column confirms something I was suspecting in the hysterical reactions to VW's deception, and that is anti-German sentiment fueling a lot of the ire.
It's regrettable that we haven't learned more from the mistakes of others.
It's regrettable that we haven't learned more from the mistakes of others.
8
Greed is not an ethnic or racial thing. it does not recognize borders.
8
Defrauding customers, nations, and communities by willfully polluting the environment is egregious beyond description. Everyone in the neighborhood is exposed every day, now, to increases in asthma and other medical conditions that have lifelong effects. There is no defense for such behavior.
And let’s not forget that this corporate irresponsibility is allowed to flourish because of politicians who advocate reduction, even elimination, of environmental oversight and testing. They, too, are culpable for siding against the welfare of citizens and the communities in which they live. Along with the failed corporate managers, these politicians are unfit to serve and need to be removed from office.
If there ever is to be a case for stripping corporate executives of all they earned because of fraud, this is it. The CEO, the Board, and high-level managers need to be held fully accountable and the end result needs to simultaneously imprison them and reduce them financially to a low-level economic status. Confiscating the freedom and money of those who do such things is a small start to remedy the damage done by such people to the citizens of many nations. Justice demands it.
And let’s not forget that this corporate irresponsibility is allowed to flourish because of politicians who advocate reduction, even elimination, of environmental oversight and testing. They, too, are culpable for siding against the welfare of citizens and the communities in which they live. Along with the failed corporate managers, these politicians are unfit to serve and need to be removed from office.
If there ever is to be a case for stripping corporate executives of all they earned because of fraud, this is it. The CEO, the Board, and high-level managers need to be held fully accountable and the end result needs to simultaneously imprison them and reduce them financially to a low-level economic status. Confiscating the freedom and money of those who do such things is a small start to remedy the damage done by such people to the citizens of many nations. Justice demands it.
Yes, it is more than just a scandal, and 'deeply disappointing' doesn't begin to express it. But when it comes to combining loud 'professed moral rectitude' with 'reckless wrongdoing', no, this is not peculiarly German. Here, I do believe, the US invasion of Iraq, and all that has followed, probably takes the 21st-century cake, and then some, even judged in purely environmental terms, not to mention human lives.
8
One should perhaps resist the temptation - all too easy in the case of Germany - to equate one delinquent company with the entire nation. Unless you're willing to talk about the American character in connection with Enron or, for that matter, Donald Trump. Believe me, Volkswagen has done near irreparable harm to Germany's image and Germans, more than anyone, know it. Considering that the overwhelming majority of Germans were born after the war, it may be time to show a little more caution when discussing modern Germany and refrain from reflexively referencing 1933-45. Unless, of course, your're prepared to see everything American in the light of 200 years of slavery and another 100 years of Jim Crow.
16
The author of this piece has a clear bias against the German people for the obvious historical reasons. Since when do we conflate corporate malfeasance with the moral failings of an entire country? Everything Germany ever does must be seen through the lens of their greatest historical failure, lucky that the rest of the world does not have to live to such standards.
12
Mr. Cohen's column said exactly what I think many people believe but which, from the perspective of political correctness, is deemed impossible to say. Judging from the comments here, he has upset a lot of people who are leaping to the defense of the German character — well, I say cue up Noël Coward's song "Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans." Anyone who has done business with Germans and their companies realizes that they view themselves as superior in every respect. They do, however, seethe with resentment over the unsurpassably nasty history they are forced to acknowledge.
Additionally, it has come out today that the supplier of the software for the computer modules that govern the emissions system in the 2.0L Diesel, warned VW in 2007 that the use of this software for other than test purposes would produce illegal emissions. In 2011, two engineers who worked for Volkswagen also notified the VW leadership that the software was not usable. However, the UreaBlue anti-emissions system that diesels made by other companies use (and is used as well on larger VW engines) costs 300 euros per car more than the cheat.
Additionally, it has come out today that the supplier of the software for the computer modules that govern the emissions system in the 2.0L Diesel, warned VW in 2007 that the use of this software for other than test purposes would produce illegal emissions. In 2011, two engineers who worked for Volkswagen also notified the VW leadership that the software was not usable. However, the UreaBlue anti-emissions system that diesels made by other companies use (and is used as well on larger VW engines) costs 300 euros per car more than the cheat.
7
Why is it that every op-ed piece I've read equates Volkswagen to the culture of Germany? Is it fair to say that GM's ignition scandal, which directly killed numerous people, is a reflection of the American people?
GM blamed the culture of "Old GM", the old GM which was directly bailed out by the American government. So I guess we should blame Americans for the failures of GM. Alright.
GM blamed the culture of "Old GM", the old GM which was directly bailed out by the American government. So I guess we should blame Americans for the failures of GM. Alright.
9
Is it really necessary or helpful to frame the current malfeasance at Volswagen through the lens of Germany's historical atrocities? This approach appears to ignore opportunities for a more nuanced understanding and undermines any chance for a productive discussion that is grounded in an acceptance of the humanity (and falability) of the German people.
15
I beg to disagree: the German people themselves seem to have difficulty accepting the humanity and fallibility of the German people. The notion of a "super-race" continues to haunt them. And VW's lust to be the Number One automaker in the world--not just Number Two--reflects that ancient shadow.
WWII and the holocaust were not created by the acts of a lone madman, but according to careful historical analysis since, with the willing participation of a considerable portion of the German People. How can we not see the echoes of that hubris in the current denouement of Volkswagen's corporate ego?
WWII and the holocaust were not created by the acts of a lone madman, but according to careful historical analysis since, with the willing participation of a considerable portion of the German People. How can we not see the echoes of that hubris in the current denouement of Volkswagen's corporate ego?
1
It is really ridiculous to link this emission issue with the German soul. It is maybe bad for the VW brand name, but when the problem is approached in a rational way, the facts should point to a different conclusion:
- The difference between lab tests and real world tests has been known and documented for years (for instance the Dutch government lab TNO found big discrepancies between official lab tests and their road tests of emissions of all car brands, which was reported two years ago).
- Although this was known, no government action was taken in Europe, mainly because France and Germany dominate the Brussels bureaucracy.
- The car makers are caught between politicians who demand less emission and consumers who want cheap, fast cars. No politician dared to implement the strict emission limits, since the political backlash will be severe if consumers find out that the green policies have a price tag.
So, it may be nice to bash the German industry (like Americans did in the past with the Japanese), but the real soul searching should be done by governments who knew this, but were afraid to act.
- The difference between lab tests and real world tests has been known and documented for years (for instance the Dutch government lab TNO found big discrepancies between official lab tests and their road tests of emissions of all car brands, which was reported two years ago).
- Although this was known, no government action was taken in Europe, mainly because France and Germany dominate the Brussels bureaucracy.
- The car makers are caught between politicians who demand less emission and consumers who want cheap, fast cars. No politician dared to implement the strict emission limits, since the political backlash will be severe if consumers find out that the green policies have a price tag.
So, it may be nice to bash the German industry (like Americans did in the past with the Japanese), but the real soul searching should be done by governments who knew this, but were afraid to act.
9
The article is full of hyperbole and hyperventilation. Please, Roger, get a grip.
Hitler is not at the helm of Volkswagen. It is cheating by a company and a corporate scandal. It has nothing to do with German culture.
Hitler is not at the helm of Volkswagen. It is cheating by a company and a corporate scandal. It has nothing to do with German culture.
24
And denial ain't just a river in Egypt....
1
From the comments there are those that get it right when they point out our own faults. We are very familiar with the stereotypes of the various nationalities world-wide. Every nation has prisons for a reason. Germans are stuck with a particular stereotype that is, indeed, very uncomplimentary but surely not every German would pull off such a fraud as that done by the VW folks.
3
I disagree with your statement that:
"Postwar suspicion of it led other European nations and the United States to devote the bulk of their strategic energy to ensuring that Germany would never be all-powerful again. That, in fact, was their overriding concern."
At the end of the fighting of WWII, Germany was occupied by the two remaining world powers. The Soviet Union instituted a puppet state it maintained for almost 50 years, while the Western powers returned to Germany its right of self governance. There was no plot to prevent the rise of a new German state in the West or ensure a weak Germany.
And while you may be raising valid issues about how Volkswagen and Lufthansa leadership have dealt with these situations, I disagree with your conclusion that this is due to a flaw in German national character. Using the same logic have you condemned Great Britain for the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, or the US for the Exxon Valdez? Both were environmental catastrophes of the same order.
"Postwar suspicion of it led other European nations and the United States to devote the bulk of their strategic energy to ensuring that Germany would never be all-powerful again. That, in fact, was their overriding concern."
At the end of the fighting of WWII, Germany was occupied by the two remaining world powers. The Soviet Union instituted a puppet state it maintained for almost 50 years, while the Western powers returned to Germany its right of self governance. There was no plot to prevent the rise of a new German state in the West or ensure a weak Germany.
And while you may be raising valid issues about how Volkswagen and Lufthansa leadership have dealt with these situations, I disagree with your conclusion that this is due to a flaw in German national character. Using the same logic have you condemned Great Britain for the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, or the US for the Exxon Valdez? Both were environmental catastrophes of the same order.
15
As an ardent fan of Roger Cohen, I was deeply disappointed by this piece. Yes, the VW scandal is huge and the subterfuge fraudulent, senseless and damaging to public trust and public health. ( I have my own take on it in my cartoon today: http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2015/09/catspeak-3.html)
What disappointed me is, that in condemning Germany for this scandal, he evokes the German handling of the Greek crisis, but makes no mention of its handling of the refugee crisis--a German act of mercy, moral courage and openness more nations should emulate. He doesn't mention it because it doesn't fit into his rigid argument that the bad Germany has reared its ugly head again. This is knee-jerk editorializing, once again reducing Germany to a cliche.
None are more horriified and scandalized by VW's actions than Germans themselves. They've been conditioned to accept moral responsibility for their actions--and this is good--but the fraud a global corporation committed should not be thrown at them. Perhaps it's the boardrooms of this world that should be doing the soul-searching, not a nation that has worked so hard to become a positive example.
What disappointed me is, that in condemning Germany for this scandal, he evokes the German handling of the Greek crisis, but makes no mention of its handling of the refugee crisis--a German act of mercy, moral courage and openness more nations should emulate. He doesn't mention it because it doesn't fit into his rigid argument that the bad Germany has reared its ugly head again. This is knee-jerk editorializing, once again reducing Germany to a cliche.
None are more horriified and scandalized by VW's actions than Germans themselves. They've been conditioned to accept moral responsibility for their actions--and this is good--but the fraud a global corporation committed should not be thrown at them. Perhaps it's the boardrooms of this world that should be doing the soul-searching, not a nation that has worked so hard to become a positive example.
23
You've got it wrong on Germany and the migrant crisis. Bullying small neighbours, ignoring EU law, and unilaterally changing Europe's demography is not heroic, but arrogant.
1
I really admire the courage of this article. The author knows that his arguments could easily be subjected to the "fallacy of composition" problem, i.e. draw a broad generalized conclusion from a specific data point or event. Nonetheless, I think there is much to what he is saying. I have lived in Germany, in many different parts of the country. They absolutely revere and venerate their corporations. Cathedrals and other historical monuments are interesting tourist attractions (many had to be rebuilt after the war), but all of their corporations are treated like Gods. Aldi, BMW, VW, DM, etc. Like most people they will defend their religion to the death - in that case, all VW needs, like the Catholic church needed, is a new leader to sweep away the sins of the past.
5
Why does every instance of corporate malfeasance have to become a "deep" lesson for an entire nation (preferably Germany, of course), or a systemic problem, or a mega-philosophical and universal affair? This is just a case of corporate - or individual, if you prefer - malfeasance; there were plenty of them in the US, in Italy, in the UK, in Japan, in Spain, in... wherever; was there a need to overhaul the "system" or the national culture there too? Why don't we change the entire planet while we are at it? Volkswagen, like every case before them and many others I'm sure after them, were brought to justice, and that's all we can and should do. Journalists, who seem to find nothing better than grandstanding in every occasion they run into and drawing forced "generic" conclusion from every event, should stop pontificating and stick to reporting. We should be happy that most of the crooks pretty much get caught. It's human nature to keep producing them.
16
Some of us expect more from Germany.
Maybe its because of their greatness in music, math and literature,
engineering and philosophy.
This VW scandal is the downside of our great expectations and a continuation of the private battle I have had with myself over Germany my entire life.
I agree with Roger Cohen.
Maybe its because of their greatness in music, math and literature,
engineering and philosophy.
This VW scandal is the downside of our great expectations and a continuation of the private battle I have had with myself over Germany my entire life.
I agree with Roger Cohen.
Get a clue Roberto. All executives get a free pass, except perhaps in China. We in the United States have seen no one go to jail over the banking scandal or wall street scandal. Politicians like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld walk the streets instead of being prosecuted as war criminals. The wealthy kill with impunity. Large corporations pollute the environment, The NRA domestic terrorism organization killing machine advocates for lawlessness. If you think, by any stretch of the imagination, that most crooks get caught you are either ignorant or one of the crooks.
I think in Italy and Germany everything is possible while in centralized intellectually driven France it is more difficult. Those former city state countries have always been dominated by merchants and local businesses that dominate their society and welcomed more or less the Nazis.
3
It's a ridiculous leap to indict the entire country over the Volkswagen scandal. But admit it, on the media level, with their lecturing on good behavior, "Germany" has been begging to be taken down a peg.
And admit that on Volkswagen's part, this is very bad, the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing. Speaking as a consumer, I'll buy German, but not Volkswagen.
And admit that on Volkswagen's part, this is very bad, the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing. Speaking as a consumer, I'll buy German, but not Volkswagen.
7
There are two issues to points out:
1. The desire to maximize profits over consideration for the health of people and of the environment. This can be assigned to greed and gross management irresponsibility.
2. The hubris implied in the conviction that they could get away with a scam of these proportions. This may be assigned to a sense of technical superiority, which may or may not find its source in German culture.
Finally, Cohen's remark "But Germany is reluctant to lead: been there, tried that."
is totally incorrect. Germany never tried to lead Europe, what it did was to try to dominate it.
Seemingly, they do not have the necessary skills or the willingness to do it.
1. The desire to maximize profits over consideration for the health of people and of the environment. This can be assigned to greed and gross management irresponsibility.
2. The hubris implied in the conviction that they could get away with a scam of these proportions. This may be assigned to a sense of technical superiority, which may or may not find its source in German culture.
Finally, Cohen's remark "But Germany is reluctant to lead: been there, tried that."
is totally incorrect. Germany never tried to lead Europe, what it did was to try to dominate it.
Seemingly, they do not have the necessary skills or the willingness to do it.
4
This disgraceful article is a complete beat up. You've lost me Mr. Cohen, I thought you were working on a higher standard.
29
The author of this piece has a clear bias against the German people for the obvious historical reasons. Since when do we conflate corporate malfeasance with the moral failings of an entire country. Everything Germany ever does must be seen through the lens of their greatest historical failure, lucky that the rest of the world does not have to live to such standards.
80
Alas, it's not solely an historical bias. Having worked for German companies for more than 20 years, I can assure you that they are the same people who ceded control of their nation to an angry madman, and doomed millions to horrors we can barely conceive. They remain arrogant and ethnocentric and all too willing to demand (and hide behind) that their people just "followed orders".
1
I don't thunk he has a bias against Germans - I work with them all the time and the tendency towards misplaced and self regarding smugness about German rectitude is an issue.
2
Perhaps the rest of the world should be judged as stringently. Had George Bush, Cheney et al been more aware of history they might have hesitated in Iraq and Afghanistan.
1
Germans and Germany are all too naturally human. A mixture of tragedy, comedy, majesty and depravity along with everything between. There are more German Americans than there are any kind of Americans based upon ethnicity and national origin. Germany has faced and dealt with it's past xenophobic ethnic supremacist transgressions far more openly and completely than Japan. Both nations are facing a socioeconomic political educational demographic nightmare as their populations age and shrink. They are both expected to shrink by double digit percentages by mid-century
Americans cast stones and judge Germany at their hypocritical peril. The Volkswagen aka the People's Car was the ideal innovation of the Austrian Adolf Hitler. Henry Ford was an admirer of Nazi Germany. As a result of it's concealed ignition problem GM killed people. America leads the world in mass incarceration and military-industrial complex inhumane expenditures and adventurism. The last Pope Benedict XVI was a German national with a complicated Nazi German government past. NASA began as the continuation of the Nazi German rocket program.
I am willing to trust and forgive Germany and Germans. With the angst and guilt over past defeats, Germany is trying to redeem and restore itself one refugee at a time.
Americans cast stones and judge Germany at their hypocritical peril. The Volkswagen aka the People's Car was the ideal innovation of the Austrian Adolf Hitler. Henry Ford was an admirer of Nazi Germany. As a result of it's concealed ignition problem GM killed people. America leads the world in mass incarceration and military-industrial complex inhumane expenditures and adventurism. The last Pope Benedict XVI was a German national with a complicated Nazi German government past. NASA began as the continuation of the Nazi German rocket program.
I am willing to trust and forgive Germany and Germans. With the angst and guilt over past defeats, Germany is trying to redeem and restore itself one refugee at a time.
37
blackmamba: Excellent post, esp. final paragraph wherein Germany's better angels shine.
2
Actually, the Nazi rocket program began as a continuation of the rocket research conducted by American Robert Goddard in the late 1920, who approached the US government with his discoveries but wasn't taken seriously and ignored. Unfortunately for large swaths of London, the Germans took his early discoveries very seriously.
1
Too bad you won 't give the Jews and Israel the same benefit of the doubt. Yet Germany and Germans get a pass. As a youth Pope Benedict was part of the Hitler Youth. Henry Ford was a rabid anti-Semite. I didn't know the failed made Austrian housepainter was such an innovator when it came to the automotive industry.
#1. 17% of VW is owned by Qatar, a kingdom rich due to one thing: oil. The "clean" diesel strategy adopted by VW over electric hybrid and battery-electric directly supports Qatar's interests, as Germany is getting more and more of its electricity from solar and wind projects and is on the road to getting all their electricity from renewable sources. Qatar had no voice in choosing the strategy of diesel over electric vehicles? How German is Qatar, exactly?
#2. Germany is taking in one million refugees and migrants this year. Is this another example of Germany's "reckless wrongdoing"?
#2. Germany is taking in one million refugees and migrants this year. Is this another example of Germany's "reckless wrongdoing"?
33
before we start damning all vw's, remember they are made all over europe.... i doubt if many are actually made in germany ...
what is the difference, in the specs ... how much damage has it actually caused ...
remember GM's lock decision Killed people .. and they got a cheap slap on the wrist
Cigarette companies... they got the smokers to pay their damage
what is the difference, in the specs ... how much damage has it actually caused ...
remember GM's lock decision Killed people .. and they got a cheap slap on the wrist
Cigarette companies... they got the smokers to pay their damage
20
The Problem: Wrong Fuel in the Right Engine.
Diesel is one of the lowest quality fuels: in the USA, diesel's cetane rating (cetane is to diesel what octane is to gasoline) is 39. In other words: Diesel is a cancer-causing, asthma-causing, diabetes-causing, brownfields-causing, water-pollution-causing toxic mess. Yet, Diesel is burned in cars, trains, school buses, trucks, planes, ships, generators, metro buses ...
The Solution: Volkswagen should make CLEANer-burning Biodiesel available at EVERY VW dealership, starting in the USA. VW should partner with Community-Scale Biodiesel-from-Waste processors (for example: see BioPro success stories http://www.springboardbiodiesel.com/BioPro-Success-Stories and Piedmont Biofuels+ presentations http://www.collectivebiodiesel.org/presentations/index14.php) to make CLEANER-burning non-toxic Biodiesel available at EVERY VW dealership.
Why:
Biodiesel emits 50% to 80% LESS GHGs than Diesel ...
There are >13 Billion gallons of easy-to-make $1/gallon Biodiesel Available ...
Biodiesel can be used in just about any diesel engine with NO modification ...
Biodiesel is a High Quality, Low Cost, Made-from-Waste, Low Polluting, Non-Toxic fuel ...
Biodiesel is the EPA's most extensively tested clean fuel ...
See the EPA's Biodiesel Benefits website: http://www3.epa.gov/region09/waste/biodiesel/benefits.html
Diesel is one of the lowest quality fuels: in the USA, diesel's cetane rating (cetane is to diesel what octane is to gasoline) is 39. In other words: Diesel is a cancer-causing, asthma-causing, diabetes-causing, brownfields-causing, water-pollution-causing toxic mess. Yet, Diesel is burned in cars, trains, school buses, trucks, planes, ships, generators, metro buses ...
The Solution: Volkswagen should make CLEANer-burning Biodiesel available at EVERY VW dealership, starting in the USA. VW should partner with Community-Scale Biodiesel-from-Waste processors (for example: see BioPro success stories http://www.springboardbiodiesel.com/BioPro-Success-Stories and Piedmont Biofuels+ presentations http://www.collectivebiodiesel.org/presentations/index14.php) to make CLEANER-burning non-toxic Biodiesel available at EVERY VW dealership.
Why:
Biodiesel emits 50% to 80% LESS GHGs than Diesel ...
There are >13 Billion gallons of easy-to-make $1/gallon Biodiesel Available ...
Biodiesel can be used in just about any diesel engine with NO modification ...
Biodiesel is a High Quality, Low Cost, Made-from-Waste, Low Polluting, Non-Toxic fuel ...
Biodiesel is the EPA's most extensively tested clean fuel ...
See the EPA's Biodiesel Benefits website: http://www3.epa.gov/region09/waste/biodiesel/benefits.html
13
The open question with biodiesel is NOX. It may even result in higher NOX than petro-diesel.
I hope the follow-on argument is not that higher fuel efficiency trumps NOX. That reduces the complexity of the issue beyond its real dimensions.
I hope the follow-on argument is not that higher fuel efficiency trumps NOX. That reduces the complexity of the issue beyond its real dimensions.
Biodiesel doesn't reduce NOx, which is VW's problem. The emission benefits of biodiesel are primarily seen in uncontrolled diesels, where it does reduce soot formation.
Fundamentally there's no way to prevent NOx formation in an air-rich engine (which is what diesels are) and have high fuel efficiency, because that high fuel efficiency depends on high combustion temperatures, which make NOx. This doesn't depend on the fuel being burned -- is true if hydrogen is burned.
Control strategies include EGR, which reduces peak temperature, reduces NOx ... and reduces efficiency.
The other control strategies accept that the engine will make NOx and control it afterwards. These are catalytic strategies one way or another. Standard diesels have troubles with this because the catalysis is harder if the exhaust is oxygen rich. That's why the urea-injection strategy was developed for diesels.
Fundamentally there's no way to prevent NOx formation in an air-rich engine (which is what diesels are) and have high fuel efficiency, because that high fuel efficiency depends on high combustion temperatures, which make NOx. This doesn't depend on the fuel being burned -- is true if hydrogen is burned.
Control strategies include EGR, which reduces peak temperature, reduces NOx ... and reduces efficiency.
The other control strategies accept that the engine will make NOx and control it afterwards. These are catalytic strategies one way or another. Standard diesels have troubles with this because the catalysis is harder if the exhaust is oxygen rich. That's why the urea-injection strategy was developed for diesels.
Arrogance is what this is all about. Many Germans are quick to remind you of the wonders of German engineering. I don't get it. Look at the latest survey by Consumer Reports of cars that burn an excessive amount of oil. 9 of the 13 cars are German made, some very expensive models. How is this exceptional? German cars are not particularly reliable. Ask any independent mechanic and they will tell you German made cars are trouble prone. Consumer Reports confirms this. This is like the Republican media machine, say it enough times and people will believe it. Sorry, I owned a VW once and it was the worst car by far that I have ever owned. I'm far more impressed with the engineering of cars from other countries so stop already with the German Engineering being the best!
8
This is hardly surprising as you can buy defeat devices for other makes of cars. The difference is the User installs them and removes them after the test. The Germans naively made it part of the car.
But it is not just VW that is wrong in Germany. It is also the actions of the chancellor, Angela Merkel. Her obvious cruelty to Greece is unforgivable. They needed debt relief but Merkel refused even as the IMF said that they needed it. She was too intent on punish the Greeks to listen to any reason.
In the Refugee Crisis she is at fault too. She issue a big invitation for Syrians to come to Germany which brought refugees from all sorts of countries to the EU. She never consulted anyone before she made that announcement that Germany was wide open for immigrants. Refugees flooded into Europe and now Merkel is insisting other countries share the burden of housing them. Many countries don't want the refugees. And they are angry about it. Not only that she is demanding money from the UK to help pay for it on the basis that they did not take any from refugees currently in the EU.
What gives Merkel the right to offload her problem caused by incautious comments on other members of the EU? Merkel is not the head of the EU but you would never know the way she acts. It is time to cut Merkel down to size and reduce her importance on the world stage.
It is time Germany has another Chancellor and it is time for Merkel to go.
But it is not just VW that is wrong in Germany. It is also the actions of the chancellor, Angela Merkel. Her obvious cruelty to Greece is unforgivable. They needed debt relief but Merkel refused even as the IMF said that they needed it. She was too intent on punish the Greeks to listen to any reason.
In the Refugee Crisis she is at fault too. She issue a big invitation for Syrians to come to Germany which brought refugees from all sorts of countries to the EU. She never consulted anyone before she made that announcement that Germany was wide open for immigrants. Refugees flooded into Europe and now Merkel is insisting other countries share the burden of housing them. Many countries don't want the refugees. And they are angry about it. Not only that she is demanding money from the UK to help pay for it on the basis that they did not take any from refugees currently in the EU.
What gives Merkel the right to offload her problem caused by incautious comments on other members of the EU? Merkel is not the head of the EU but you would never know the way she acts. It is time to cut Merkel down to size and reduce her importance on the world stage.
It is time Germany has another Chancellor and it is time for Merkel to go.
7
If I didn't know Winterkorn was German and that Volkawagen a German Firm, I'd swear that he was a Republican Congressman and that Volkswagen headquarters were a business in the USA- pumped by lobbyists and protected by Citizens United.
44
I purchased a 2015 Passat TDi this summer to replace my 2005 Jetta TDI. VW has always had fierce brand loyalty amongst a very particular subset of car buyers...and given the excellence of so many competing cars these days...one must admit that this irrational identification with a brand and the imaginary values it represents is something VW owners have always worn on their sleeves a bit. No one should be shocked that VW behaved like other corporations have behaved in the US and around the world. We live in a era of jungle capitalism on a global scale.
23
Why does Cohen dance all around the true problem, as most people do. The problem is capitalism! The behavior described in his column is that of a capitalist. Profit is the goal, not clean air, nor healthy people. Money in the pocket is the object, without regard as to the method used to get it!
29
This point would make more sense if the Chinese Communist Party had not created a monstrous ecological disaster from scratch in China. Market economies need effective government regulations. So do government operated economies. In China the Party chiefs decided that wealth production was more important than the environment. The results are history.
China does not have communism. its a plutocracy, similar to the U. S..
Their trick to falsify emissions and mpg data when the auto sensed it was being tested was too clever by half.
Just think if all that German know-how and sophisticated engineering had been put to work instead on improving the _actual_ emissions and mpg. Not only would the company be the number one auto maker, but it would be making the world a better place to live, drive, and breathe.
Just think if all that German know-how and sophisticated engineering had been put to work instead on improving the _actual_ emissions and mpg. Not only would the company be the number one auto maker, but it would be making the world a better place to live, drive, and breathe.
4
This may have been the best thing that happened to Germany, since they lost the Second World War, with the loss of millions of German Youth, & billions of treasure.This display of human frailties, will bring them back to earth , & maybe install some humility that is sadly lacking in the country's character.Made in Germany, will no longer mean quality of craft or resolve.
6
"This display of human frailties, will bring them back to earth , & maybe install some humility that is sadly lacking in the country's character.". Sir, if you would like to see world best displays of mindless hubris and staggering levels of ignorance and stupidity you're certainly in the right place. Go to the front page and follow the US political circus.
9
Wouldn't it be great if the World were to follow the US's sterling example. NOT!
Realworld,
The article is about Germany, American Politics is certainly a circus & may I add frightening, but it does not relate to this article.
The article is about Germany, American Politics is certainly a circus & may I add frightening, but it does not relate to this article.
1
Mr. Cohen is making an enormous and unfounded leap in logic when he extrapolates Volkswagen's misdeeds into a wholesale indictment of the German national character (whatever that may be). It relies on crude stereotypes and pettiness. It is very clear that there is a word Mr. Cohen is just dying to use in this article but doesn't dare. That word is "Nazi". His insinuations are obvious and repulsive. It is clear he has jumped on one company's indefensible actions to indict an entire nation based on a past it has thoroughly repudiated. This is the essence of bigotry, Mr. Cohen. You should be ashamed.
31
But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing, between high culture and low conduct, between angels’ wings and nitrogen oxides; and there is something peculiarly German about the devastating impact this has.'
No, no, no. Everything you attribute to being 'peculiarly German' could as easily be said of many American companies, not only car companies but particularly the agricultural industry. You might, for instance, look closely at the issues of 'free range' poultry, 'cage free' eggs, and 'humanely raised' meat. In each case you will find a façade beneath which the brutal business goes on as usual - the animal equivalent of Theresienstadt, the 'show camp' the Nazis kept to mislead the world and to house a few 'high-value' prisoners who might be ransomable or whose too-brusque liquidation might raise an outcry.
If you had made a similar comment (and you could) about India or any number of Third-World countries, particularly if the populations were majority nonwhite, you couldn't get away with it. But you can kick at the First World all you like. At the bottom of that is another kind of racism - the assumption, perhaps, that we hold Europeans to a higher standard, whereas we look at other nations and shrug 'what can you expect?'
Mr Cohen, this column is cheap and intellectually dishonest. I'd expect better of you and usually get it.
No, no, no. Everything you attribute to being 'peculiarly German' could as easily be said of many American companies, not only car companies but particularly the agricultural industry. You might, for instance, look closely at the issues of 'free range' poultry, 'cage free' eggs, and 'humanely raised' meat. In each case you will find a façade beneath which the brutal business goes on as usual - the animal equivalent of Theresienstadt, the 'show camp' the Nazis kept to mislead the world and to house a few 'high-value' prisoners who might be ransomable or whose too-brusque liquidation might raise an outcry.
If you had made a similar comment (and you could) about India or any number of Third-World countries, particularly if the populations were majority nonwhite, you couldn't get away with it. But you can kick at the First World all you like. At the bottom of that is another kind of racism - the assumption, perhaps, that we hold Europeans to a higher standard, whereas we look at other nations and shrug 'what can you expect?'
Mr Cohen, this column is cheap and intellectually dishonest. I'd expect better of you and usually get it.
25
There is an astonishing difference between the Germans and the Americans.
They accepted responsibility for the WWII and never again waged another foreign war.
We never accepted any responsibility for the Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Laos War, the Cambodia War, the Gulf War, the Afghan War, the Iraq War, the Libya War and the Syria War.
We bombed everybody but it’s always somebody else fault.
Until we learn to accept the personal responsibility we will be doomed to waging the endless foreign conflicts.
The conflict of interests could be solved in two different ways - by launching the wars and by negotiations.
Our national problem is that we construe the negotiations and compromising as a sign of weakness.
At least that’s how our presidential candidates gain high favorability ratings and get elected by endorsing the notorious stupidity.
That’s why we have confronted the Russians, the Asians, the Persians, and the Arabs, or if described differently the orthodox Christians, the Buddhists, the communists, the Sunnis and the Shiites...
All they wanted was to have their way and not to follow our leadership.
If that’s enough for “casus belli” we have to rethink our national strategy and wisdom of elected leaders...
I bet we can wage our foreign policy in much smarter way. Negotiations and compromises would enable us to slash our military budget by 50%, balance the federal budget and eliminate the national debt...
At least that's how Bill Clinton did it
They accepted responsibility for the WWII and never again waged another foreign war.
We never accepted any responsibility for the Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Laos War, the Cambodia War, the Gulf War, the Afghan War, the Iraq War, the Libya War and the Syria War.
We bombed everybody but it’s always somebody else fault.
Until we learn to accept the personal responsibility we will be doomed to waging the endless foreign conflicts.
The conflict of interests could be solved in two different ways - by launching the wars and by negotiations.
Our national problem is that we construe the negotiations and compromising as a sign of weakness.
At least that’s how our presidential candidates gain high favorability ratings and get elected by endorsing the notorious stupidity.
That’s why we have confronted the Russians, the Asians, the Persians, and the Arabs, or if described differently the orthodox Christians, the Buddhists, the communists, the Sunnis and the Shiites...
All they wanted was to have their way and not to follow our leadership.
If that’s enough for “casus belli” we have to rethink our national strategy and wisdom of elected leaders...
I bet we can wage our foreign policy in much smarter way. Negotiations and compromises would enable us to slash our military budget by 50%, balance the federal budget and eliminate the national debt...
At least that's how Bill Clinton did it
18
The negotiations and the compromises are not a sign of weakness but an indicator of real democracy, tolerance, intelligence and dexterity...
“My way or highway” approach is a sign of rigidity, stubbornness and lack of intellectual skills to understand that the same objective can be achieved in many different ways...
“My way or highway” approach is a sign of rigidity, stubbornness and lack of intellectual skills to understand that the same objective can be achieved in many different ways...
This is little more than anti-German bigotry dressed-up as concern, a long time staple of the NY Times. Volkswagen's behavior was reprehensible, but then again, so was GM's when they hid information about their defective ignition switches. German prosecutors are looking into charging the CEO, an inquiry that began shortly after the news broke, which suggests a healthier attitude toward corporate malfeasance than what is found here. The German reaction to the NSA's illegal activities was far more encouraging than that of the American populace's collective apathy. This column has nothing to do with anything really wrong with Germany and everything to do with Roger Cohen's biases.
37
Why is it acceptable to stereotype and assign a series of alleged "character flaws" to a single ethnic group ("But there is something peculiarly German about..."), when to make similar charges against, say, African-Americans would be considered racist? Political correctness for me, but not for thee? Besides, as a number of commenters have pointed out, when it comes to the oxymoronic notion of American business ethics, Germany and the VW scandal pale in comparison. As Henry Miller said, "America is more mercenary than the meanest whore."
28
Henry Miller, that pillar of moral rectitude. (LOL)
I am one of those with a Takata airbag. Yet there is no solution and Toyota denies and avoids responsibility. Yet they are still using Takata for replacements with bags that use the same gas that caused the problem in the first place.
Criminals getting away with murders and incompetence. I don't know why anyone would want to buy a new car from them. VW is an even more absurd situation, with a conscious act of cheating everyone. Whom can you trust?
Criminals getting away with murders and incompetence. I don't know why anyone would want to buy a new car from them. VW is an even more absurd situation, with a conscious act of cheating everyone. Whom can you trust?
6
While I agree with the many readers who have taken Mr. Cohen to task for blaming German culture for VW, nonetheless, the hypocrisy and ruthlessness shown by Germany toward Greece is hard to forget. And yes, most of the criticisms against German culture could and should be directed toward US culture as well. But we have all given up on US culture, haven't we? Perhaps Mr. Cohen and the rest of the world wanted to believe that Germany was still holding itself to higher standards as a measure of hope?
2
This is a creepy and distressingly "essentialist" piece--contending, that is, that there's something essential about the German character that led to the appalling Volkswagen scam. As you put it, "something peculiarly German."
Is there "something peculiarly British" about the BP oil spill? Or "something peculiarly Mexican" about drug cartel warfare? Or "something peculiarly American" about Wall Street cheats? Or "something peculiarly Canadian" about Rob Ford?
I feel like taking a shower after reading this. There is no place for faux philosophizing about "peculiar" national characters and attributes. It leads in a very bad direction.
Is there "something peculiarly British" about the BP oil spill? Or "something peculiarly Mexican" about drug cartel warfare? Or "something peculiarly American" about Wall Street cheats? Or "something peculiarly Canadian" about Rob Ford?
I feel like taking a shower after reading this. There is no place for faux philosophizing about "peculiar" national characters and attributes. It leads in a very bad direction.
49
During WW2 my mother was a slave laborer at a Volkswagen plant. She made me promise never to drive a VW product. Now I have a second good reason.
5
Instead of blaming all of Germany on Volkswagon's fraud, let us instead look to the culture of the multi-national corporation.Multi-national corporations think of individual countries' regulations as annoyances that may be ignored when possible. The United States government did not fund the EPA to oversee monitoring of our environmental regulations. Bonkers! Let us all stand and wave our finger at defunding the EPA. I worked at a massive multi-national bank for two decades on senior staff. The multi-nationals need to be regulated and not by auditing firms that they hire themselves or self-regulation AKA do whatever you want.
Multinationals are never quite what they seem and they pay a lot for PR to keep that imagery alive. The EPA needs a fresh start. Congress, we have regulations that are not enforced that is not patriotic. It can kill us.
Multinationals are never quite what they seem and they pay a lot for PR to keep that imagery alive. The EPA needs a fresh start. Congress, we have regulations that are not enforced that is not patriotic. It can kill us.
11
No better. no worse than any other European country. They work harder than the rest, but the fiction that European countries are more honest, responsible, and moral than, let's say the US, is absurd. For years, reasonable have been pointing out the transparent hypocrisy of Europe. Europe is built on heavy industry, whether it's autos or airplanes, or banking and insurance, which has been in forefront of fraud, dishonesty and illegal behavior. They're for climate change as long as it doesn't affect their bottom line. And least we forget, Frances answer to climate change is to build yet another nuclear power plant, this one on the shores of Calais.
3
The corruption involved here is part of the global and largely US generated corporate culture. Profits trump everything.
Bernie has the correct response to this corruption but the corrupted beneficiaries of corporate bribery have a plan.
1. The corporate media is ignoring him and hoping his message dies from not being heard.
2. The bribed politicians and media will tar him with the socialist under every bed ploy, if ignoring him fails.
Bernie has the correct response to this corruption but the corrupted beneficiaries of corporate bribery have a plan.
1. The corporate media is ignoring him and hoping his message dies from not being heard.
2. The bribed politicians and media will tar him with the socialist under every bed ploy, if ignoring him fails.
4
The Germans was just emulating the Republicans!
7
I sit with too many business people to see this as a German problem. On a much smaller scale, I hear conversations that continually turn to strategies that will generate a profit, mostly for them, and the expense of workers, the environment, or whatever law or regulations stand in their way. Doing the right is not in the DNA of the business mind.
5
The column might have mentioned the migrants crisis. Against the rules of the EU, against the strong wishes of its small neighbours, without adequate consultation with anyone, without regard for the message it sends about Europe's borders, Germany unilaterally declared it would take in 800,000 migrants from the Middle East no matter how they got to Germany. Then Germany bent the EU's traditional consensual voting practices to bully other nations into taking the overflow--and of course once they settle in Germany, the migrants and their children will be able to move anywhere in the EU. All of this add libbed unilateralism will radically change Europe, but the Germans with customary zeal declare that it's a moral imperative (ignoring that most of the migrants are not refugees) and German columnists declare that the country is atoning for the Holocaust. Bullying neighbours, unilaterally changing the face of Europe, and importing hundreds of thousands of people from what are, statistically, the most anti-semitic and anti-Israeli countries on earth is not, on the surface, a very obvious way of atoning for the sins of WW2.
1
Am I the only one who is deeply bothered by Mr. Cohen's back-to-back columns, first about Jews, now about Germans, both of which come precariously close to arguing for collective responsibility? Jews have such-and-such traits, Germans have such-and-such traits--where does he think he's ton with this? After the debacle of the 20th century, we all know this is awful stuff.
Volkswagon committed a ghastly corporate crime. Heads should roll--as in, people (CEO's, everybody) should end up in jail over this. But German attitudes and Germany itself are not what this is about.
Volkswagon committed a ghastly corporate crime. Heads should roll--as in, people (CEO's, everybody) should end up in jail over this. But German attitudes and Germany itself are not what this is about.
19
I think you hit the nail....rightly so...Mr. Cohen loves to blame Israel and others, in a good deal of his columns....I'm only surprised that he hasn't connected Israel and Germany somehow....Many readers are correct in their criticism of his collective indictments...Alas poor Roger...your motives are coming to the fore....
Who knew farfegnugen actually meant far more pollutin.
3
I don't agree with your premise because capitalism/profit, not nationalism, was the sleek mechanism of this scandal. But I do fear for the German economy, the global economy and the well being of the planet. I fear that the GOP will utterly ignore this straight line between government regulations and climate change. I fear the smoggy haze of uncertainty as these cars continue to spew poison and the market to make them, fix them, to buy them and to sell them has basically collapsed. I fear being the owner of one of these cars (as I am), because it's going to take months, if not years to remedy the economic and environmental hazard I drive. The "people's car" now makes it harder for people to breathe and many people to make a living.
3
When there is this much cheating for so long it is the evidence of a corporate culture which encourages a 'whatever it takes' attitude. I would look strongly at everything Volkswagen has done, their books, their safety devices, the emissions of gas cars, everything. I doubt that their cheating is limited solely to diesel emissions.
The VW imbroglio and the suicidal German pilot give Cohen a reason for a large helping of schadenfreude. In the larger scheme of things, German government errors in these matters are vanishingly small sins of omission.
2
I usually find Mr Cohen's columns very insightful, but in this instance he is painting with a much too broad brush. You cannot just equate Volkswagen with the German government or Germany as a whole. That implies that there is something inherently wrong with the country. It's no different from Republicans in the US who complain about the government to no end, yet when you ask anyone who the government is you will get a wide range of answers, if not a blank stare. The answer is, Volkswagen, like the German government, like the US government, is made up of people. Some of them are greedy hypocrites who make really stupid mistakes. You may remember that Toyota and GM also had a few of those. But to suggest that Germany is somehow more hypocritical as a nation because of VW's very grave mistakes is neither logically defensible nor in any way constructive. I don't believe Mr Cohen has any ulterior motive or bias against Germany, but in this instance I think he succumbed to intellectual laziness.
9
"I am not aware of doing any wrong" .... weasel words, if any there were. If anything, they draw attention and scrutiny to the person.
But I also think the comment in the opening paragraph about clean air is a cheap shot.
But I also think the comment in the opening paragraph about clean air is a cheap shot.
2
Mr. Cohen, it is indeed tempting to wear the heavy mantle of righteousness but was it really necessary to point with a moralizing finger at a Germany that has made significant progress to make the world forget the horror it had inflicted what feels like a century ago?
Otto Normalbürger (Joe Blow) cannot be made responsible for this terrible cheating that has become a trade mark in the corporate world all over the globe. To put now in question all the incredible accomplishments of a nation that has worked its collective butt off to give Made in Germany a special meaning is a reach I can no longer follow.
You make it sound like Germany is now the number one polluter when in reality their cars are still among the cleanest in the world. The German people have become exemplary in their environmental consciousness. They deserve better than to be told that some heavy soul-searching will have to be done and that their probity and sense of morality is put in serious question. That smacks of sanctimony.
Otto Normalbürger (Joe Blow) cannot be made responsible for this terrible cheating that has become a trade mark in the corporate world all over the globe. To put now in question all the incredible accomplishments of a nation that has worked its collective butt off to give Made in Germany a special meaning is a reach I can no longer follow.
You make it sound like Germany is now the number one polluter when in reality their cars are still among the cleanest in the world. The German people have become exemplary in their environmental consciousness. They deserve better than to be told that some heavy soul-searching will have to be done and that their probity and sense of morality is put in serious question. That smacks of sanctimony.
2
The wrong done by one company cannot be used to characterize an entire nation. If we use the same logic, how would Mr.Cohen characterize the US as a nation, whose military invaded Iraq in 2003, even though every one from the President on knew that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction which was the ostensible reason for the invasion
11
Mr. Cohen, you would be absolutely correct if you substituted the word "corporate" everywhere you write "German."
Is it news to you that corporate chiefs, seeking more profits, sacrifice other people's lives? That they are comfortable with death and destruction wreaked on other people? How many people did GM's executives knowingly watch die, aware of the faulty ignition switches and airbags of their cars?
What this story tells us, is that corporate executives cannot be trusted to follow the most basic tenets of ethics anywhere in the world - including in Germany.
Is it news to you that corporate chiefs, seeking more profits, sacrifice other people's lives? That they are comfortable with death and destruction wreaked on other people? How many people did GM's executives knowingly watch die, aware of the faulty ignition switches and airbags of their cars?
What this story tells us, is that corporate executives cannot be trusted to follow the most basic tenets of ethics anywhere in the world - including in Germany.
8
Wow. Are people and their governments going to be held responsible for what their corporations are up to, now? If so, we are in big, big trouble in the US. What kind of nonsense is Cohen feeding us in this column? Corporate greed is now somehow the purview of Germany because of its behavior in the two world wars? It's a stretch. A big stretch...
12
This is not a particularly German thing. BP advertised itself as the "green" oil company and subsequently went on to obliterate the Golf. Mortgage companies and the financial sector around them presented themselves as facilitating the American Dream of home ownership and then went on to oversee the biggest foreclosure crisis in modern history with plenty of global fallout.
What is particularly German, is that in people's minds, when Germans behave badly, 2nd World War comes up immediately. That's understandable, but I would have thought Cohen would have been a bit more cognizant of his own reaction patterns.
What is particularly German, is that in people's minds, when Germans behave badly, 2nd World War comes up immediately. That's understandable, but I would have thought Cohen would have been a bit more cognizant of his own reaction patterns.
4
If ever a criminal case can be made for a high executive of a major corporation, the VW fraud seems ideal. Maybe the billions in fines and billions in lost income and mounting distrust of corporate practices is not enough. Put some of these guys in jail!
2
What the Volkswagen debacle indicates is that the corporatist disease that has largely taken over big, publically-held American corporations, also may be starting to appear in major European ones, as well. When growth, profitability and dominance at any cost supplant all other considerations, and executives defend this as if its innate rightness is self-evident, we see discontinuities – and we now begin to see them in Germany, of all places.
But I find the extent of the rot that Roger suggests to be too deep to be reasonable. After all, we haven’t yet really seen how Germany will deal with Volkwagen’s crime: I suspect that it may be draconian, for precisely the outraged sense of national values that Roger cites. Germany won’t easily consider the moral finger-wagging it has levelled at Greece in particular, but also at Portugal, Spain, Italy and even France to have been hypocrisy. It’s far more likely to regard Volkswagen’s actions as a lamentable aberration to be dealt with harshly, thereby vindicating the culture’s condemnation of such values.
The Lufthansa incident isn’t comparable in any way to the Volkswagen betrayal – indeed, there isn’t another known example that could be considered support for the notion that Volkswagen’s actions are representative of German corporate decision-making. Or, at least that likely will be Germany’s story, and they’ll stick to it.
I’d look for Winterkorn to be figuratively hanged from the chancellery, and left to rot for all to see.
But I find the extent of the rot that Roger suggests to be too deep to be reasonable. After all, we haven’t yet really seen how Germany will deal with Volkwagen’s crime: I suspect that it may be draconian, for precisely the outraged sense of national values that Roger cites. Germany won’t easily consider the moral finger-wagging it has levelled at Greece in particular, but also at Portugal, Spain, Italy and even France to have been hypocrisy. It’s far more likely to regard Volkswagen’s actions as a lamentable aberration to be dealt with harshly, thereby vindicating the culture’s condemnation of such values.
The Lufthansa incident isn’t comparable in any way to the Volkswagen betrayal – indeed, there isn’t another known example that could be considered support for the notion that Volkswagen’s actions are representative of German corporate decision-making. Or, at least that likely will be Germany’s story, and they’ll stick to it.
I’d look for Winterkorn to be figuratively hanged from the chancellery, and left to rot for all to see.
3
Proof positive that "corporations are NOT people?" When was the last one imprisoned?
Paul:
I have a lot of problems with how we deal with corporations. You cite a liberal concern, but here's a conservative one: when we indict a corporation as a criminal enterprise merely to punish actions taken by individuals, we essentially indict a gun for murder.
I have a lot of problems with how we deal with corporations. You cite a liberal concern, but here's a conservative one: when we indict a corporation as a criminal enterprise merely to punish actions taken by individuals, we essentially indict a gun for murder.
Germany, because of its role in two world wars, is an easy target for sweeping indictments of its "national character." But Mr. Cohen's vehemence about "Germany's" role in the Volkswagen debacle is misplaced and wildly overstated. I'm sure a far greater percentage of Germans, with their demonstrated concern for the environment, are even more appalled by VW's cheating than Americans are. And I wonder whether Mr. Cohen felt like indicting "America" over the news of General Motors' ignition switch scandal?
13
This article smacks of racism and generalization. It's a disgrace that it's been published.
23
All true. What is scary is that the cheating and malfeasance did not arise from an evil spirit...but from ordinary human beings who, by pride, greed and circumstances, chose the easy way out, via a sophisticated method of blocking the discovery of 'faulty' emissions of its diesel fleet of cars. We humans are an odd mix of genius and scum, and when the end looks luscious then the means are justified a-priori. As if this were the first time of corporate vice, some seem surprised, even shocked; no need for theater here though. 'Distrust and verify' is universally applicable...and should be the law of the land. Having said all this, expecting purity from imperfect beings is just not feasible. As we say in spanish: "Hecha la ley, hecha la trampa" (once a law is passed, somebody will try to circumvent it). So, be vigilant.
1
I recall the immediate reaction from the CEO of Lufthansa, "This is impossible!" .... "this cannot be!" 'Our company is perfect' in other words, 'it's German'. This is a "German Company" with the highest reputation (implied). "They had done everything right." How is it that those initial words struck such a cord with me? . Stayed with me. And remembered immediately upon hearing of Volkswagen's malfeasance? Compare these responses to those of other national CEO's: "We'll get to the bottom of this" and/or "An investigation is immediately underway". (Implied) responsibility and (direct) assumption of responsibility to determine causes and all other relevant details. Both 'incidents' have made me uneasy as well. I see it elsewhere in Germany as evidenced by the Greek crisis when Germany beat the EU drum to insist on Greek membership - that immensely favored Germany! Cultural characteristics do not simply disappear after a major world war, unfortunate as that is. "I'm so smart because I'm German". Loud and clear ....
1
The last people in the world who should be pointing fingers at the Germans for this scandal are Americans.
The United States has no standing when it comes to accusing others for inappropriate industrial and financial behavior.
We lost that privilege a long time ago as a result of our own vile behavior especially in the American auto industry that unlike VW has actually killed people and also in the corruption of Wall Street that has destroyed countless numbers of peoples livelihoods.
The United States has no standing when it comes to accusing others for inappropriate industrial and financial behavior.
We lost that privilege a long time ago as a result of our own vile behavior especially in the American auto industry that unlike VW has actually killed people and also in the corruption of Wall Street that has destroyed countless numbers of peoples livelihoods.
8
As other readers have mentioned, the "collective guilt" logic running through this piece is very disturbing. Please, this is about corporate malfeasance, NOT something "particularly German"!
Quite the opposite: it might be cynical, yet closer to the truth, to say: this is a further sign that Germany is a normal first-world country. The sort of scandal that would not surprise at all in the U.S. only seems out-of-place because we have for the past decades become used to a Germany that treads so carefully in such matters.
Signed,
A deeply disillusioned former Volkswagen fan
Quite the opposite: it might be cynical, yet closer to the truth, to say: this is a further sign that Germany is a normal first-world country. The sort of scandal that would not surprise at all in the U.S. only seems out-of-place because we have for the past decades become used to a Germany that treads so carefully in such matters.
Signed,
A deeply disillusioned former Volkswagen fan
2
I agree. The Winterkorn quote sounds like something an American CEO would say.
And Roger, you need to see a doctor about the burr under your saddle seriously.
And Roger, you need to see a doctor about the burr under your saddle seriously.
Ignition, airbags and no apologies? And not even political indignation?
1
Mr. Cohen just might be right.....Bloomberg has an article today that is titled: "Mercedes Tops Study's List of Carmakers Overstating Fuel Economy". Enough said.
2
This column is yet another dreary example of Cohen's penchant for imputing characteristics to a whole people based on the actions of a few. Does this man not have an editor?
20
Mr. Cohens anti-german sentiments become clearer with every new column of his. It's getting quite ridiculous.
VW is a megacorporation like any other, and thus same trustworthy, which means not trustworthy at all. Corporations will always cheat and lie to maximize profits if they think they can get away with it. What makes this scandal remarkable is that apparently VW believed they could get away with it when basic common sense should have told them that they never, ever could actually get away with it.
All that said, those actions of a handful of corporate individuals say nothing at all about a country or a nation. Germans are as appalled by this fraud as anyone else. There are no lessons to be learned and no conclusions to be drawn about Germany here.
VW is a megacorporation like any other, and thus same trustworthy, which means not trustworthy at all. Corporations will always cheat and lie to maximize profits if they think they can get away with it. What makes this scandal remarkable is that apparently VW believed they could get away with it when basic common sense should have told them that they never, ever could actually get away with it.
All that said, those actions of a handful of corporate individuals say nothing at all about a country or a nation. Germans are as appalled by this fraud as anyone else. There are no lessons to be learned and no conclusions to be drawn about Germany here.
8
"Germany's leading company has toyed with the air people breathe." "It's devastating"
At first, Mr. Cohen, I thought maybe your brain had used up all its bandwidth absorbing the crush of data input about the Pope this weekend.
Koch Industries is Germany's leading company?
Then I realized you were talking about V.W.
Actually, isn't it a shame that the Pope isn't the CEO of both of those enterprises.
At first, Mr. Cohen, I thought maybe your brain had used up all its bandwidth absorbing the crush of data input about the Pope this weekend.
Koch Industries is Germany's leading company?
Then I realized you were talking about V.W.
Actually, isn't it a shame that the Pope isn't the CEO of both of those enterprises.
5
Roger why did you change the title of your piece from "An unreliable, troubling Germany" to "An unreliable Germany and the Volkwagen Debacle". I think the first title reveals your true bias. What is truly troubling is bringing up past german crimes and nation baiting in the same breath.
11
The litany of horrors from ISIS does not have to be repeated here to make the case that it is a threat to western civilization. There is a direct threat of attack against western populations and institutions and an indirect threat of being undermined by a flood of unassimilated refugees. From this perspective, the only moral response from western countries is collective action to eliminate the threat at its source. Helping the refugees is necessary but a mere palliative.
Yet in Germany there is an avoidance of joining in the fight. You hear, especially from the young, “America created the problem so it is their responsibility to solve it.” You hear from many in Germany, “history prevents us from acting.” Arguably, in light of the threat, such rationalizations for standing back are immoral.
After WWII, it was understandable that the universal attitude was that no one wants a muscular Germany (and Japan). Over the last 70 years Germany gladly embraced this feeling and it served them well. It enabled them to avoid the costs of militarization. It enabled mercantilism. They have basked in a reputation for civility and integrity. It has morphed into a self-serving avoidance of responsibilities.
Enough already. Self-serving moralizing and continued avoidance to join the fight for western values would be Germany’s new shame.
Yet in Germany there is an avoidance of joining in the fight. You hear, especially from the young, “America created the problem so it is their responsibility to solve it.” You hear from many in Germany, “history prevents us from acting.” Arguably, in light of the threat, such rationalizations for standing back are immoral.
After WWII, it was understandable that the universal attitude was that no one wants a muscular Germany (and Japan). Over the last 70 years Germany gladly embraced this feeling and it served them well. It enabled them to avoid the costs of militarization. It enabled mercantilism. They have basked in a reputation for civility and integrity. It has morphed into a self-serving avoidance of responsibilities.
Enough already. Self-serving moralizing and continued avoidance to join the fight for western values would be Germany’s new shame.
Just maybe the US EPA had a hand in the fraud when they promulgate rules which requires levels of NO2 that cannot be attained thus forcing everyone to cheat. I am not absolving "Deutchland uber alles INC" from the fiasco, but suggesting it takes two to tango and the EPA is a lousy dance partner. Look at our issue. How many of american car owners ever got the mileage declared on the windows of the cars they purchase. Very few, the numbers are fake and only good under certain ideal conditions which are not real world. The EPA has a direct hand int he fraud. And thus they too should be cited for quackery and fraud.
2
Given the technical requirements of what Volkwagen did, it seems to me it would be relatively easy to track down exactly who ordered it and who implemented it. Prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law; charge them with attempted murder, because that's really what it amounts to.
Ten years ago, I never would have imagined that a German company would do such a terrible thing. Marting Winterkorn obviously spent too much time hob-nobbing with his counterparts in the United States.
Ten years ago, I never would have imagined that a German company would do such a terrible thing. Marting Winterkorn obviously spent too much time hob-nobbing with his counterparts in the United States.
2
Nothing new here. Move along folks!
“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”
― Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
“The interest of [businessmen] is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public ... The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order ... ought never to be adopted, till after having been long and carefully examined ... with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men ... who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public”
― Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Volume 1 of 2
“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”
― Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
“The interest of [businessmen] is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public ... The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order ... ought never to be adopted, till after having been long and carefully examined ... with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men ... who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public”
― Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Volume 1 of 2
4
Oh please, Roger. As bad as it is, VW is not the government of Germany and therefore the whole country need not be condemned or search its soul for the actions of one company any more than the US did after Enron, Madoff, etc. These things happen at private companies and the soul searching and punishment should be confined there. In Greece, btw, it was the government that cooked the books.
Run out of column ideas?
Run out of column ideas?
23
Germany is a small country with a big presence. Germany is synonymous with exceptional quality, and work ethics, praised for the extra length they went post WWII to atone for their sins. In short they symbolize much of what we think is ideal and despite their unwillingness to lead, is leading Europe. One can separate the corporate from the culture and chalk it off to being corporate greed which exists everywhere, but the bedrock of German culture is based on the desire to do the best one can which is not just about making great products. The Japanese have a similar working/living ethic, to make something superior requires a superior being with all the great attributes of a just human being. This is what they believe themselves to be. Nationalism is thus promoted. One can't deny the connection between the product and the culture in which it is produced.
Steadily advancing, this worldwide corporate culture of doing whatever it takes, regardless of the danger to life, limb, and the environment, all to enhance and increase that all holy bottom line.
Foist all manner of life destroying actions, on the "proles, starting with historic inequality, steadily growing worse, contaminated foodstuffs, poisoned water and air, and all the other accoutrements of life, designed to wear out as quickly as possible, the focus only on that ever so important bottom line.
Yes indeed, a wonder to behold, this selfish playground of the .01%ters, now become a panopticon, with the unseen watchers always one step ahead, reading the next injustice for acceptance by the unwary and long suffering proles.
Foist all manner of life destroying actions, on the "proles, starting with historic inequality, steadily growing worse, contaminated foodstuffs, poisoned water and air, and all the other accoutrements of life, designed to wear out as quickly as possible, the focus only on that ever so important bottom line.
Yes indeed, a wonder to behold, this selfish playground of the .01%ters, now become a panopticon, with the unseen watchers always one step ahead, reading the next injustice for acceptance by the unwary and long suffering proles.
3
I can think of many reasons to criticize Germany, especially how Germany beat Greece to a pulp over its financial sins when it should have been pouring billions into Greece as the refugees began to arrive.
But the real story is:
"An Unreliable America and the Enron, Iraq (Shock and Awe, Mission Accomplished, The Surge), Katrina, Great Recession, Chevy Cobalt, Donald Trump (ad infinitum et ad nauseum) Debacle."
But the real story is:
"An Unreliable America and the Enron, Iraq (Shock and Awe, Mission Accomplished, The Surge), Katrina, Great Recession, Chevy Cobalt, Donald Trump (ad infinitum et ad nauseum) Debacle."
3
Incredible, the righteousness in the posts. Have you followed the story as it's been playing out in Germany? Too much trouble? Read the German newspapers, you'll find that Germans are not juxtaposing evil capitalism or malfeasance in other countries against their VW's lies and saying, "Don't blame only VW and the Germans, everyone cheats." They're not whining, they're stepping up. They're concerned, worried, but not hiding behind the U.S.'s own ineptness. They leave that to the posters here.
14
They also, according to another story in this paper, are investigating potentially responsibly individuals, not the corporation. What a difference from the American approach, where bankers who bring down an entire economy can take their millions and go home.
1
The key question is if anybody responsible will to to jail.
The answer, unfortunately, as always, is 'no'.
Dan Kravitz
The answer, unfortunately, as always, is 'no'.
Dan Kravitz
2
Nomen est omen.
Name is the prediction of our behavior.
There is a clear commitment in the name we choose. If we call our social system “capitalism”, then the capital is the thing we care about the most.
The VW cheated because they wanted to maximize their profits and increase corporate capital.
If we cared about the wellbeing of our society the most, then we should rename our system in to “socialism”
It’s cheating to claim that we care about the people and the society the most if we call our social system “the capitalism”
Compared to this kind of fraud, the VW managers are just a small children for us...
Name is the prediction of our behavior.
There is a clear commitment in the name we choose. If we call our social system “capitalism”, then the capital is the thing we care about the most.
The VW cheated because they wanted to maximize their profits and increase corporate capital.
If we cared about the wellbeing of our society the most, then we should rename our system in to “socialism”
It’s cheating to claim that we care about the people and the society the most if we call our social system “the capitalism”
Compared to this kind of fraud, the VW managers are just a small children for us...
3
Can someone check emissions from diesel cars produced by Mercedes-Benz and BMW, please?
2
Fear three unholy journalistic games are being played here:
One is "gotcha" which is fun to play with the earnest;
Two is "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable;"
Three is to vindicate the errors of the poor (Greece) by catching an error by the rich (Germany), e.g. she said, "Let 'em eat cake" so "Off with her head."
Let's look at the big picture here. This is not "you know who's" VW. VW will fix this and Germany will watch over it, as will emissions testers around the world.
Greece, God love 'em, we will see.
One is "gotcha" which is fun to play with the earnest;
Two is "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable;"
Three is to vindicate the errors of the poor (Greece) by catching an error by the rich (Germany), e.g. she said, "Let 'em eat cake" so "Off with her head."
Let's look at the big picture here. This is not "you know who's" VW. VW will fix this and Germany will watch over it, as will emissions testers around the world.
Greece, God love 'em, we will see.
1
Uniteds CEO resigned recently for corruption. Something about air routes to suit his commuter needs. Enron, GM, Fords Firestone fiasco, it goes on and on. They all get to go away with huge parachutes, and they know it all along. The truth is we don't have corporate behavior because no one ever goes to prison, crime is practically rewarded, ultimately. Casualty of competition.
Johnny steals a steak and he is in jail, no questions asked.
Johnny steals a steak and he is in jail, no questions asked.
2
Dear Mr. Cohen,
The original name for the "Beetle" was the "KdF-Wagen" translating to the "Strength through Joy Wagon" or, in modern terms, the "Strength through Cheating Wagon", take your pick.
Germany is never quite what it seems? On the contrary, Germany always seems what Otto Bismarck created, a nation continually paranoid of it's neighbors that never seems to have enough living 'space'.
Unfortunately, propaganda is always part of this mix just a little 'shaky' when the propaganda is found to be just that; clean diesels indeed!
But a strong and joyful Germany is going to be very necessary if the recently awakened 'Bear' of Russia continues to devour space. It seems a powerful Germany is the only thing that stops a rampaging Ursus. Okay, maybe it will just 'delay' the Bear but, in either case, Europe NEEDS Germany, dubious vehicle emissions not withstanding.
The 'free market' will determine just how badly Volkswagen will be damaged but, rest assured, Germany will survive.
The original name for the "Beetle" was the "KdF-Wagen" translating to the "Strength through Joy Wagon" or, in modern terms, the "Strength through Cheating Wagon", take your pick.
Germany is never quite what it seems? On the contrary, Germany always seems what Otto Bismarck created, a nation continually paranoid of it's neighbors that never seems to have enough living 'space'.
Unfortunately, propaganda is always part of this mix just a little 'shaky' when the propaganda is found to be just that; clean diesels indeed!
But a strong and joyful Germany is going to be very necessary if the recently awakened 'Bear' of Russia continues to devour space. It seems a powerful Germany is the only thing that stops a rampaging Ursus. Okay, maybe it will just 'delay' the Bear but, in either case, Europe NEEDS Germany, dubious vehicle emissions not withstanding.
The 'free market' will determine just how badly Volkswagen will be damaged but, rest assured, Germany will survive.
2
Germany has never been quite what it seems. After starting two World Wars, no wonder European nations and the United States don't want Germany to dominate Europe and are mistrustful of Germany's corporate wrongdoing.. How dare self-righteous Germans criticize other countries when they were lifted to their present place of European power by the United States and other allied countries in Europe after the utter devastation of Germany under Das Dritte Reich? Volkswagen, the "peoples'" car of the world's largest automaker has done a monstrous job of spewing deadly nitrogen oxides into the air from 11 million of their diesel cars! This awful deception by VW is just another example of Germany's moral rectitude and corporate wrongdoing for profit over human health. VW isn't the only company that should do some serious soul-searching - Lufthansa, whose young demented pilot took 150 lives with him when he crashed - suicided - his jet in the Alps this past year. One is again reminded of the Tiergarten in Berlin in the 1930s through 1945 - the Garden of Beasts". Germany has racked up a century's worth of Mea Culpas. German leadership - "Fuhrership" - is an age-old problem for it's twice-burned neighbors today. Reckless corporate wrongdoing in pursuit of money and power sealed Germany's fate and defeated that country in two world wars.
4
Germany spewing poisonous gasses and advice to Greece reminds me of Bill Cosby spewing advice to African Americans and then what.....
6
We must have lost faith in Japanese engineering because some airbags failed in last year's scandal.
The Koreans are not the economic miracle we thought because Hyundai cheated on its mileage claims.
The Chinese system of central economic control is not all-conquering because their growth rate dropped to 5% and they have a credit bubble.
And now Germans are not orderly robots.
Wow. It seems that stereotypes are not always correct.
The Koreans are not the economic miracle we thought because Hyundai cheated on its mileage claims.
The Chinese system of central economic control is not all-conquering because their growth rate dropped to 5% and they have a credit bubble.
And now Germans are not orderly robots.
Wow. It seems that stereotypes are not always correct.
2
Cohen seems to know Germany only out of TV or papers. He obviously has never been in Germany and has no clue about the country.
7
Cohen has been based in Berlin.
Cohen's articles about France are equally stereotypical. It seems that these articles are written to feed an appetite from some New York times readers for a certain type of comforting biases. Don't worry, nothing changes in Europe, France still sell cheeses at country markets and Germany is still a bully!
All Germans work at VW, so they're all complicit. Roger that.
17
I would have thought that Roger Cohen, of all people, would be reluctant to spout racist generalizations, but perhaps that is OK as long as it is Germans who are being defamed? How the entire people bear responsibility for poor decisions made by a single company is beyond me. Do we blame all Americans for GM covering up the airbag scandal?
67
"Germany’s leading company has toyed with the air people breathe. That’s shocking. In historical context, it’s devastating."
It's always about the Holocaust.
It's always about the Holocaust.
Poor decision!! This was portraying their engineers as angels to tell the world their engineers were the best in the world, hell, the best in the universe. This was promoting their cars and selling them as clean when is reality they knew they were spewing pollutants at unacceptable levels. This was arrogance personified. This is hypocrisy at it's finest. I don't recall GM showing commercials touting how safe their airbags were. There is a difference.
I think the Greeks have a word for Germany's attitude - hubris. And maybe they are enjoying a bit of Schadenfreude.
13
Sounds like our corporate ways are fully globalized.
Doesn't sound German at all, and extrapolating it to the whole country unless proven otherwise seems, unseemly, coming from us...
Doesn't sound German at all, and extrapolating it to the whole country unless proven otherwise seems, unseemly, coming from us...
29
Cohen in his eagerness to convict all German society needs to brush up on his automotive history since in a historical context it's not particularly "Devastating." The US auto industry fought clean air standards for years. The CARB wars in California are legendary and it was only in the late 90's that the truck industry had to pay a huge fine of about $1 billion because they'd been monkeying around with the emissions from commercial diesel engines.
31
That is a great point. Industries have been fighting controls on air pollution (and every other type of pollution) for a long, long time. Energy companies, chemical companies, etc., we're all complicit on this attack on the environment. So, like you say, this is just one little story in a litany of stories.
1
@ Steve
I'm reasonably familiar with the commercial and off highway diesel engine business and there's a long history of emissions fraud by US and foreign manufacturers of autos, heavy trucks and off highway equipment. Cohen's shock, horror reaction is either because he's totally ignorant of the subject (probably) or belongs in the Captain Renault department.
I'm reasonably familiar with the commercial and off highway diesel engine business and there's a long history of emissions fraud by US and foreign manufacturers of autos, heavy trucks and off highway equipment. Cohen's shock, horror reaction is either because he's totally ignorant of the subject (probably) or belongs in the Captain Renault department.
"Postwar suspicion of it led other European nations and the United States to devote the bulk of their strategic energy to ensuring that Germany would never be all-powerful again. That, in fact, was their overriding concern."
NATO was meant "to keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down."
The EU was meant to so tie them to France and then everyone that they could not spin off to attack their neighbors.
This concern was basic to the Post-War structure of Europe. As the Soviets collapsed and the EU over expanded, these basics were forgotten.
There is a reason Thatcher opposed German re-unification, and it wasn't just nastiness. It was structural, she didn't forget what others forgot.
The real virtues of the German culture conceal a weakness. It is a deep flaw in their body politic. It comes of the very virtue of pride in their orderliness and rules. They overdo it. It becomes self righteous, and self justifying.
Specifically as to VW, we should keep in mind that the entire industry worldwide has abused defeat devices such as those perfected and abused to such an extreme by VW. They just did it better. America even wrote its laws specifically to protect automakers from criminal charges for doing this, fines only, no jail. The Germans just said, "Okay, if those are the rules . . .." Then they took it to a while new level of in-your-face.
It isn't just VW on this specific point. But it is just Germany on the larger point.
NATO was meant "to keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down."
The EU was meant to so tie them to France and then everyone that they could not spin off to attack their neighbors.
This concern was basic to the Post-War structure of Europe. As the Soviets collapsed and the EU over expanded, these basics were forgotten.
There is a reason Thatcher opposed German re-unification, and it wasn't just nastiness. It was structural, she didn't forget what others forgot.
The real virtues of the German culture conceal a weakness. It is a deep flaw in their body politic. It comes of the very virtue of pride in their orderliness and rules. They overdo it. It becomes self righteous, and self justifying.
Specifically as to VW, we should keep in mind that the entire industry worldwide has abused defeat devices such as those perfected and abused to such an extreme by VW. They just did it better. America even wrote its laws specifically to protect automakers from criminal charges for doing this, fines only, no jail. The Germans just said, "Okay, if those are the rules . . .." Then they took it to a while new level of in-your-face.
It isn't just VW on this specific point. But it is just Germany on the larger point.
17
Nonsense. Self-righteousness is not specifically German, or haven't you been watching the spectacle of a smug, arrogant little Kentucky clerk who thinks she can ignore the Supreme Court if she feels like it, and the rush of presidential candidates to her side to endorse her churlishness?
1
Corporate fraud and cheating are hardly restricted to Germany or to the auto industry. Rather than attack Germans, who are not particularly lawless in the spectrum of non-military national behavior, blame should be placed on the growth of corporate power and the culture of profits at any cost to society.
Corporate charters were originally granted for projects thought to be good for nations overall, not as a license to maximize profits for capitalists and minimize labor costs. There should be major reform of corporations - more democratic control and curtailment rather than enhancement of their special legal status. Environmental costs must be accounted for more fully in all major industrial operations.
Corporate charters were originally granted for projects thought to be good for nations overall, not as a license to maximize profits for capitalists and minimize labor costs. There should be major reform of corporations - more democratic control and curtailment rather than enhancement of their special legal status. Environmental costs must be accounted for more fully in all major industrial operations.
71
The difference between German auto cheating (which btw doesn't remotely compare with the scale of US financial industry cheating before 2008) and Greek cheating is that the Germans are going to criminally pursue the perpetrators. Nor is this chicanery in the auto industry unique to Germany or has Cohen forgotten GM ignition switches and Takata air bags. No society is without fault and nor could they be given the crooked timber from which humanity is constructed. German society makes no claims to unique virtue but the fact is that relatively speaking it's one of the most equitable and well run societies in the world. For some reason this seems to annoy Cohen who appears to nurse some animus against Germany. If we're going start condemning whole societies on basis of the misdeeds of one of their major corporations where would that leave us, or the entire liberal democratic bourgeois capitalist system.
157
Is it correct to equate design faults in ignition switches and air bags with deliberate cheating on emissions testing?
VW's behavior is akin to enemy action, not so with GM and Toyota.
VW's behavior is akin to enemy action, not so with GM and Toyota.
2
The difference in GM's class and Takada case is there it was negligence and incompetence although it did cost lives. In Volkswagen's case it's a deliberate attempt to circumvent the problem which amounts to fraud
2
The comparison to GM ignition switches and Takata air bags is inapt.
Both of those relate to inadequate quality control. Costs were cut and parts weren't sufficiently reliable.
But in both cases, the parts were engineered to work. Here in the real world, something less than 100% reliability 100% of the time is inevitable.
Volkswagen, on the other hand, engineered cars to get away with never working as advertised. The cars were designed to emit 40x the allowed nitrous oxides, and to foil emissions tests.
Failure to appreciate the difference between inadequate quality control and intent to defraud and pollute undercuts the entire argument.
Both of those relate to inadequate quality control. Costs were cut and parts weren't sufficiently reliable.
But in both cases, the parts were engineered to work. Here in the real world, something less than 100% reliability 100% of the time is inevitable.
Volkswagen, on the other hand, engineered cars to get away with never working as advertised. The cars were designed to emit 40x the allowed nitrous oxides, and to foil emissions tests.
Failure to appreciate the difference between inadequate quality control and intent to defraud and pollute undercuts the entire argument.
2
As a former VW driver and former resident of a Germany I once considered to be ahead of the curve in green living (I was paying for plastic grocery bags in 1985!) I am pretty shocked by the use of this device. But VW is not Germany nor any other German company.
As Frau Merkel has said Germany will take 800,000 refugees by the end of 2015 I'm going to give the country a pass for a while before jumping on the "evil empire" bandwagon.
As Frau Merkel has said Germany will take 800,000 refugees by the end of 2015 I'm going to give the country a pass for a while before jumping on the "evil empire" bandwagon.
25
To paraphrase Nixon: "I am not aware of being a crook."
7
The Volkswagen fiasco is all the more troubling in view of what German business promoted to the world for decades and the world came to believe it that German manufacturing is guided by "Zero Defects." I hope that ZD philosophy has not been dented for ever because I love German products for their quality and aesthetics.
3
Cohen: But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing, between high culture and low conduct, between angels’ wings and nitrogen oxides...
There you have it! When we sell snake oil, we do it with crass pop music, and they do it with the sound of Beethoven. Wagner seems to be popular on both sides, although Germans may actually understand what Der Ring is about (more about rebellion against authority, Wotan, then about mad spirit of conquest which is actually not there).
Lately German leadership resembles a dog chasing its tail, or a weather wane, but this is in part cause by more acute, compared to Washington, realization of contradictions in the common wisdom of the Western establishment.
There you have it! When we sell snake oil, we do it with crass pop music, and they do it with the sound of Beethoven. Wagner seems to be popular on both sides, although Germans may actually understand what Der Ring is about (more about rebellion against authority, Wotan, then about mad spirit of conquest which is actually not there).
Lately German leadership resembles a dog chasing its tail, or a weather wane, but this is in part cause by more acute, compared to Washington, realization of contradictions in the common wisdom of the Western establishment.
3
It is dangerous and irresponsible to make broad generalizations about an entire nation and culture based on the malfeasance of one, albeit large corporation. Similar observations could be made on a daily basis about the U.S. or any other global economic power. Greed and hypocrisy don't know national boundaries.
43
There would not be any problems in Greece if the US, the world’s richest economies whose criminal financial services industry has caused the World Financial Crisis since 2007 would show a little solidarity to those who suffer from her deeds.
Germany has spent 100 Billion Euros, which is 1/3 of her annual state budget to mitigate the detrimental effects of the World Financial Crisis since 2007 for Greece that was caused by the US. What has done the US to atone for her corporate criminals?
By the way, Germany also had to take the major bulk of those refugees that had to flee from the long-term consequences of the wars of aggression that the US has rendered in the Middle East. Apparently, the author has forgotten why there is a giant failed state in this region and why ISIS could spread from this state.
Maybe there is something peculiarly US American ‘about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing, between high culture and low conduct’? The same might be true for ‘the devastating impact this has' and the ‘self-righteous finger wagging’.
Germany has spent 100 Billion Euros, which is 1/3 of her annual state budget to mitigate the detrimental effects of the World Financial Crisis since 2007 for Greece that was caused by the US. What has done the US to atone for her corporate criminals?
By the way, Germany also had to take the major bulk of those refugees that had to flee from the long-term consequences of the wars of aggression that the US has rendered in the Middle East. Apparently, the author has forgotten why there is a giant failed state in this region and why ISIS could spread from this state.
Maybe there is something peculiarly US American ‘about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing, between high culture and low conduct’? The same might be true for ‘the devastating impact this has' and the ‘self-righteous finger wagging’.
90
Cohen is english
As a native of Germany, I doubt that scrupulous honesty, as Mr. Cohen writes, are part of their culture.
Acceptance of rules, though, seems to have been their collective forte forever, and dominated one of their darkest history ever.
Many decades ago, my late father explained the psyche of Germans to me. He said that the dream of every German was to become a bureaucrat sitting behind a desk having power over the people lined up in front of it, while their destiny was standing in front of a bureaucrat's desk having no power at all.
And yes, both the emission cheating of Volkswagen and the denial of Lufthansa that the suicidal pilot should not have gotten his pilot's license in the first place and wasn't fit to fly, lies squarely on the shoulders of the most powerful bureaucrats of all, the CEOs sitting behind their desks.
Acceptance of rules, though, seems to have been their collective forte forever, and dominated one of their darkest history ever.
Many decades ago, my late father explained the psyche of Germans to me. He said that the dream of every German was to become a bureaucrat sitting behind a desk having power over the people lined up in front of it, while their destiny was standing in front of a bureaucrat's desk having no power at all.
And yes, both the emission cheating of Volkswagen and the denial of Lufthansa that the suicidal pilot should not have gotten his pilot's license in the first place and wasn't fit to fly, lies squarely on the shoulders of the most powerful bureaucrats of all, the CEOs sitting behind their desks.
16
As a native German myself I disagree. Many of us are as different and diverse as any culture. is that your dream too since you are German?
Unreliable nation whose entire culture is called into question, because of an environmental fraud? By that logic, GM exploding cars, with 30 million recalled vehicles and 124 compensated deaths, are the sign of what, a totally sick and murderous nation? Or is the US culture not called into question by banking and various industry scandals (the ones that actually, directly cost people lives, or has VW killed someone), because those scandals are actually completely par for the course for that culture?
"When things go wrong, they tend to go wrong in a big way", in recent economic and financial history, is very, very clearly the hallmark of the US. VW is a joke in comparison to GM.
What do one sick lonely pilot who happened to be German, VW, Greece, NATO and the German constitution have in common?? This is one of the most confused and hypocritical pieces I have read in the NY Times in a very, very long time.
"When things go wrong, they tend to go wrong in a big way", in recent economic and financial history, is very, very clearly the hallmark of the US. VW is a joke in comparison to GM.
What do one sick lonely pilot who happened to be German, VW, Greece, NATO and the German constitution have in common?? This is one of the most confused and hypocritical pieces I have read in the NY Times in a very, very long time.
140
The VW incident proved why the Germans are the Germans.
They accepted responsibility for the cheating in the same way they accepted responsibility for the WWII.
That’s in full contrast to our culture. Here in America there is no corporate wrongdoing. The corporations bribe the elected officials and federal agencies, so they pay out the hush money without ever accepting any guilt, wrongdoing or personal responsibility.
That’s why we still claim as the nation that launching the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq was fully justified although we were attacked on the 9/11 by a handful of the Saudi and Egyptian citizens.
If the VW were an US corporation, you bet that we would blame the Chinese hackers for installing the deceptive software into the car computers.
In our culture it’s always somebody else fault...
We are the nation of finger pointing in every possible direction except toward us...
Let’s forget the Germans. Let’s improve ourselves first!
They accepted responsibility for the cheating in the same way they accepted responsibility for the WWII.
That’s in full contrast to our culture. Here in America there is no corporate wrongdoing. The corporations bribe the elected officials and federal agencies, so they pay out the hush money without ever accepting any guilt, wrongdoing or personal responsibility.
That’s why we still claim as the nation that launching the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq was fully justified although we were attacked on the 9/11 by a handful of the Saudi and Egyptian citizens.
If the VW were an US corporation, you bet that we would blame the Chinese hackers for installing the deceptive software into the car computers.
In our culture it’s always somebody else fault...
We are the nation of finger pointing in every possible direction except toward us...
Let’s forget the Germans. Let’s improve ourselves first!
448
Your points are right, but Germany initially accepted responsibility for WWII at the barrel of U.S., Soviet, and British guns. They didn't have a lot of choice in the matter.
"This is everyone's fault but mine!" - Homer Simpson
AGREED!
To the best of my knowledge, VW is not engaging in Public Relations, at least not yet. They are, however, owning up to the fiasco through open admission of wrongdoing. Consider their newly launched Diesel Information website:
http://vwdieselinfo.com/
As one of the affected, I eagerly await an all around satisfactory resolution to the problem. There is a glint of hope in me.
http://vwdieselinfo.com/
As one of the affected, I eagerly await an all around satisfactory resolution to the problem. There is a glint of hope in me.
6
I wish I could share your optimism. However, the VW statement confirms only a commitment to bring the offending vehicles in line with acceptable federal emissions standards. It says nothing about doing so while maintaining performance, fuel mileage, powertrain longevity, and resale value - all factors that entered into my decision to purchase a Jetta Sportwagen.
As far as I'm concerned customers harmed by this fraud need to be made whole - I want what I paid for or I want to be reimbursed for not getting it.
As far as I'm concerned customers harmed by this fraud need to be made whole - I want what I paid for or I want to be reimbursed for not getting it.
51
I suggest a class action lawsuit.
I fully agree. VW is on the hook for this. But it's worse than you mention. You describe it as a purely dollars-and-cents issue and perhaps it is for you. But for many it's deeper, or was. It goes to brand identity, and values. Some people buy VWs because they like they stand for and the way they work.
Personally, I buy 5-series BMWs because of the way they drive - there's a strong brand association. Over the years it has worked well both ways.
But VW has a huge challenge. There is a not insignificant possibility that the U.S. and other countries might declare the vehicles unroadworthy unless/until they meet the real, actual test numbers. And doing that might be more expensive than the value of the cars - in which case it would be cheaper to buy them back and scrap them. An there's the rub. How do they do that?
The best example to follow - bar none - is Apple. In such a scenario, Apple would replace your non-conforming MacBookPro/MacPro/iPhone/iPad with a new one. Simple. No questions asked. The customer receives better value than he/she paid for the original purchase. And this converts people-with-problems into people-who-appreciate-what-Apple-does-for-them. Apple eats the cost because it results in a long-term benefit of much greater value.
BMW tries to do this but doesn't make it. It's in the right direction but falls short.
It remains to be seen whether VW adopts the Apple approach, or something less. Fortunately I don't own one.
Personally, I buy 5-series BMWs because of the way they drive - there's a strong brand association. Over the years it has worked well both ways.
But VW has a huge challenge. There is a not insignificant possibility that the U.S. and other countries might declare the vehicles unroadworthy unless/until they meet the real, actual test numbers. And doing that might be more expensive than the value of the cars - in which case it would be cheaper to buy them back and scrap them. An there's the rub. How do they do that?
The best example to follow - bar none - is Apple. In such a scenario, Apple would replace your non-conforming MacBookPro/MacPro/iPhone/iPad with a new one. Simple. No questions asked. The customer receives better value than he/she paid for the original purchase. And this converts people-with-problems into people-who-appreciate-what-Apple-does-for-them. Apple eats the cost because it results in a long-term benefit of much greater value.
BMW tries to do this but doesn't make it. It's in the right direction but falls short.
It remains to be seen whether VW adopts the Apple approach, or something less. Fortunately I don't own one.
You sure make a big leap. VW engineers evaded the Clean Air Act, hence, Germans need to be indicted. Are Americans to be indicted because GM hid a defect that killed a large number of people?
115
Yes. Next question?
Germany is far ahead of the US when it comes to alternative energy and environmental protection. A company's fraud - even a major one's - does not represent a nations reliability. If it did - the US would look very lousy. What will matter now is how German courts and society deals with the company and their management.
309
Actually, it raises some big questions of just how far ahead they are, particularly as they transition to non-nuclear by 2020 or so.
By the books, they're well ahead. But if it's because of cheating, then they aren't so far ahead after all.
By the books, they're well ahead. But if it's because of cheating, then they aren't so far ahead after all.
1
You mean switching away from nuclear energy to brown coal and burning biomass and then importing energy from nuclear power plants when the windmills stop? Of all the things to commend Germany for, you choose the disastrous Energiewende.
1
Not true. Their solar and wind efforts have not born fruit, and they have shut down clean nuclear reactors and replace them with dirty coal and dirty natural gas. They are as nuts as the rest of us but they always execute under a set of rules. We do it chaotically.
2
We will dignorate these masters of the universe, enjoy the show.
7
Yes, I suspect that in order to vindicate its honor Germany will first flay Winterkorn alive, then subject his corpse to all manner of indignities. I'm not sure we'll enjoy the show, but I suspect that it will be an effective one. If I were Winterkorn, I'd be checking out which sunny climes have no extradition treaties with the European Union.
The Greeks work longer hours for less pay and vacation than Germans. They are not lazy, but have been rooked. It is not fair to lump the German people in with their crooks either though. And we can't be the pot calling the kettle black. We have our own crooks in abundance. And software everywhere is being messed with, from just about any automobile out there to our voting machines. It's a new world, in some ways more quickly and deadly in its ability to manipulate because of computerized everything. Surveillance, weaponry, and transport has made the world much much smaller and it affects every citizen in the world. To blame the good people who worked for Volkswagon and the entire country of Germany is not fair. Separate out the crooks of corporate hegemony. Make an example of this development in our midst, that knows now sovereign borders. This would keep you very busy writing, as it is going on everywhere in the world, where corporations are doing whatever they feel necessary to protect their bottom lines, no matter how it affects civil society and its safety.
58
"The Greeks work longer hours for less pay and vacation than Germans."
So why is the productivity in germany higher than in greece ?
Either the greece work hard but not smart. Or this claim is rigged, like the greece budget was.
Or the germans are the real masters of deception - but in this case i would call ourself the real geniuses of this fake world, because we got away with it for so long.
So why is the productivity in germany higher than in greece ?
Either the greece work hard but not smart. Or this claim is rigged, like the greece budget was.
Or the germans are the real masters of deception - but in this case i would call ourself the real geniuses of this fake world, because we got away with it for so long.
13
I guess it depends on how you define productivity, Mathias Weitz. I do not blame the Germans. I was only pointing out that the Greeks are not lazy. Clearly, the Germans are not lazy either! But they have better working conditions. All of the people are basically good..just trying to make a living. It's the elites of the world that cause the problems as they skim off the cream for themselves and leave the people to pay for their speculations.
11
Productivity alone is not what sank Greece. Doing a horrible job collecting income tax revenue and allowing people to retire early and collect very generous state pensions played a huge role.
1
It's far fetched rather irrelevant to call into question the quality of German leadership or even its work culture and ethics just because the globally renowned automaker the Volkswagen cheated on quality standards. For, in order to make more profits the Volkswagen did what the big business the world over normally does , compromise on the quality of product and service, and get away with that until caught.
78
This is a wrong shoe, but a shoe that German newspapers have imported here and that VW is wearing now allthough it does not fit. The legal accusation was not fraud but a breaking of the Clean Air Act. We have this in Germany too but in a more abstract way. It is Paragraph 325 of the German penal code:
Those who harm other peoples health via the air in an illegal way will be punished.
But we cannot put all into prison. Everybody knows that all cars are much different on the road than in the lab. VWs trick was not really something to write home about.
Those who harm other peoples health via the air in an illegal way will be punished.
But we cannot put all into prison. Everybody knows that all cars are much different on the road than in the lab. VWs trick was not really something to write home about.
3
Seriously? They wrote software to fool testing devices, and that's just what "Everybody knows," that cars perform differently on the road from in the lab? It's like saying: "everybody knows that the drugs tested in drug trials are formulated differently from the drugs that are sold once they're approved."
8
The Volkswagen didn’t cheat. The capitalism cheated!
The VW incident is just a proof that the corporations will always put their profits above the public interests. The corporations are always more than willing to destroy the entire society to benefit selfishly.
Thus they wage the endless wars at the opposite end of the globe to sell the weapons and arms.
Thus they try to maximize the consumption even if the means maximizing the global warming.
Thus they corrupt the elected officials to enact the laws that benefit the special interests, not the public ones.
Thus they run the chronic budget deficits and pile up the enormous national debt to increase their sales and the stock values.
Thus they export the dozens millions jobs to the communist China to slash the labor cost and increase the profit margins.
Thus they employ the dozens millions illegal immigrants to unfairly increase the competition for the limited number of jobs and minimize the worker wages.
Thus they run the endless commercials to brainwash everybody into believing that we are worth as the people only as much as our shoes, pants, shirts and jewelry.
Thus they have bought our free press to control what we read and how we think.
The only surprise is that anybody is surprised by the VW behavior and policies...
I didn’t say this. The Pope said it!
The VW incident is just a proof that the corporations will always put their profits above the public interests. The corporations are always more than willing to destroy the entire society to benefit selfishly.
Thus they wage the endless wars at the opposite end of the globe to sell the weapons and arms.
Thus they try to maximize the consumption even if the means maximizing the global warming.
Thus they corrupt the elected officials to enact the laws that benefit the special interests, not the public ones.
Thus they run the chronic budget deficits and pile up the enormous national debt to increase their sales and the stock values.
Thus they export the dozens millions jobs to the communist China to slash the labor cost and increase the profit margins.
Thus they employ the dozens millions illegal immigrants to unfairly increase the competition for the limited number of jobs and minimize the worker wages.
Thus they run the endless commercials to brainwash everybody into believing that we are worth as the people only as much as our shoes, pants, shirts and jewelry.
Thus they have bought our free press to control what we read and how we think.
The only surprise is that anybody is surprised by the VW behavior and policies...
I didn’t say this. The Pope said it!
15
Actually, Volkswagen cheated. Capitalism is not capable of cheating because it is not an entity, but instead is a system. It is the system in which great progress and great failure are both possible, but under which progress usually wins out in the end.
To view capitalism as a bad thing requires the most selective of all possible memories.
To view capitalism as a bad thing requires the most selective of all possible memories.
You nailed it!
There are 46 million Americans of German descent. This must explain why the DOJ refuses to prosecute known malefactors laundering billions or the fraudulent Wall Street schemes that brought down the US, Greek, and world economy. Assigning an ethnic predisposition to basic capitalistic (inevitable?) corruption is ridiculous. Greed has no bounds or ethnic particularity and dominates the current economic order across cultures.
33
The U.S. has some awful problems that Germany does not. But 46 million Americans being of German descent (me, for instance) is irrelevant. I am not German, and I never will be. Germany is Old World, the U.S. is New World. Far too many attempts are made to compare North America to Europe. We share some common values, but far too many Americans underestimate the vast chasm between the New World and the Old. They have gotten where they are through several millennia, we have gotten where we are through several centuries. Things may get far better or far worse on either side of the Atlantic in the future, but I doubt we will be on the same trajectory. It's not in our stars.
Cohen implies that the entire nation of Germany should ponder its moral and ethical attitudes because one of its private domestic automobile manufacturers lied to the public about its pollution emissions. He also blames Germany rather vaguely for an incident in which a suicidal German pilot deliberately killed himself and a plane full of people, and the investigation that followed.
In defense of Germany I could elaborate upon the ways that many other countries are so much worse in similar matters, but I doubt that would affect Cohen's indictment of Germany. Like millions of other people, I think Cohen is displeased by Germany's rapid recovery from WW II and its current prosperity and economic dominance of Europe.
In defense of Germany I could elaborate upon the ways that many other countries are so much worse in similar matters, but I doubt that would affect Cohen's indictment of Germany. Like millions of other people, I think Cohen is displeased by Germany's rapid recovery from WW II and its current prosperity and economic dominance of Europe.
39
It's not that German companies behaved badly. It's that German policy is predicated on the idea that German companies don't behave badly.
2
This rant is rather typical Cohen schadenfreude whenever anything goes wrong in Europe. That the Volkswagen debacle is somehow emblematic of the entire German nation's psyche is ludicrous. But Cohen is eager to to seize this event and use it as an excuse to list all the things he doesn't like about Germany.
4
What's this generalization and stereotyping all about?
46
Maybe it is countering plea, that the US should not to be classified by GW Bush, Sarah Palin and Donald Trump.
32
Volkswagen did wrong, so all Germans are unreliable? It seems to me that this scandal says more about corporate culture than about national character. Volkswagen did what any corporation anywhere in the world might have done -- thought up and enacted a scheme to break or evade or undermine the regulatory rules, then lied about it when caught. No need for anyone to start building theories based on national stereotypes.
449
Greece defaulted so all Greeks are guilty? That's the outcome in Greece. No effort to arrest the beneficiaries of loans, lenders? Who does Europe bail out? Lenders. Who is punished? Common people in Greece. It's time for German workers get a taste of self righteousness.
Or prosecute Winterkorn and his friends no the board. Do the same in Greece. Claw back the money from profiteers who spirited it out of the country.
Or prosecute Winterkorn and his friends no the board. Do the same in Greece. Claw back the money from profiteers who spirited it out of the country.
1
It isn't just a stereotype. German science and engineering have been outstanding for more than a century. But what were they applied to during the days of Hitler? To the building of an industrial machine of human destruction. That undertaking required engineers and scientists making their best contribution to a monstrous enterprise without asking questions.
That is a past the Germans have to live with. They should avoid any action that brings back any association to that kind of behaviour.
That is a past the Germans have to live with. They should avoid any action that brings back any association to that kind of behaviour.
1
The context is Greece. Are all Greeks guilty?
Corporate greed caused this problem, not German culture. What culture invented corporate greed?
559
What culture is the worldwide leader in claiming corporate saintliness? What culture demands that others follow this lead? That's the question Cohen was asking.
5
Actually, if any culture did, it was ours in the U.S., which worships corporate world. I like Mr. Cohen a lot, but sometimes he sees things in rather simple terms. The German society looks a lot more sane than ours, VW notwithstanding. We here live in a very large glass house.
3
American corporate culture, probably. One has only to go skin deep to find many American examples of "who cares about the others" behaviour, and not just corporate examples. Have to stop here, I am getting despondent.
2
What would help right now is for someone, some entity, to fix one of these cheater diesels so that owners (and I am not in that group) can get a sense of how the corrected TDI engine actually performs. This will not erase or mitigate the colossal scam, but it will at least give people an idea of what if feels like to drive the car with a "clean diesel." It will also give everyone a much clearer idea of what the car is worth.
4
World media have shown a lot of restraint in not mentioning the German political leader of the 1930s who decreed that there should be a People's Car. Like, we can separate the company from its history?
2
I, for one, could never drive a car knowing that 80 years ago a prominent anti-Semite was involved in its manufacture. That's why I stick to good ol' Fords!
1
And Henry Ford was not an anti-Semite?!
5
I got the joke. Not sure everyone else did.
1
There sure are a lot of Volkswagons in Germany. Perhaps it's a case of nitrogen oxide poisoning?
1
It is possible the diesel fraud was known to only a relatively few people in the company. Perhaps a core group of rogue engineers wrote the defeat mechanism into the computer code and kept it to themselves. The software was loaded into the engine control systems, the cars were equipped with proper functioning emissions control systems and otherwise assembled, distributed and sold by innocent, unknowing employees and dealers throughout the distribution chain. The engineer with wings was the creation of people who really believed VW engineers were doing great things.
The nature of this fraud is such that few people would have had to know about it.
It is questionable logic to raise concerns regarding the the role of Germany in Europe and the German psyche based on an extrapolation of this incident.
The GM ignition scandal was a pretty shocking incident too, but it does not justify a broad questioning of America. The financial crisis does, however.
The nature of this fraud is such that few people would have had to know about it.
It is questionable logic to raise concerns regarding the the role of Germany in Europe and the German psyche based on an extrapolation of this incident.
The GM ignition scandal was a pretty shocking incident too, but it does not justify a broad questioning of America. The financial crisis does, however.
227
It was Americans who figured out the GM ignition incident. Which was a mistake and a coverup, not an intentional fraud. Oh, and it was Americans who figured out the VW defeat device. Which was not a mistake, but an intentional fraud. And it is Germany whose self-righteous policies are most responsible for the continuing financial crisis in Europe. All while lecturing the rest of the world about its own corporate sanctity.
2
The NYT report on the weekend with details of how the cheating was uncovered indicates that the first discrepancies between emissions control performance in daily driving vs during testing were identified in Europe and reported to the EPA and to California environmental authorities.
It is interesting that American environmental regulations did not require emissions testing in regular driving conditions. It seems an obvious thing to do. Why do you think that was? Could it be that the regulations in question and the test protocols reflect heavy input from industry lobbyists and interference from pro-business groups and politicians who oppose regulation?
It is interesting that American environmental regulations did not require emissions testing in regular driving conditions. It seems an obvious thing to do. Why do you think that was? Could it be that the regulations in question and the test protocols reflect heavy input from industry lobbyists and interference from pro-business groups and politicians who oppose regulation?
2
While it's probably true that only those inside VW with a need to know would have been aware of the defeat mechanisms, it's probably also true that every other auto company that makes diesel cars knew what VW was doing. It would be irresponsible for a competitor not to thoroughly test and reverse engineer their main competitor's products. The fact that no other car maker turned VW in makes you wonder if they are all living in glass houses.
So now you don't like or trust Germany. In previous columns you were cheer leading Germany's humanitarian response to the 'migrant' crises. You couldn't say enough about their leadership and generosity. Yesterday yes, and today no. which is it?
20
When it comes to corporate and financial malfaisance, one should not forget the biggest elephant in the room.
118
Germans are Germmans. A general acceptance, they are a suprior race. Keeping that opion to themselves is a major challenge. This is a problem for them managing the EU. Reminds one of a wealthy family having a bunch of losers for relatives.
3
At least they can spell.
5
Through these scandals, and the ill-planned policy of open doors to refugees and migrants--a policy they are rolling back now--Germany has relinquished its moral authority within the EU.
1
Germans may be guilty of claiming a greater rectitude than the people of any country can actually achieve. But then Americans boast of a bogus exceptionalism that merely annoys the people of other countries. The French pretend to be more cultured than their neighbors. The citizens of many countries cling tenaciously to myths that enhance their self image.
But Mr. Cohen exaggerates the impact of this scandal on Germany's status. American and Japanese carmakers have committed similar outrages against their customers or the environment. Capitalism is an economic system that places heavy emphasis on the obligation of the business to make a profit, and it does so without any internal means to prevent abuses. That is why all countries with market economies rely on government to restrain the excesses of entrepreneurs. Most businessowners are honest, but the lure of greater profits will always encourage some to cut corners.
None of this is intended to downplay the impact of Volkswagen's crimes. But the problem here is universal and stems in part from the failure to hold corporate executives individually responsible for their company's actions. If all countries began to fine and imprison the people who made the decisions, these kinds of scandals would decline in frequency.
But Mr. Cohen exaggerates the impact of this scandal on Germany's status. American and Japanese carmakers have committed similar outrages against their customers or the environment. Capitalism is an economic system that places heavy emphasis on the obligation of the business to make a profit, and it does so without any internal means to prevent abuses. That is why all countries with market economies rely on government to restrain the excesses of entrepreneurs. Most businessowners are honest, but the lure of greater profits will always encourage some to cut corners.
None of this is intended to downplay the impact of Volkswagen's crimes. But the problem here is universal and stems in part from the failure to hold corporate executives individually responsible for their company's actions. If all countries began to fine and imprison the people who made the decisions, these kinds of scandals would decline in frequency.
433
The French ARE more cultured than their neighbors. They are inept at many things, but let's at least give them credit for that.
Germany chose to use VW as their flagship success story. It was and is their largest corporation. The waved the VW flag as much as the Germany flag. And their government did not check up on them because of hubris. They seem to feel that VW could do no wrong. So now it is very embarrassing and costly to their economy not to mention the customers worldwide. I think they should buy back everyone of those cars and allow those victim customers to go out and pay a car which meets their standards. Corporations worldwide have got to learn an lesson too.
Just because this country is and has been wrong on issues and actions does not give any other country a pass. It's not a logical argument in support of either.
If Volkswagen can't be trusted who can be?
Uh, certainly not Detroit - ignition switches, faulty brake pads etcetera, etcetera etcetera
And what about the Americans killed by criminally sloppy compounding pharmacies and known-to-be tainted peanut butter?
Do these misdeeds reflect on all Americans or our government? I really don't think so. We would not want our character judged by the behavior of Detroit and Germany does not deserve to be judged by misconduct at VW.
Let's wait for the enquiry. Some of the software used could have been written ihere for all we know.
And what about the Americans killed by criminally sloppy compounding pharmacies and known-to-be tainted peanut butter?
Do these misdeeds reflect on all Americans or our government? I really don't think so. We would not want our character judged by the behavior of Detroit and Germany does not deserve to be judged by misconduct at VW.
Let's wait for the enquiry. Some of the software used could have been written ihere for all we know.
3
I understand that this is an opinion piece but such blatant stereotyping and - yes - discrimination does not belong on the pages of the NYT.
Cohen does not live in Germany, does not know Germans yet claims to know the feeling of not only all Germans but all Europeans based on a short tenure as Bureau Chief in Berlin. Cohen is British with a Brits bias against Germans.
Imagine the opposite. If suddenly all Brits were castigated as being morally unsound because of the Libor Scandal. Cohen should stick to writing about things in which he is knowledgeable, such as his wholehearted support of the Iraqi invasion in 2003.
Cohen does not live in Germany, does not know Germans yet claims to know the feeling of not only all Germans but all Europeans based on a short tenure as Bureau Chief in Berlin. Cohen is British with a Brits bias against Germans.
Imagine the opposite. If suddenly all Brits were castigated as being morally unsound because of the Libor Scandal. Cohen should stick to writing about things in which he is knowledgeable, such as his wholehearted support of the Iraqi invasion in 2003.
221
He's not attacking all Germans. Most Germans have a lower standard of living than they should, thanks to the decisions of a foolish government that promotes its policies through cultural boosterism. The VW scandal shows that such boosterism is built on sand. Just as the LIBOR scandal is a pretty telling indictment against the corporate overlords of a once great Britain.
2
Hold on. The VW scandal could have been carried out by only a few individuals. During the phase of engine development, an overzealous and severely pressured engineering department could have implanted the subroutine thinking that no one will ever find it. The culprits may number just a few dozen or possibly far less.
Automobile engines are run by powerful computers with huge operating systems comprised of millions of lines of codes. Development work is divided up between hundreds of people. Each group has to trust the other to do their jobs properly. The combustion chamber people don't know what 's in the code. Only the code people know. Once the code is developed, it is plugged into all of the engines just as an OS is loaded onto a computer.
It is highly possible that this scandal doesn't go very high up in the power structure. I could be wrong and corporate ordered and directed the whole thing, but that is doubtful. We need to wait and find out how high up into management this goes before we condemn all of VW. After that, we need to be very careful about condemning an entire nation for the wrongdoings of a few. There may be no political or leadership connection at all.
Automobile engines are run by powerful computers with huge operating systems comprised of millions of lines of codes. Development work is divided up between hundreds of people. Each group has to trust the other to do their jobs properly. The combustion chamber people don't know what 's in the code. Only the code people know. Once the code is developed, it is plugged into all of the engines just as an OS is loaded onto a computer.
It is highly possible that this scandal doesn't go very high up in the power structure. I could be wrong and corporate ordered and directed the whole thing, but that is doubtful. We need to wait and find out how high up into management this goes before we condemn all of VW. After that, we need to be very careful about condemning an entire nation for the wrongdoings of a few. There may be no political or leadership connection at all.
17
But it says indeed a lot about the German mindset. Not the "scandal" itself, but how people confessed "crimes" that they had not commited.
Which explains the resignation of their CEO? At the very least this is a case of see-no-evil, when the evil should have been obvious to an expert.
Now it gets interesting. The code was not even written by VW but by their main partner Bosch. Bosch told in 2007 that it was only for testing and to use it on the streets would mean breaking the law. But due to some management reshuffle nobody was taking notice. Next time the code gets implemented and due to the passing of the tests it gets greenlighted. That's why I absolutely believe Winterkorns claim that he was totally unaware.
2
Why does every op-ed writer equate VW with Germany as a whole? I don't understand this. They opine as if Angela Merkel is the VW CEO and the German people are the board of directors. There will always be those who lie, cheat, steal among any group of people. How does what this one company did reflect so badly on the country and its people? Unless I am missing something there has been zero evidence, or even allegations, that the German government was complicit in VW's actions. I wish these writers would instead look at the corporate culture, the gain market share at any cost, attitudes that lead to these scandals.
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Because Merkel is always claiming German rectitude against Southern European fecklessness as her excuse for refusing to help those Germany helped destroy. At my institution, a big donor had someone fired for mismanaging our endowment during the financial crisis (it went down) when our donor was still doing well (his capital went up). And it turned out he was doing well because his funds were with Madoff. Same deal.
I would strongly agree with all those who denounce the mass accusation of Germans based on VWs action alone....except this is the country that started two World Wars. I like Germans when I am over there. But I would not deeply trust them. This VW debacle is just a small but similar blotch on a race of high minded but too easily arrogant people.
I think that Mr Cohen was attempting to point out the hypocrisy that Germany showed in its pretty brutally judgmental treatment of Greece that bordered on the very unfair labeling you are accusing him of doing. He was also pointing out that in a couple of instances, there has been a pretty wide chasm between thoughts and deeds and maybe a too quick impulse to give the Germans the benefit of the doubt about their "sterling character and morals". Of course, they are human like everyone else but these events give Germany an opportunity to examine itself and that is important as it becomes the defacto leader of the European Union. They owe themselves and the world a sincere effort to look dispassionately at their own behavior. BTW, corporate behavior and behavior of the larger culture are not unrelated to each other, either in Germany or anywhere else in the world. There are no impermeable silos guarding the impact of corporate behavior from general values and behavior of the "volk".
Substitute "American banks and investment corporations" for Volkswagen, and with little editing this article could have been titled with "United States" instead of Germany. People in glass houses . . . .
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Have you ever been passed by a Fedex truck while walking on the street? Talk about polluting to make money! The bottom line is "whatever it takes to increase the bottom line." Pope Francis is right that without regulation capitalism is evil.
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"But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing, between high culture and low conduct, between angels’ wings and nitrogen oxides; and there is something peculiarly German about the devastating impact this has."
I agree. It's as if the collective memory of the past century has somehow been forgotten in order to make way for the "good Germany" of our imaginations. I know we had to turn a blind eye after WWII because communism was such a perceived menace (falling dominoes and all that). And certainly the U.S. has some unsavory episodes in its history (some way too recent to give us a foolproof claim to moral superiority). Regardless, I hope that the U.S. and the rest of Europe will show Germany as much compassion and forgiveness over the VW affair as they showed to Greece recently, i.e. what goes around comes around.
I agree. It's as if the collective memory of the past century has somehow been forgotten in order to make way for the "good Germany" of our imaginations. I know we had to turn a blind eye after WWII because communism was such a perceived menace (falling dominoes and all that). And certainly the U.S. has some unsavory episodes in its history (some way too recent to give us a foolproof claim to moral superiority). Regardless, I hope that the U.S. and the rest of Europe will show Germany as much compassion and forgiveness over the VW affair as they showed to Greece recently, i.e. what goes around comes around.
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If the 'compassion and forgiveness over the VW affair as they showed to Greece recently' includes a total amount of 300 Billon Euros of financial aid to clean up the Volkswagen mess, than I am sure that the Germans will not resist.
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Julie: I see you drank the Kool-Aid about the financial aid that supposedly went to Greece. Although billed as a Greek bailout, most of the money went to German and French banks. If Deutsche Bank needed a bailout because it made reckless foreign loans, German taxpayers (rather than Greek taxpayers) should have provided that aid.
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The bailout money was paid by the taxpayers of other European nation, but not by the Greece taxpayers. Germany alone has paid an amount of ca. 90 Billion Euros to Greece which is about six times the 15 Billion Euros which Greece had borrowed from German banks (and other banks from all parts of the world, mainly from the UK and the US). Normally, it is the other way round, and taxpayers are liable for the debt that their own government has taken.
By the way, the most ruthless villain in the Greek drama was US American banks. Goldman Sachs alone has received 500 Billion Euros from the Greek government only for faking the Greek state budget so that they could receive further loans from other banks that were not in bad faith.
Of course, causing havoc around the world is so normal for the US that it was no reason to feel responsible. The world’s richest economy (and the UK) refused to write off any of its financial aid supplied by the IMF or to provide any assistance.
Who, by the way, has caused the World Financial Crisis since 2007 with whose consequences Greece could not cope…? Oh, exactly.
By the way, the most ruthless villain in the Greek drama was US American banks. Goldman Sachs alone has received 500 Billion Euros from the Greek government only for faking the Greek state budget so that they could receive further loans from other banks that were not in bad faith.
Of course, causing havoc around the world is so normal for the US that it was no reason to feel responsible. The world’s richest economy (and the UK) refused to write off any of its financial aid supplied by the IMF or to provide any assistance.
Who, by the way, has caused the World Financial Crisis since 2007 with whose consequences Greece could not cope…? Oh, exactly.
1
Are all Germans to blame for the wrongdoing of a German firm? Are all Germans to blame for a pilots depression? Thats a slippery slope Mr. Cohen.
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Are all the Greeks to blame for what their rich and feckless have wrought? And yet, Germany insists they must pay.
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Equating a debate on national culture with one person's depression seems superfluous. The question you should be asking is, letting that co-pilot fly knowing his issues and then immediately saying you had no responsibility for the outcome acceptable? It would appear that even to Lufthansa the answer might be no. Then you start the conversation of culture, where ever it might take you.
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So there's no unique history in Germany, say in the last 80 years, that we need to be concerned about?
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Ironically, it was the Germans who gave us the word schadenfreude
2
This problem is maybe more that VW was trapped in some sort of a marketing trap. Whatever they did say it was bad for them. And they reacted in a hurry much like Mrs. Merkel in the refugee crisis. This is more a lack of German power than too much of it.
1
Yeah, and the Americans... the NRA, patriot act, Guantanamo, and a host of other interesting vocabulary.
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The world "Volkswagen" originated with old Adolph's people in the 1930s, didn't it?
2
"But there is something peculiarly German about the chasm between professed moral rectitude and reckless wrongdoing, between high culture and low conduct, between angels’ wings and nitrogen oxides; and there is something peculiarly German about the devastating impact this has."
Thank you Roger. if I'd had to pick any country in the world whose auto industry committed such a scale of industrial crime, Germany would be the last. When I think of German products, I think precise, fail-proof, and efficient. Expensive, yes, but worth it.
No more. And as for the blind tone-deaf denials that he "knew anything about it" by Winterkorn, well: how do they jibe with Angela Merkel's air of moral superiority in all things German? The most booming economy in Europe, sure--but now, perhaps tainted, by VW's cheat. If VW could cheat, what other German-made products are suspect?
So far, VW is not taking any page out of the standard PR playbook for corporate scandals. Right now, they are allowing world opinion to further erode by denials and retrenchment. If they way to salvage any sense of national honor, they'd better send some folks to PR school, and then to business school. To learn how business trust is earned: the hard way.
Thank you Roger. if I'd had to pick any country in the world whose auto industry committed such a scale of industrial crime, Germany would be the last. When I think of German products, I think precise, fail-proof, and efficient. Expensive, yes, but worth it.
No more. And as for the blind tone-deaf denials that he "knew anything about it" by Winterkorn, well: how do they jibe with Angela Merkel's air of moral superiority in all things German? The most booming economy in Europe, sure--but now, perhaps tainted, by VW's cheat. If VW could cheat, what other German-made products are suspect?
So far, VW is not taking any page out of the standard PR playbook for corporate scandals. Right now, they are allowing world opinion to further erode by denials and retrenchment. If they way to salvage any sense of national honor, they'd better send some folks to PR school, and then to business school. To learn how business trust is earned: the hard way.
8
I would say they did the opposite. They confessed too much, there was no "fraud" but ONLY the Clean Air Act that nobody did take serious. This was the error. That they overlooked American power. The land of the brave.....
1
Most German industry is owned by foreigners. I would start with telecommunications. How people are trapped in expensiv smart phone treaties and it is legal.
1
Oh please.
The fact is, VW is going to suffer serious consequences. Their CEO has resigned (any one of Wall Street guys resigned or admitted wrongdoing?) and may be subject to a criminal investigation. The company will pay massive fines and/or be required to buy back the affected cars. Has their been any restitution to the millions of Americans and those around the world, who entire lives and families and livelihoods have been ruined by the American banking scandal?
What's peculiarly German is that now that the wrongdoing was found, those responsible will be prosecuted and those innocents who are affected will be made whole.
The fact is, VW is going to suffer serious consequences. Their CEO has resigned (any one of Wall Street guys resigned or admitted wrongdoing?) and may be subject to a criminal investigation. The company will pay massive fines and/or be required to buy back the affected cars. Has their been any restitution to the millions of Americans and those around the world, who entire lives and families and livelihoods have been ruined by the American banking scandal?
What's peculiarly German is that now that the wrongdoing was found, those responsible will be prosecuted and those innocents who are affected will be made whole.
2
Those who care about Germany, its people and achievements can only say: Hear! hear!
And this is the result of the "fraud" thread that was wrong. The CAA is more a "gentlemens crime".
"It is one of those moments when the entire culture of a nation — in this case one of scrupulous honesty, acceptance of rules, reliability, environmental sensitivity and atoning dedication to the common good — is called into question."
This is nonsense, and I wish the NYT would stop spewing it. When GM had its problem with brake pads, who in their right mind generalized from that to "American culture?"
About the only cultural generalization one can make about this episode, is that Americans do not learn enough geography and seem to have a great difficulty understanding that foreign countries are not monolithic.
This is nonsense, and I wish the NYT would stop spewing it. When GM had its problem with brake pads, who in their right mind generalized from that to "American culture?"
About the only cultural generalization one can make about this episode, is that Americans do not learn enough geography and seem to have a great difficulty understanding that foreign countries are not monolithic.
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Roger Cohen is British.
4
Your last paragraph accuses a monolithic America of viewing other nations as monolithic. Is the the irony intended?
10
That's the risk (that we in the US are exposed to well) that comes from lecturing other nations and cultures non-stop.
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By the way, I have tried to download it from several web sites, and in each case, it appears to have been deleted.