I would imagine if a director breaks the law, only then he could be personally liable. And in that case I would imagine Germany does have higher standards than US.
"If the company is in crisis special obligations arise for a managing director the breach of which may lead to a personal liability of the managing director."
I'm not saying you are wrong, just that Germany doesn't really support your point.
Not really. Directors are not generally held liable for debts incurred by their companies in Germany. However, they can be held liable if they are found to be in breach of their duties as directors. Also, the onus of proof is reversed in some cases (e.g. the director needs to prove he wasn't in breach of his duty).
In US new enterprise have a very high failure rate, how do entrepreneurs survive in such environment?
A CEO (and other company execs) can be held personally liable only if there is fraud or other illegal acts. Mismanaging a company, or even simply working hard and not succeeding, are not illegal.
American firms can take on much more risk, so we tend to see both many more failures and many more successes.
Employment law in Europe, for example, frequently requires the severance terms to be determined at the time the employee is signed up. The employment agreement is a contract, and will be signed by all positions in the firm. In many cases, the severance terms are based on law.
Among other differences, for example, a German President is personally liable for the financial obligations of their company. If the company goes bankrupt, so does he.