don't forget the big infrastructure project like BER which entertained me a lot.

A story I like particularly is the Phantom of Heilbronn (related to another big scandal: the NSU) which I think explain what is happening: Germans have a great confidence in them and other germans. They are very suspicious when something comes from outside Germany / Austria (like France, Italy, or UK), but if it is german it must be good and seriously done!

Truth is, Germany also has a share of slackers and fraudsters doing half assed stuff, but they admit their failures and sins only when it has become overwhelming, leading to crazy scandals. I still remember my colleagues who were proud of VW when the dieselgate came out. They were completely shocked. VW did this! They were expecting this from the sleazy french and italian, but not from their own beloved german company.

I'd argue that Germans don't do it half-assed, but they do worry about the irrelevant details, over-complicate things and try to shift responsibility as much as possible.

BER is a great example of course.

It's true that they tend to miss the big picture, but their attention to details is their strength. In my line of work we take german stuff because they took care of the annoying little details that competitors just ignored.

On the other side when they finally accept to take responsibility over something, you can count on them to do the job! Unfortunately you already lost months negotiating it, you would have been better off doing it yourself.

I had heard about the Wirecard scandal, but didn’t know the details. Having read the article now, I do wonder how Ernst & Young signed off on Wirecard’s accounts.

Money has been exchanged for services rendered.

Of course a lot of people half-ass stuff at FAANGs, they're only human (plus there's been enough scandals coming out of those places that it's no secret any more).