Heinz-Jakob Neusser
“The termination of Dr. Ing. Neußer has not been substantiated so far, “says his lawyer.
Düsseldorf, FrankfurtWho has such leaders, needs no enemies. For almost 20 years, Heinz-Jakob Neußer made a career in German car companies. First he worked for Porsche, then for Volkswagen, As of 2013, there was a huge one VW– No one who bore more responsibility for the engines of the group than Neußer. That the engineer has just fired him, the engineer finds completely incomprehensible,
“The termination of Dr. Ing. Neußer has not been substantiated so far, says his lawyer Axel Hoß. He had moved to Neuss in 2017 in front of the Labor Court Braunschweig, because Volkswagen wanted to pay since 2015 his leave a client no more million bonuses. At that time one agreed on a comparison. That too is now in question.
“We do not avoid labor law disputes with the dismissed,” says a Volkswagen spokesman. Neuss’s lawyer, of course, considers the expulsion of the engine chief arbitrary. Hoß: “If there were allegedly serious misconduct, then VW must certainly ask – and these questions will probably be raised by us – for which reason only individuals were terminated.”
Without rebutting a possible fault of Neußer, the lawyer hits a point. What Volkswagen did with its engines cost the group more than 30 billion euros, There the thesis of a few fraudsters in the group seems more than questionable,
Current club events
The “Clean Diesel” technology, praised as a masterpiece of German engineers, was unmasked by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2014 as a delusion. The diesel engines drove clean only in test mode – if the group wanted to achieve their approval. On the road they sometimes released 35 times as much poison gas as allowed.
For more than a year, Volkswagen resisted the reality: the millions of frauds on the customer and at the registration authorities had flown. When the Americans realized that Volkswagen just did not want to comply, they made the facts public by press release.
This happened on 18 September 2015, A few days later, CEO stepped down Martin Winterkorn back. 48 hours later Neußer was on leave, but still received his remuneration. On October 8, 2015, the prosecution in Braunschweig searched his home and put him on the accused list. Volkswagen continued to pay.
This condition, which was not pleasant for Neusser but not entirely unpleasant, lasted almost three years. It was not until the end of August 2018 that he and a number of other high-ranking executives received their termination without notice. “Reason for the measures are serious misconduct,” justified VW HR Director Gunnar Kilian. “We draw the consequence from the now available findings.”
As so often in the past three years, the supposedly clear words were at the same time admission of a control failure. It was true that the Volkswagen lawyers were only able to see the investigation files of the public prosecutor’s office this summer. But had not your company hired a law firm for many millions of euros in 2015 to investigate? What’s more, what was the internal workup?
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For years, the company has generally prided itself on its allegedly exemplary compliance system and CEO Winterkorn in particular on his damage story. The regular meeting formed a forum to not only find mistakes, but to celebrate them. Dealing with mistakes, Winterkorn preached, was at the core of a leadership culture. Responsible persons should not be punished, but the mistake should be used to improve the group.
What sounded good in management seminars was of course not important in everyday business life. Volkswagen has long admitted to having run a tremendous scam for years. More than eleven million engines were manipulated.
How could that happen? Winterkorn does not know, says Winterkorn. “It is hard to understand why I was not informed early and clearly,” said the VW boss, as he sat in January 2017 before the Committee of Inquiry of the German Bundestag. “I’m upset. Above all, I am stunned that misconduct of this magnitude in the Volkswagen Group were possible. “
They were possible – and they happened. But that did not recognize the fact that Winterkorn’s own fault and leadership culture was in question. His resignation happened for the benefit of the company, he himself was “not aware of any misconduct,” Winterkorn said.
Environmental compatibility of its engines? Not his thing. Emission standards? “I did not know the details. The engine development was responsible for that. “
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Since October 2011, he has headed Heinz-Jakob Neußer at Volkswagen. In 2012, according to several witnesses of the prosecutor’s office Braunschweig, his employees told him the details of the so-called acoustics function.
The software, developed in 2006 by Bosch for Volkswagen, was half sophistication, half emergency nail. According to Neußer, the diesel engines were technically simply unable to permanently meet the environmental requirements. So you reached for a trick.
Whenever the engine was tested for environmental compatibility, the software switched to clean mode at short notice. If the sensors detected that the driver was traveling on a normal road trip, the emission control was switched off.
Some called him Mister Easy, another Doctor Hollywood
How did the boss of the aggregate development react? Neuß’s defense lawyer Anette Voges does not want to comment on the details of the diesel scandal and the involvement of his client. But it questions the credibility of those who burden their clients: “The witnesses are themselves accused and partisan.”
Neußer himself has not testified yet. He and his lawyer are currently studying the 81 files recently sent to him. The prosecution has asked the accused to take a stand by 15 October.
Much, however, has long been known. In the US, Volkswagen already signed a debt confession. It includes the revelation that a VW manager instructed in the summer of 2012 to destroy a document. It was a drawing of the functioning of the defeat device, which is at the center of the exhaust scandal. In the admission of guilt, the manager is just called “Supervisor A”. From the functional description but can be read: it was Neußer.
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In the summer of 2013, the VW engineers sat with him again. The US authorities had become aware, Neußer learned. Maybe Volkswagen should now reveal how the acoustics function worked. But there is an alternative: the steering angle detection.
The engineers had refined their fraud. Their software now concluded from the position and movement of the steering wheel, whether just danger was late – so for example, the inspectors from the registration authorities took their measurements. Then she switched exhaust gas cleaning to 100 percent. Otherwise, this value has been reduced – often to zero.
The men who testified are not small screwdrivers. One was Neusser predecessor, another headed the entire electronics field in the aggregate development. A third was the diesel boss of VW. All three explained at their interrogations in detail, why Neußer as the highest responsibility for the diesel engines would have to declare a state of emergency.
He did not do that. Heinz-Jakob Neußer had a reputation with Volkswagen, which suggested exactly the opposite. Some called him Mister Easy, another Doctor Hollywood. Somehow everything will turn out well, just like in the movie. Solutions are always easy to find, especially from him. One employee: “So he really told me once a day how great he is.”
Neußer was not disturbed by this self-perception. With the release of steering angle detection, employees report, the boss of the engine decided: eyes closed and through.
“I have Dr. Neuss said that I do not think that this is purposeful and problem-solving, “says a senior engineer. “The concept has not been good enough from the beginning to comply with American legislation.” Neußer should have decided against it.
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He apparently opted for it. If the Americans actually came to terms with what happened in the diesel engines of Volkswagen, then Volkswagen would just make an “amicable settlement” with the authorities, Neußer said to have answered. But it will not come that far. Neußer should rather have listened to an IT officer, who repeatedly emphasized: “The software is so well hidden, they will not find any anyway!”
So Neußer left everything as it was. It went well, In 2013, Volkswagen set a record balance – nearly 200 billion euros in sales and 12 billion euros in profits. In 2014, the group headed for a new record: ten million cars sold.
On April 15, Winterkorn wrote a letter to Neusser. “Dear Doctor. Neußer, the leadership committee has reviewed your salary … “began the letter. It was a pleasant read. The gross monthly salary of Neußer should amount to € 37,000 in the future. If Volkswagen and Neusser achieved the set targets, he could additionally achieve a bonus of more than 1.1 million euros.
Doubt was no longer allowed. Volkswagen received the first urgent demands from US authorities in 2014. Did the group use a “defeat device” in its engines, that is, a device to switch off something? Of course he did that, namely the emission control. But Neußer did not bother with the facility itself, but with his subordinates talking openly about it. One employee: “The use of the term defeat device was prohibited. Dr. Neußer did not want that term to be used in documents. “
His “developer heart” had hurt him, the employee reports on the way Volkswagen under Neuss’s leadership zukleisterte his engineering problems. But argument did not make sense. “I can not remember that we were still talking big about it.”
Investigations for suspected fraud and punishable advertising
Neußer did not see the end coming. In 2015, his boss Winterkorn became 68 years old. In speculation about his successors fell names such as Herbert Diess, who just returned from BMW came, and Andreas Renschler, the boss of the lorry branch. But also Neußer was called, Although he was not a member of the Executive Board, in fact he was responsible for the development of all VW models.
“The core competency of a VW boss, always called for by supervisory board boss Ferdinand Piëch, to be an accomplished technician, has Neußer,” wrote the Wirtschaftswoche. He himself agreed. One employee recalls, “Neußer often said back then that it would be great if he became that.”
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It came differently. On September 18, 2015, the US Environmental Protection Agency uncovered the exhaust gas scandal and five days later Winterkorn resigned. Neußer did not follow him to the executive chair, but to the paid holiday. Now Volkswagen has dismissed him without notice. The German prosecutor investigates against Neußer on suspicion of fraud and punishable advertising. He can move freely, but traveling across national borders is critical: the US Justice is after him with an international arrest warrant.
In April 2018, Heinz-Jakob Neußer celebrated his 58th birthday. In the job market, he is considered difficult to negotiate. But it is after him, a new beginning is unnecessary. Although Neußer does not want to take responsibility for what he did since 2011 as head of aggregate development at Volkswagen. But he already wants the job.
Neußer reclaims his job by means of a dismissal protection suit. He is still waiting for an explanation of his expulsion. The fact that his employer has not yet delivered these three years after the outbreak of the emissions scandal does not have to speak for him. But it does not speak for Volkswagen.