There was little schadenfreude in Greece last week when one of Germany’s most prominent public figures — Uli Hoeness, the former star footballer and president of the country’s most famous team — was convicted of tax evasion, brought down by a crime that the German tabloid press likes to portray as a Greek national trait. Instead, the conviction, and the way Mr. Hoeness accepted it, provoked envy among the Greeks, a sense that Germany is more serious about such issues.

Mr. Hoeness is not the first German celebrity to be convicted of a tax crime, but when he waived his right to appeal and said he would immediately serve his three-and-a-half-year jail term for evading 28.5 million euros in taxes through a Swiss account, this was seen as a heroic gesture.…  Seguir leyendo »