Since commenters are saying this is not specific to MPI (or Germany)*, I suggest instead a comparison to Bell Labs. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=432958

Since commenters are saying this is not specific to MPI (or Germany)*, I suggest instead a comparison to Bell Labs. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43295865 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43295865 From what I can tell their values are similar; the effective difference is making (human & material) resources broadly available vs handing out power (=specifically, organizational capabilities, including hiring, personnel evaluations,etc) *Curious folks might want to peruse https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harnack-Prinzip https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harnack-Prinzip https://archive.today/0Iqes https://archive.today/0Iqes >Der Wettbewerb um akademische Positionen ist hart, eigene wissenschaftliche Durchbrüche lassen sich nicht erzwingen und bei allen Zukunftsplanungen sind junge Forscher von der Begutachtung durch bereits arrivierte Wissenschaftler abhängig. --public apologizing by the indignant President last decade