I don't know why people think Germans relate to quality in everything. Their cars have horrible electrical systems (and they don't seem to factor in difficulty in working on them, in the design), and they aren't a major player in computers - software or hardware, compared to the U.S. .
They make excellent mechanical things, though. I only buy German cars (despite their incredibly poor electrical ability) because I love the way they handle, but that doesn't mean they are better than Americans at anything related to computers. Also, the Prussian culture, which symbolized and in a real way was the pinnacle of efficiency and discipline, is largely gone in today's Germany.
In fact, their tradition of making overly complicated things, that have problems for just that reason, doesn't bode well. On top of this, SAP has been getting slapped around by Oracle for many years.
I wouldn't make too much of this. The likelihood of this man being better than Hurd is very low, simply because Hurd did an amazing job in a short period of time. He's a hard act to follow from a stockholder's perspective. That's a tough job to take.