I am German and went to school in Germany. I completed the 11th grade at an American high school in Oregon, as an exchange student.

One of the more unexpected culture shocks I experienced, was how academic cheating was seen as bad even by the American students. In contrast, let me give you a brief, personal account of academic cheating in my school(s) in Germany:

We cheated. A lot [1]. Mostly, it was "cooperative cheating" (copying each other's homework, comparing answers during exams), but sometimes it was cheating to get ahead personally (using cheat sheets). Only rarely did we copy homework off the internet, but mostly, because the internet was pretty new. Having others (parents) flat-out do homework for us was, at least to me, unknown, and would have been seen as "bad" cheating, even by the students.

Our teachers were by no means oblivious to the problem. Quite the contrary! Having cheated in schools themselves, they knew all the tricks. They spotted us. And they mostly let it slide. I guess if all students are cheating, they still have a level playing-field? In any case, the cooperative nature of our cheating, and the "us vs. the teachers"-attitude, created a strong bond among us students, and helped integrate the nerds among us (myself included) into the general student body. Imagine my surprise, as I tried to recreate this bond with my fellow American students at the Oregon high-school!

Most times, the consequences for getting caught cheating in an exam were (from 1st grade to final exams at University, including medical "boards", my wife tells me): You get a warning for being caught the 1st time, a stern warning for being caught the second time, and you fail the exam for being caught the third time. This is per exam.

The only times I ever heard second warnings being issued, was teachers mocking the students for being too obvious. I don't recall ever seeing someone fail an exam for cheating, although I hear, it does happen.

Cheating subsides as you move up in the academic system. Cheating on your PhD-thesis is not seen as a trivial offense anymore, but as a serious offense not entirely unlike fraud.

And here is my points about Dieselgate: I would not be surprised at all if management and the whole engineering team were in on it together - at every German (and possibly European) company simultaneously. With a mindset of: "If everyone is doing it, noone is at an unfair disadvantage." Just like school. Or like quoting fuel-consumption measured by the European standrad such-and-such. Or like giving projected battery-life for a tablet or notebook. Or ...

I have since come to appreciate the American way of treating (academic) cheating, but, at times, I also appreciate the German way. It's simply a cultural difference, and I don't argue for either way as the "right way".

[1]: http://www.zeit.de/2012/34/C-Abschreibestudie-Interview-Satt... (This German article describes a study, in which 4 out of 5 students admitted to having cheated in the last semester, at university. If anything, I would expect the fraction of cheating high-school students to be even higher.)

Addendum: I have also worked with students from countries, where cheating seems to be even more blatant than in Germany. I was (Of course! Certainly!) morally outraged! I only later realized my hubris.