Call it the Ackermann effect. An international manager leading a global company finds himself hemmed in by his German home market. Meanwhile, the stock market refuses to acknowledge a series of decisive strategic acts, leaving the shares stagnating.

The same problems that befell Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, are now hitting Klaus Kleinfeld, his counterpart at Siemens. The last few weeks have not been kind to the head of Germany’s largest engineering group.