BRAUNSCHWEIG (dpa-AFX) - Ex-VW boss Herbert Diess enters the courtroom in a relaxed manner, says a friendly good morning and nods curtly to familiar faces. He doesn't look as if he is very worried about being summoned as a witness in the diesel affair. In the billion-euro investor trial at the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court on Tuesday, the 65-year-old denies any responsibility in the scandal. His questioning did not provide any new insights.

The judge questioned him for over two and a half hours about his knowledge of the manipulations. Diess repeatedly pointed out that he had only just joined the giant Wolfsburg-based company and had not realized the extent of the scandal, not even when the talk of a "diesel issue" came up. "I had the impression that the issue was being dealt with properly," he said. The people involved around the then Group boss Martin Winterkorn had seemed very competent.

The scandal came to light in September 2015 when the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported the manipulation of emissions tests on diesel cars. CEO Winterkorn resigned and the industry crisis took its course. According to the Group, the costs of the investigation have long since exceeded the 30 billion euro mark. It is still not clear who knew what and when about the diesel engine scandals.

In the proceedings under the Capital Markets Model Case Act (KapMug), investors have now been fighting for damages for more than five years. After the publication, they suffered losses in the billions. After a long period of proceedings, the court wants to hear more than 80 witnesses. After Diess, the former CEOs Matthias Müller (February 7) and Martin Winterkorn (February 14 and 15) will also be heard.

The assumption of many observers that the Diess questioning would not bring any major surprises was quickly confirmed on Tuesday. After several years as a top manager at BMW, the engineer with a doctorate had only moved to Volkswagen as head of the core brand shortly before "Dieselgate" became known and was to be installed as the successor to the powerful Group boss Winterkorn.

In court, Diess reported on the complex process of familiarizing himself with a company that was plagued by several problems at the time. Even a few days before the crash, it was still a technical issue for him, but not a looming scandal, Diess said. He was not familiar with terms such as "defeat device" at the time. According to his recollection, Winterkorn had already been clear in his instructions at the famous damage table on July 27, 2015. "No further action was necessary on my part," said Diess. "I was sure that this was in good hands."

Diess reported that he was caught off guard by the so-called Notice of Violation, i.e. the announcement of the violations by US authorities, on September 18, 2015, during a trip to Spain. When asked by the judge whether he had any indications of prior knowledge on the part of Winterkorn or the entire Board of Management, Diess replied: "I did not have the impression".

After a lunch break, Diess also answered questions from the parties to the dispute. Leaning towards the lawyers in a relaxed pose, the questions from the plaintiffs did not disturb him. However, even after a total of almost five hours of questioning, there were no new insights or surprises./bch/DP/jha