Thanks for the additional information!

Here’s the quote from the paywalled article I was referring to:

Bethke hat im Herbst 2024 Anzeige gegen Pascal K. erstattet. In Summe gehe es, andere Forderungen wegen ausstehender Rechnungen in der Bar eingerechnet, um knapp 10 000 Euro. Die Staatsanwaltschaft hat Ermittlungen eingeleitet. Aber auch die Behörden konnten Pascal K. nicht finden. Zwischenzeitlich hat die Staatsanwaltschaft Köln sogar nach ihm gesucht und das Ermittlungsverfahren dafür vorübergehend ausgesetzt, weil er an seiner Meldeadresse nicht gelebt habe, so ein Sprecher. Inzwischen laufen die Ermittlungen wieder.

Translation:

Bethke filed a criminal complaint against Pascal K. in the fall of 2024. Including other claims for outstanding bills at the bar, the total amount is just under 10,000 euros. The public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation. However, the authorities were also unable to locate Pascal K. According to a spokesperson, the Cologne public prosecutor’s office even searched for him and temporarily suspended the investigation because he was not living at his registered address. The investigation has since resumed.

There has also been another case where there was a civil arrest warrant against K., though that isn’t a police matter in Germany:

Oliver Strank sagt, seit Oktober 2023 bestehe in der Sache ein Vollstreckungstitel, aber K. sei nicht greifbar gewesen. Im Sommer 2024 hat Strank sogar einen zivilrechtlichen Haftbefehl gegen K. erwirkt. Doch die zuständige Gerichtsvollzieherin, die diesen Haftbefehl vollstrecken müsste, habe den Gesuchten nie antreffen können, sagt Strank.

Translation:

Oliver Strank says that there has been an enforcement order in the matter since October 2023, but K. could not be located. In the summer of 2024, Strank even obtained a civil arrest warrant for K. However, Strank says the responsible bailiff, who would have to execute this arrest warrant, was never able to find the wanted person.

Although homophobia is definitely a plausible motive here, it’s important to know that there are multiple accusations of theft and grifting against this guy.

For example, he managed someone else’s bar, threw his birthday party there, and then vanished, leaving the owner with a bill of almost €6,000. He couldn’t even be found by the police. He also never repaid a loan of €3,500 to someone else. By now, about 20 people claim to have been scammed by him. After prosecutors were unable to locate him for quite a while, the investigation is currently ongoing.

He also seems to be quite manipulative, complaining to his followers about not being chosen as a referee for games because of his activism, while actually just not showing up to mandatory training and therefore being unqualified.

(Source; unfortunately German and paywalled)

So, while homophobia might be the reason for this attack, he might also have been beaten up by a victim of his alleged crimes.

I see what you mean, but your belief that making chocolate from cocoa is „extremely trivial“ is simply wrong. For example, conching was invented in Europe and without it, chocolate would taste and feel totally different. The process is so important and difficult to get right, it often makes the biggest difference in chocolate quality to this day.

I‘d like to add Zotter to the list. Really good chocolate plus they only use ingredients from organic cultivation and pay their suppliers well.

Your point being? This community isn‘t about exclusively promoting products that don’t have any ingredients from outside of Europe.

I think this really depends on the company’s culture and size. From my experience, having only worked in smaller teams, I’d say trying to partake in management duties proactively has probably been most successful for colleagues who wanted to lead.

So when your boss or supervisor has a meeting about your product, ask if you can join. If you have a well thought-out idea on how to improve things, like introducing better processes, fixing recurring issues, introducing better tools or something like that, talk about it. Being visible as someone who genuinely cares about the success of your team, product and company is, in my experience, probably the most important thing.

Just make sure this is actually what you want. Depending on the company, you might end up doing very little programming and lots of spreadsheets and misery instead. Find out what’s keeping your current team lead busy and ask yourself if that’s really what you want to do.