Agree
so they can't get Rudi and the next step is to reach in the toilet? reeks of nepotismdude, wtf is wrong with you? let me guess, you're an early-year phd student who KNOWS that he will never publish anything below an EJ?
anybody who has ever been on any hiring committee knows that there is a significant random/luck component involved. sure, if you have several top 5s, you will usually get invited and make it to the list, but for all the others, idiosyncracies are huge.
i don't doubt that there is a lot of nepotism in german academia, but putting someone with a very decent cv, who is almost guaranteed to come and for whose qualities as a teacher and colleague you have inside knowledge on a list that otherwise goes for more risky us-based candidates doesn't reek of it at all. freiburg had troubles in the past filling their slots (how long was econometrics vacant?), this time it worked. congrats to both.
The Fed guy actually had a rather okayish CV (though he also still is quite your). Many would have thought that he came. MH is a gain for the faculty and a very devoted teacher.