GERMANY: Axel Springer Verlag, Europe's largest newspaper company, declined to comment on Mr Desmond's remarks, reports Derek Scally in Berlin.
"This is the typical below-the-belt treatment a German company faces when it goes abroad," said one source inside Springer, currently one of the favourites to take over the Telegraph group, whose executives were subjected to Mr Desmond's tirade.
"That is so far beneath Germans that I don't know anyone who would be offended by it," said Mr Tom Levine, political correspondent of the Berliner Zeitung and the paper's former London correspondent.
"I'm sure Mr Desmond is not stupid, but his remarks show a bad character. It's sad that a character like that can get to a point like that in British society."
Mr Desmond's takeover of the Express group four years ago was bankrolled by Germany's Commerzbank.
Germany rarely gets excited about the regular stream of anti-German comment from across the channel.
Stories peppered with war language like "Achtung Fritz!" and "Blitzkrieg" arouse mild curiosity and puzzlement but never anger.
"It only shows that a country like Britain is so far behind in history," said Mr Levine.
The German government said it had no comment to make on Mr Desmond's remarks.
"And you can take it that no comment speaks volumes about what we think about the remarks: not worth commenting on," said a government spokesman.