Possibly. Here I agree with Nicole that German letters of reference are written according to a very specific code that is understood by German HR professionals but not by most outsiders, and which has the objective of enabling negative criticism to be expressed (if necessary) in a manner that cannot be construed as 'objectively' negative, in order to avoid the risk of being sued for defamation of character (a real risk).

As an example, a phrase that translates as 'he was very attentive to the rules and regulations' could mean 'he was extremely inflexible and insisted on doing everything by the book', or 'his work was fastidious' might mean 'he took three times as long to do the job as anyone else'.

There is a similar situation in English (and probably in other languages as well), but the wording is different in each case.