  The recently reported unusual behavior of the static and dynamical magnetic
susceptibility as well as the specific heat in Ce$_{1-x}$La$_{x}$Ni$_{9}$Ge$_4$
has raised the question of a possible non-Fermi liquid ground state in this
material. We argue that for a consistent physical picture the crystal field
splitting of two low lying magnetic doublets of the Ce $4f$-shell must be taken
into account. Furthermore, we show that for a splitting of the order of the low
temperature scale $T^*$ of the system a crossover behavior between an SU(4) and
an SU(2) Kondo effect is found. The screening of the two doublets occurs on
different temperature scales leading to a different behavior of the magnetic
susceptibility and the specific heat at low temperatures. The experimentally
accessible temperature regime down to 50mK still lies in the extended crossover
regime into a strong coupling Fermi-liquid fixed point.
