They invented Germany, that was a pretty big deal
Meh. Strongly derivative work, and they kept reinventing the wheel.
They didn’t invent East Germany.
The hamburger, from the city of Hamburg.
And German chocolate cake from Deutschschokoladenkuchen
Fun fact: German Chocolate Cake is actually from Texas. Either the cocoa company or the baker (I can’t remember which) was named “German” and I think the original name was “German’s chocolate cake”
It’s also just a super German state from an immigration perspective. At the time, the Mexicans were very upset by all of the Europeans jumping the borders and taking work they didn’t particularly want anyway.
A lot of folks don’t realize that. We have cities like Fredericksburg and New Braunfels and events like Wurstfest and water parks like Schlitterbahn. We have Shiner Bock and Ziegenbock beer.
There’s a lot of German heritage running around here.
Pretty heavily found in parts of Michigan and Ohio, too.
German-American culture was heavily downplayed, in the 20th century… for some reason.
Honestly it’d taken a huge hit before either war. New York City’s wealthy German families had an annual cruise together. One year, the boat sank.
This sounds like a Darwin Award:
The disastrous fire was fueled by the straw, oily rags, and lamp oil strewn around the room.: 98–102 The first notice of a fire was at 10 a.m.; eyewitnesses claimed the initial blaze began in various locations, including a paint locker filled with flammable liquids and a cabin filled with gasoline.
Correct, the credit for that goes to Texas – the use of Coconut and Pecans should have given it away, those were very ingredients rare in Germany (still kinda are to this day).
The first known instance of this recipe comes from a lady from Dallas, who named it after the brand of chocolate she was using to make it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_chocolate_cake
And schadenfreude: the joy that comes from others suffering!
Wasn’t the hamburger invented in the US? There they had Frikadellen, which are arguably much better.
As far as the story goes, the meat-in-a-bun concept was taken by sailors from Hamburg to the USA, where it was tweaked for local preferences and then called a hamburger. So the Germans invented it, USA marketed it.
When you go back further it was the romans that brought that concept to Germany. Romans invented it, Germany tweaked it, and USA went further with it.
So they
- Applied previous knowledge
- Created something observed to be new
- Named it
And that doesn’t count? What’s the definition of inventing something? If I create a new flavor of bread, does it not count because flour was already invented?
Name something the Germans didn’t invent.
concentration camps
But they were the first to have a bakery attached.
Nope. The Brits did that, in South Africa, iirc.
You are supposed to mention things the Germans didn’t invent in this section.
Oh, right. Somehow I only noticed the original post.
Humor
Hitler
And what about Mozart?
Civil engineering. And they’ve been confused at how the Italians beat them to it ever since
Tough one
Inefficiency
Germans known inefficiency pretty damn well, I can tell you that much.
The number zero, sanitation, statistics.
Telephone
IN THIS HOUSE IT WAS ANTONIO MEUCCI, END OF DISCUSSION!
Okay then, glass. Invented in 9th century in Spain.
Airplanes.
Germany actually did invent this. The brothers Wright only stuck an engine to it. The first glider that actually deserved its name was inveted by Otto Lilienthal. He died in it. Without his work, the Wright brothers would not have been able to build their plane.
All inventions being based on some previous work, is it not the Wright who invented the airplane, and Lilienthal who invented the glider?
Technically, the Wrights’ main contribution was the 3-axis steering mechanism, which is what made powered flight practical.
I agree. Lilienthal showed a proof of concept. The Wrights made it practical. As soon as aerodynamics was understood a bit better, there was enough lift, to move the whole elevator assembli to the back of the plane, but apart from that, the whole thing still is the most practical approach.
Noodles.
Beer
Greggs sausage rolls. Or are we counting the Anglo-Saxons as ex-pats?
The bicycle
The car
The computer (arguably, with the Zuse Z3)Spoiler: I’m German.
Not the computer, but the first working programmable, fully automatic digital computer (which would be a stage in computer hardware.)
It would be Babbage’s machine as mechanical computers precede digital ones and only if we only allow nonspecific turing complete machines.
It was the first programmable, fully automatic, digital, turing-complete computer (although they only found out the last part after Zuse died).
So I’d argue, it was the first computer in the sense we understand and use the word today.
They invented you
Schadenfreude. I mean they probably didn’t invent the feeling but I can give them credit for it along with the word.
" I also like hiraeth. It’s a Welsh concept of longing for home."
Weird way to spell “Heimweh”
Or homesickness. Fernweh, on the other hand, only exists (somewhat) in English in idioms, afaik: itchy feet
wanderlust…damn it.
That is not quite the same thing.
Yeah, that’s a good call!
Why aren’t they called “homelust” or “wandersickness?”
“Weh” means pain which is reflecting the feeling better.
It is also an older way to express a longing of the heart for something, in this case home / unknown places respectively.
The English “wanderlust” comes from the German Wanderlust more recently (1902). In German, Lust is related to the English “lust,” but it’s got less of a sensual connotation. “Homesickness” also comes from German (1798), but it was translated into English.
Any word in Welsh is a weird way to spell a word.
TIL that’s a feeling and not just the TF2 laughing emote
Its more than a feeling.
Everyone knows they invented the Haber-Bosch process. Pretty important shit.
Don’t get me started on the Haber process. My students will tell you that I can and will go on for half an hour about how it prolonged WW1 and is one of the first commercial processes to make use of Le Chateliers principle.
Also, probably best not to spend too much time idolizing Fritz Haber,
as I’m pretty certain he went on to become a staunch supporter of Hitler.edit: I mixed up Haber with someone else, but his research was foundational in developing many German chemical weapons, including Zyklon BEdit 2: probably Richard Kuhn who fell into line and fired Jewish coworkers at the direction of the Nazis or Herman Kolbe who was an outspoken German nationalist and anti-Semite. I use all three of them as examples of prominent scientists behaving badly in my O-Chem course.
Really a fascinating bit of science history
I recall that one of the men ended up shooting themselves or their wives did or something along those lines. It was the one that did his best to kill as many people with chemical weapons as he could.
I’m pretty certain he went on to become a staunch supporter of Hitler
The exact opposite is true.
I must have been remembering that his research between the World Wars lead to the development of Zyklon B muddled that up with some other chemist (maybe Otto Ambros?). I’ll see if I can find my source.
Edit: probably Richard Kuhn who fell into line and fired Jewish coworkers at the direction of the Nazis or Herman Kolbe who was an outspoken German nationalist and anti-Semite. I use all three of them as examples of prominent scientists behaving badly in my O-Chem course.
Zyklon B was not developed for killing people. The most common usage was for killing lice in clothes. (To make it very clear: It was also used for killing people in Vernichtungslagern).
Zyklon B might not have been developed as a chemical weapon, but Haber was instrumental in developing and advocating for the use of chemical weapons explicitly on humans for Germany and Spain both during and after WWI (source)
And Haber of Haber-Bosch fame also invented using poisonous gas as a weapon in WW1.
Health insurance. Little known fact but it was actually invented not just before Google but before the entire internet.
Otto von Bismarck, 1883
The rotary engine, also known as the Wankel engine
They also invented diesel fuel. Is the Wankel engine used anywhere now?
There’s some aviation and boating uses. Air pollution regulations have killed it for almost any automotive use.
Yes. New Mazdas use one as a range extender. It’s shitty.
Well. You have the pleasure of making a diese engine get to 20k rpm for no reason whatsoever :)
And the Diesel engine to use the fuel.
In fact, I’ve got a Wankel engine in my pants right now.
Hard to say. There are soo many Germans, who knows what they’ve googled!
Those cool windows that Americans mistake for broken. I’m American and I want those windows… also a bidet.
Just need to combine those windows with built-in bug nets and we’re solid.
I have several at home
What windows are you talking about? I tried searching for it.
Communism
Relatedly: the pension. (Before implementing the state pension, Bismarck probably saw nightmares that involved red and black banners.)
We invented the car
The car, the bicycle and Spaghetti icecream are the three most notable inventions from Mannheim Germany.
I’m from the US and never heard of spaghetti ice cream. I just googled it and it looks pretty delicious!
alas, the fr*nch invented the bicycle, germans merely invented the dandyhorse.
Modern physics.
Nuclear physics.
Socks in Sandals
kindergarten https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindergarten
Kindergarten is even a German word would translate to Kinder= Kids Garten= Yard? So Kidsyard… Was funny for me as a German to learn that it actually is named Kindergarten in English…
Garten is garden, but sure, yard is fine too.
