this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2024
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[–] saturn57 1 points 3 days ago
[–] [email protected] 68 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

They invented Germany, that was a pretty big deal

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 weeks ago

Meh. Strongly derivative work, and they kept reinventing the wheel.

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[–] SlopppyEngineer 55 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

The hamburger, from the city of Hamburg.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

And German chocolate cake from Deutschschokoladenkuchen

[–] NielsBohron 18 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

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"

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[–] Diplomjodler3 35 points 3 weeks ago (21 children)

Name something the Germans didn't invent.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)
[–] saltesc 18 points 3 weeks ago

But they were the first to have a bakery attached.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago
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[–] MehBlah 32 points 3 weeks ago (13 children)

Schadenfreude. I mean they probably didn't invent the feeling but I can give them credit for it along with the word.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The bicycle
The car
The computer (arguably, with the Zuse Z3)

Spoiler: I'm German.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Everyone knows they invented the Haber-Bosch process. Pretty important shit.

[–] NielsBohron 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

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 B

Edit 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

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[–] Jesus_666 28 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Health insurance. Little known fact but it was actually invented not just before Google but before the entire internet.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

The rotary engine, also known as the Wankel engine

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[–] WhatDoWeHaveEre 25 points 3 weeks ago

Hard to say. There are soo many Germans, who knows what they’ve googled!

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Those cool windows that Americans mistake for broken. I'm American and I want those windows... also a bidet.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Just need to combine those windows with built-in bug nets and we're solid.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

Relatedly: the pension. (Before implementing the state pension, Bismarck probably saw nightmares that involved red and black banners.)

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] merari42 15 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The car, the bicycle and Spaghetti icecream are the three most notable inventions from Mannheim Germany.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

I'm from the US and never heard of spaghetti ice cream. I just googled it and it looks pretty delicious!

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[–] ikidd 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago

Socks in Sandals

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago

The no card payment sign.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Diesel engine, Mustard gas, and Synthetic fertilizer.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago

Stable Diffusion
Those same folks went on to create FLUX.

I'm loving it.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Gorilla Glass (the super strong glass used in most cell phone screens) was invented by East Germany after the war, before the wall fell.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

The Berlin Wall, putting beach towels on recliners at the crack of dawn, sauerkraut, lederhosen, frankfurters, doner kebabs, hamburgers, donuts, cheese, iron gates, macerated cherries, aardvarks, the car, the bicycle, diesel, the moon, beer, lager, tamagotchi, the letter 'a', the number 25, serrated saw blades, cantilever bridges, ice cream, hand lotion, galoshes, the ipod, bilateral symmetry, the dawn, goths, the parachute, that sizzling noise meat makes when you fry it, hats, gloves, left socks, altitudes over 1,773 feet, postmodernism, and geese.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

The US Army. Given the history, you might expect it to based on either the French or British model, but no, they mostly took notes from Prussia.

You might also think it's a very top-down authoritarian model for a military, but also no. That notion mostly comes from the legacy of Nazis. Both before and after, the German model of the Army is one of the least top-down authoritarian militaries.

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[–] Anti_Face_Weapon 10 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Since folks have left me the easy ones, a fair number of things ending in "wurst," like Weißwurst.

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[–] Blum0108 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Zyklon B, E605

[–] Sam_Bass 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

TV and TV propaganda

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

The Haber process.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

Automatic Transmission

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