Hitler
Walking around in general public in only Speedos.
the use of towels as a territorial marker
They draped one over the back of Poland that time.
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”
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
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.
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.
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?
The automobile - pronounce it out loud, you’ll say it something like “ow-toe moh-beel”, i.e. in a German accent. Because Germans invented cars.
The assault rifle. They invented the concept, a handful of prototypes without the relevant doctrine (or for the 1890s one, even a detachable magazine) is irrelevant. Fight me, @bluewing.
I think the otto & diesel cycles are a better claim than the automobile, given there are like 100 different competing “first automobiles” to chose from
The Wankel engine is also a German invention. Though you could argue it’s an improved Otto cycle. Also the inventor is problematic to say the least.
The rotary engine, also known as the Wankel engine
In fact, I’ve got a Wankel engine in my pants right now.
They also invented diesel fuel. Is the Wankel engine used anywhere now?
And the Diesel engine to use the fuel.
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 :)
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.
Sauerkraut is way older then Germany. People have been fermenting food a long time.
Especially when you consider Germany as a country is not really that old
The bicycle was, in its present from, was invented by a Brit.
You forgot ‘digging holes at beaches’ and The Sound Of Music. For the rest you nailed it.
Made my day!
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.
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.
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
Name something the Germans didn’t invent.
Beer
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
Inefficiency
Germans known inefficiency pretty damn well, I can tell you that much.
The number zero, sanitation, statistics.
Tough one
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.
Telephone
Okay then, glass. Invented in 9th century in Spain.
IN THIS HOUSE IT WAS ANTONIO MEUCCI, END OF DISCUSSION!
Noodles.
Greggs sausage rolls. Or are we counting the Anglo-Saxons as ex-pats?
Zyklon B?
The no card payment sign.
Schadenfreude. I mean they probably didn’t invent the feeling but I can give them credit for it along with the word.
TIL that’s a feeling and not just the TF2 laughing emote
Its more than a feeling.
" 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.
Health insurance. Little known fact but it was actually invented not just before Google but before the entire internet.
Otto von Bismarck, 1883
