Editor in chief at IamExpat Media
Worldwide, Germany is still generally regarded as a country at the forefront of innovation and ingenuity. From glue sticks to coffee filters, over the years it has been the birthplace of a whole shipload of famous innovations. Did you know that the following everyday items are German inventions?
For this list we’ve dispensed with the extraordinary and focused on the ordinary to look at nine German inventions we couldn’t live without.
Although some form of news circulation has existed since practically the beginning of time (in Ancient Rome, government announcements were chiselled into stone to be distributed in public forums), the first “true” newspaper was a bona fide German invention.
The development of movable printed type (another German innovation!) enabled Johann Carolus to start mass-producing sheets of newsworthy stories. His newspaper, first published in 1604 in Strasbourg, appeared once a week under the catchy name “Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien” (Account of all Distinguished and Commemorable News).
It’s a well-known, unfortunate truth that times of war produce a bonanza of innovations, but did you know that this also includes everybody’s favourite fizzy pop? During the Second World War, a trade embargo meant that factories in Germany were having trouble procuring Coca-Cola syrup. So, they decided to make their own product, using the only ingredients they could find.
They mixed up some beet sugar, whey and apple pomace and - hey presto - Fanta was born! Even the name confirms the drink’s German origins: during a brainstorming session in Berlin, participants were told to “use their imagination” (Fantasie), to which one retorted: “Fanta!”
The saviour of many-a craft project, the humble glue stick is also a German innovation! The first glue stick was invented in 1969 by the German company Henkel, based on the “twist-up ease” of lipstick applicators.
By 1971, Henckel’s glue sticks were being sold in 38 countries and nowadays the brand name under which they were released - Pritt Stick - has become synonymous with glue sticks the world over.
Salicylic acid, a natural compound found in myrtle, willow and meadowsweet, has been used medicinally for thousands of years, but it was Hermann Kolbe, a professor at Marburg University, who first worked out its chemical structure and made it synthetically in 1859. While the tincture did relieve pain, it also caused a number of unpleasant side effects like nausea and stomach irritation.
Over the next 50 years, scientists worked to refine and improve the formula. In 1897 Felix Hoffman, a chemist working at the German company Bayer, managed to synthesise acetylsalicylic acid for the first time. The new compound relieved pain with minimal side effects.
The medicine - which Bayer named “Aspirin” (the “A” from “acetyl”, the “spir” from Spirea, a meadowsweet plant genus, and the “-in” the most common chemical suffix) - quickly became the best-selling product on the market. It remains a staple in medicine cabinets worldwide to this day. Despite losing or selling its rights to the trademark in many countries, Bayer still produces around a fifth of the world’s aspirin supply.
Image credit: monticello / Shutterstock.com
The story of this cuddly invention includes an American president, a shipwreck and a bizarre coincidence... Technically, Germany shares the credit for the teddy bear with America because, believe it or not, two very similar bears were produced at precisely the same time on either side of the Atlantic, with neither inventor having any clue about the other’s creation - especially as the first shipment of German teddies bound for America was reportedly lost at sea.
While American toymaker Morris Michtom drew his inspiration from a cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt (nicknamed Teddy), a very similar stuffed toy was also produced in Germany according to sketches of bears made by Richard Steiff at the zoo in Stuttgart. There is no evidence that either man knew about the other, making this one of the most remarkable coincidences of all time!
The brainchild of the somewhat unfortunately-named Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick, the first successful contact lens was created in 1888. While working in Zürich, German-born Fick developed a contact shell constructed from heavy blown glass - not the most comfortable thing to put in your eye!
After experimenting with fitting his lenses on rabbits, himself and then a small group of volunteers, Fick perfected a design that was 18 - 21 millimetres in diameter and could be rested on the less sensitive rim of tissue around the cornea.
Granted, forms of life and disability insurance date back to mediaeval or even ancient times, but the world’s first state-mandated health insurance began with German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck’s social welfare policies.
Fearing the rise of “dangerous socialist parties" in Germany, conservative von Bismarck enacted a series of reforms that laid the foundations for the modern social security system. The first of these, a mandate that all workers in Germany be covered by a sickness fund, was passed in 1883.
Like many great inventions, the discovery of X-rays happened sort of by accident. While experimenting with vacuum tubes, German physics professor Wilhelm Röntgen stumbled upon a kind of radiation that could apparently penetrate matter.
The discovery would transform medical care, enabling doctors to examine the body’s internal structures and so diagnose and treat a huge range of medical conditions.
Röntgen named the radiation “X”, as in “unknown”, but many of his colleagues suggested calling them “Röntgen rays”, an idea that he apparently hated. However, the name stuck, and in many languages including German, they are still referred to as Röntgen rays.
And finally, the humble coffee filter is another genius idea born in Germany - and one of the only inventions on this list credited to a woman. The story goes that Melitta Bentz, a housewife from Dresden, was unhappy with her daily cup of coffee. At the time, coffee was typically brewed by pouring powder into hot water and waiting for it to settle, but this often resulted in an over-brewed, lukewarm drink that left the drinker with a mouthful of grounds.
Deciding that there must be a better way, Bentz experimented in her kitchen. She eventually landed on the solution of a perforated brass cup with a piece of blotting paper (from her son’s exercise book) on top. She patented her idea in 1908 and set up a company from her apartment, with her husband and sons as the first employees. The idea quickly gained popularity, forever transforming the coffee brewing process.
And that’s not all. Here are some other German inventions that changed the world:
So not only do we have Germany to thank for newspapers, fizzy drinks and teddy bears, but affordable healthcare as well! Can you think of anything else that Germany invented? Let us know in the comments below!