Social Innovation
10 inventions that prove why Germany is a creative powerhouse
Each year Germany registers more invention patents than any other European country, so we’re paying tribute to the most important German inventions of all.
In 2020 alone, German companies registered 25,954 inventions with the European Patent Office, making it Europe’s most creative country. (Only the US registered more patents that year, with 44,293.) Here we present the most important German inventions and the creative masterminds behind them …
01
The television
Invented by Manfred von Ardenne in 1930
A 1936 Lorenz AG television
© Adobe Stock
Warning: The TVs back then were not suitable to hang onto a wall
© picturedesk.com
We already had moving images from about 1926 onwards, but the devices were mechanical and the images were of poor quality. Hamburg native Manfred von Ardenne designed a light spot scanner that allowed the images to be transmitted electronically and thus more fluently. Von Ardenne presented his invention at the 1931 IFA [Berlin Radio Show]. Four years later, German broadcaster TV Station Paul Nipkow broadcast the first TV programme.
Hamburg scientist Manfred von Ardenne (1907-1997) held around 600 patents
© Picturedesk.com
02
Aspirin
Invented by Felix Hoffmann in 1897
All purpose weapon: Aspirin pills were invented by Felix Hoffmann in 1897
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We don’t know how exactly he made this discovery, but the myth goes like this…
Felix Hoffmann’s father is said to have suffered from a number of ailments. He took salicylic acid to counter the pain but this burnt the mucous membrane and led to nausea. In 1897, the young chemist, who had started at Bayer three years earlier to develop new medicines, got the idea of combining salicylic acid with acetic acid. The result: acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), the active ingredient of Aspirin, which happens to be much easier to digest.
German scientist Felix Hoffmann (1868–1946) discovered ASA ...
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... the active ingredient in Aspirin, but also heroin
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03
The MP3
Invented by Karlheinz Brandenburg in 1991
Brandenburg worked on the compression of audio files since the ’80s
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MP3 stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 and it caused a musical revolution in the ’90s, when Karlheinz Brandenburg of the Fraunhofer Institute found a way to compress music files. This technology first made it possible for us to send songs over the internet and listen to them on our smartphones. The very first MP3 song was the a cappella version of Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega.
04
The tram
Invented by Werner von Siemens in 1881
The first tram: 4,3 metres long and 20 km/h fast
© Getty Images
Entrepreneur Werner von Siemens was in his element when it came to electricity. In 1880, his company – then still known as Siemens & Halske – had already showcased the first electric lift. A year later it was the first electric tram. On May 16, 1881, the 4.3-metre-long passenger car travelled from Lichterfelde to Kadettenanstalt in Berlin at 20kph.
Werner von Siemens (1816-1892) is seen as the pioneer of modern electronics
© Getty Images
05
Printing
Invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450
It took two people to operate Gutenberg’s printing press
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In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg had a very simple idea that triggered a media revolution: moveable metal print letters that could be used over and over again. Thanks to the printing press, text no longer had to be laboriously written out by hand, making it possible to produce multiple copies in a short time. He thus made a huge contribution to the spread of the German language and the battle against illiteracy.
Johannes Gutenberg, founder of the printing press
© Getty Images
Sadly, not much is known about Johannes Gutenberg (circa 1400-1468). But we do know his real name was Henne Gensfleisch. The name by which he is now known comes from the Gutenberg house where he grew up in Mainz.
Gutenberg checking the printed material in his workshop
© Getty Images
06
The car
Invented by Carl Friedrich Benz in 1886
On January 29, 1886, Carl Friedrich Benz applied for a patent for the Benz Patent Motorwagen Nummer 1. The world’s first petrol car had three wheels and generated just 0.75hp, reaching a top speed of 16kph. But success failed to materialise. Critics derided the vehicle as a horseless carriage. It took a sneaky drive by his wife Bertha in 1888 to her sister almost 100km away in Pforzheim to convince people the car was a good thing.
Carl Friedrich Benz, founder of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen Nr. 1
© Getty Images
07
Comirnaty
Invented by Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin in 2020
In 2008, Özlem Türeci and her husband Uğur Şahin founded pharmaceutical company BioNTech. Hardly anyone knew anything about the company in its early days and it didn’t even have a proper website until 2014. The company’s aim was to beat cancer using mRNA medicines – this form of therapy was still unusual at the time. When the first cases of COVID-19 in Asia became known, the duo from Mainz saw the danger and adapted their techniques to develop Comirnaty, the first mRNA vaccine against Covid-19, in 2020.
Gold from a syringe. Last year BioNTech ...
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... recorded a turnover of between €16 and €17 billion.
© Getty Images
08
The computer
Invented by Konrad Zuse in 1941
When asked why he invented the computer, former structural engineer Konrad Zuse once answered, jokingly, “I’m too lazy to count.” His first design, the 1938 Z1, was still unreliable, though. But three years later his Z3 proved to be the world’s first workable computer. It was a humongous thing, said to have weighed about a tonne and to have had some 30,000 wires. Sadly it was destroyed in a Second World War air raid.
Konrad Zuse built the first computer in his parents’ ’living room
© Getty Images
The „Z3" was the world’s first workable computer
© picturedesk.com
09
X-Rays
Invented by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in 1895
These X-Rays made bones visible and, therefore, easier to examine
© Adobe Stock
Other researchers also produced X-Rays with cathode ray tubes, but physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was the first to understand their significance noticing on November 8, 1895 that objects covered with black cardboard lit up. Röntgen called his invention X-Rays, but his colleagues suggested they be named after him. In English, his original name won out.
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen received the Nobel Prize for discovering X-Rays
© Getty Images
Related
10
OLED technology
Invented by Karl Leo in 1998
Physics professor Karl Leo and his team developed an organic semiconductor LED (OLED) in 1998. Now there’s OLED technology in many televisions and half the world’s smartphone displays. It’s far more energy-efficient than regular displays and has better colour resolution.
Professor of physics Karl Leo has worked at the TU in Dresden for 30 years
© European Patent Office
What the expert says
Ilja Rudyk is a senior economist at the European Patent Office in Munich
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What requirements does an invention have to satisfy to receive a patent?
It must meet three conditions: it mustn’t be known anywhere else in the world. It also has to be inventive, which means not obvious to someone who works in the field, and it has to be commercially viable. Mathematical formulas, intellectual games and business procedures cannot receive a patent.
Germany comes home in second place in terms of numbers of patents recorded pretty much every year. Why is that?
Partly because of high expenditure on research and development, the fourth highest in the world. Plus, there are innovative companies with their headquarters in Germany. Of the ten companies that register most patents with the European Patent Office, three are German: Siemens (6th), Robert Bosch (7th) and BASF (10th).
Which fields are most German inventions from?
The five main technical areas for German patent applications in 2020 were electrical devices, including many inventions within the areas of climate technology, transport, measuring equipment, medical equipment and special devices from agricultural machinery to 3D printing.
A patent application costs about €4000. Plus there are potentially other costs too. That’s a lot of money for a solo inventor …
Patent protection really can get expensive. But small and medium-sized businesses can apply for support, from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, for example. And all the costs aren’t due at once. The applicant always has a chance to respond. Some costs only fall due when the patent is awarded, so three to four years into the process. And patents can help smaller and younger technology companies in particular to make a business breakthrough.
