The most famous German inventions. Quiz: great German inventors and discoveries

It is difficult to imagine the modern technological world without a car or a radar, a book or a globe and many other great inventions that have become an important step on the path to understanding the world. Great German inventors contributed huge contribution in development modern civilization, because without printed books there would be no new digital information. Inventors are always ahead, they pave the way for technical progress and economic growth. We talk about this on the pages of the section about Great German inventors. German engineer, inventor of the automobile, pioneer of the automotive industry. His company later became Daimler-Benz AG. November 25, 1844 - April 4, 1929. At the end primary school In Karlsruhe, Karl entered the technical lyceum (now the Bismarck Gymnasium) in 1853, and then the Polytechnic University. On July 9, 1864, at the age of 19, he graduated from the Faculty of Technical Mechanics of the University of Karlsruhe. For the next seven years he worked at various companies in Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Pforzheim and even for some time in Vienna. In 1871, together with August Ritter, he organized a mechanical workshop in Mannheim. Soon Karl Benz bought out his partner's share with money borrowed from the bride's father, Bertha Ringer. Karl and Bertha became engaged on July 20, 1872. They had five children. In his workshop, Karl Benz began to create new internal combustion engines. On December 31, 1878, he received a patent for a two-stroke gasoline engine. Soon, Karl Benz patented all the important components and systems of the future car: accelerator, battery-powered ignition system and spark plug, carburetor, clutch, gearbox and water cooling radiator. The Benz car had three metal wheels. It was driven by a four-stroke gasoline engine located between the two rear wheels. Rotation was transmitted via a chain transmission to the rear axle. The car was completed in 1885 and was named "Motorwagen". It was patented in January 1886, tested on roads the same year, and presented at the Paris Exhibition in 1887. In 1888, the sale of cars began. Soon a branch was opened in Paris, where they sold out better. Between 1886 and 1893, about 25 Motorwagens were sold. In 1894, the Velo model car began to be produced. The Velo car took part in the first Paris-Rouen car race. In 1895, the first truck was created, as well as the first buses in history. German Franciscan monk who lived in the 14th century and is considered the European inventor of gunpowder. June 10, 1832, Holzhausen, Taunus - January 26, 1891, Cologne German engineer and self-taught inventor, known as the inventor of the internal combustion engine. April 17, 1774 - 1833 inventor of the fast-printing rotary press, German jeweler and inventor. In the mid-1440s he created the European method of printing with movable type, which spread throughout the world. 1400, Mainz - 3 February 1468, Mainz

Deutsche Erfinder and ihre Erfindungen

Eine der wichtigsten Erfindungen gelang Johann Gutenberg um 1445. er erfand den Buchdruck mit beweglichen Metallbuchstaben. Dafür konstruierte Gutenberg ein Gießgerät. Besonderen Ruhm erwarb er nach dem Druck der Bibel, die aus 2 Bänden bestand und 641 Seiten hatte. Vermutlich dazu ist die Bibel heute das meistverkaufte Buch. Es wurde in mehr als 1600 Sprachen und Dialekte übersetzt. Gutenberg besaß nicht die Mittel, um die Druckerei zu erweitern. Er lieh sich das Geld bei dem Mainzer Bürger Johann Fust. Fust verjagte 1455 den Erfinder, weil er die Erfindung selbst nutzen wollte. Aber die schwarze Kunst verbreitete sich schnell in Europa. Um 1500 gab es schon über 1100 Druckereien.

Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts wurde in Deutschland das europäische Porzellan erfunden. Diese Erfindung ist mit dem Namen von Johann Friedrich Böttger verbunden. Mit 14 Jahren begann Böttger die Apothekerlehre in Berlin. Er beschäftigte sich intensiv mit chemischen Versuchen und wollte Gold herstellen. Er musste vom preußischen König Friedrich I. fliehen, weil der König auf den Goldmacher aufmerksam wurde. Er wurde aber von den Soldaten Augusts des Starken von Sachsen gefangen und auf die Festung Königstein gebracht. Später wurde er in Meißen festgehalten. August der Starke brauchte viel Geld für seine kunstvollen Bauten und große Feste. Bei seinen Experimenten erfand Böttger das Porzellan, das vorher nur in China bekannt war. Seine Erfindung führte zur Gründung der Meißner Porzellanmanufaktur. Der Porzellanerfinder bekam hier die Stelle des Verwalters.

One of the greatest inventions dates back to 1445 and belongs to Johannes Guttenberg. He invented printing with movable metal letters. To achieve this, Gutenberg built a cast block. He gained particular fame thanks to the printing of the Bible, which consisted of 2 chapters and had 641 pages. That is why the Bible is now the most sold book. It has been translated into more than 1600 languages ​​and dialects. Gutenberg not only invented a way to spread printing. He borrowed money from the Mainz burgher Johann Fust. Fust kicked out the inventor in 1455 because he himself wanted to use his invention.

But black art was taking over Europe at a rapid pace. By 1500 there were more than 1,100 printing houses. At the beginning of the 18th century, European porcelain was invented in Germany. This discovery is associated with the name of Friedrich Böttger. At the age of 14, Friedrich Böttger began studying pharmacy. He began to actively study chemistry and wanted to mine gold. He had to run away from the Prussian king Frederick the First, because the king was very closely watching the scientist who could get the gold. He was captured by the soldiers of Augustus the Strong of Saxony and imprisoned in a fortress in Königstein. Later it was transported to Meissen. Augustus the Strong needed money to build his beautiful palaces and hold festivities. During his experiments, Böttger invented porcelain, which until that time was known only in China. His inventions made Meissen porcelain famous. The inventor of porcelain began to occupy the position of manager.

“What is good for a Russian is death for a German” is a well-known proverb. But you shouldn't take it literally. In our review are 10 things that were created in Germany, but gained enormous popularity in Russia.

1. Binder ring

The world-famous rings used to bind papers are a German invention. It was born relatively recently - Bonn resident Friedrich Sonnecken invented it in 1886. At the same time he patented a hole punch.

2. Nutcracker

The Nutcracker is a toothy nut-cracker figurine that inspired the ballet of the same name by Russian composer Tchaikovsky. This funny device was first produced by a small handicraft workshop in Germany. These figures were made and painted by hand.

3. Gingerbread house

Gingerbread houses were first mentioned in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. Soon a similar house appeared in a little-known German opera under the same name. Since this opera, which first appeared before Christmas, making gingerbread houses from dough, icing and toothpicks has become a holiday tradition in German operas. This sweet tradition soon spread to bakeries and, eventually, to ordinary families.

4. Advent calendar

The origins of this Christmas tradition arose among German Lutherans, back in the early 19th century. They prepared for it for a month before Christmas by fasting. First, a tradition arose of lighting 24 candles, one every day. At the very beginning of the 20th century, Gerhard Lang made the first Advent calendar for children, in which a chocolate candy was hidden behind each date sheet.

5. Christmas tree

The tradition of decorating the Christmas tree dates back to the 16th century. Although it was recorded in historical documents that the first Christmas trees began to be placed on the territory modern Estonia and Latvia in the 15th century, it was the Germans who introduced the tradition of decorating them. Initially an elegant tree with wax candles, fruits and toys were used for the New Year and Christmas in the upper Rhineland (a state in Germany), but then the tradition began to spread throughout the Christian world.

6. Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny as it is known today first appeared in the 16th century in Germany.

7. Jelly candies

Bear-shaped jelly candies were invented in the 1920s by German confectioner Hans Riegel, founder of the Haribo company.

8. Prefabricated houses

Nowadays, prefabricated houses and trailers are popular all over the world. There is even a stereotype that they were invented by poor Americans. But in fact, trailer houses were invented in Berlin after World War II, when it was urgently necessary to provide people with housing.

9. Wedding march

The famous wedding march was also written by the German Felix Mendelssohn in 1842.

10. Perm

German hairdresser Karl Nessler, after 10 years of experimentation, invented rods for permanent or perm. Electricity was used to heat them, and to fix the lady's perm, they used... a mixture of cow urine and water.

Those who like to learn unusual things about the most ordinary things will be interested in reading about things that seem like science fiction today.

Among the many German inventions There are also those whose origin is often not always associated with Germany. However, they are used all over the world and have German roots.

Hole puncher

This item was once the king of the office, until digital technology weakened its reign. In 1886, Friedrich Sennecken was the first to apply for a patent for the invention of a mechanical device for punching holes in paper, simply called a hole punch. The same German entrepreneur also invented folders for punched documents, so beloved by German office workers.

Electric drill

This invention is a kind of symbol of masculinity, no matter in whose hands it is. Today, not a single serious construction can be done without it, be it a cottage, a barn or a birdhouse. The electric drill was invented in Australia in 1889, but it was made portable six years later by the founder of the German company Fein, Wilhelm Emil Fein from Ludwigsburg. It is this man who is responsible for countless and never-ending renovations to homes around the world.

Fanta

The usefulness of this invention can be debated, but its popularity cannot be denied. Moreover, the original composition was significantly different from today’s.

During World War II, due to the embargo imposed by the anti-Hitler coalition, American Coca-Cola syrup was no longer supplied to Germany. Then Max Kuyt, head of Coca-Cola Germany, decided to create a new product using local ingredients, including whey and apple pulp left over from cider production. This is how the famous drink Fanta (from German Fantasie) appeared, which has been associated with caries since 1941.

Coffee filter

In 1908, Dresden housewife Melitta Bentz, wondering why the last sip of her favorite drink was always so thick and bitter, decided to conduct a small experiment. Coffee filtered using blotting paper from a school notebook seemed much tastier to the woman. In the same year, Melitta patented her invention and founded a company with her husband with an initial capital of less than one mark. Today, the Melitta Group KG, which is led by the grandchildren of the inventor, employs about 3,300 people.

Band-Aid

Hygienic lipstick Labello, Nivea universal moisturizer - German pharmacist, entrepreneur, and PhD Oscar Troplowitz contributed his knowledge and skills to the creation of these useful things. He also developed medical adhesive tape in 1901, which he called Leukoplast.

Christmas tree

Finland can claim the honorary title of the country where Santa Claus lives, but the Christmas tree as a holiday attribute appeared in Germany. According to legend, Saint Boniface, as a demonstration of the power of the new religion, cut down the sacred oak of the German pagans, from the stump of which a young Christian fir grew, confirming the prophecy of the Apostle of all Germans.

However, according to historians, the German peoples, long before baptism, went to New Year into the forest, they dressed up the chosen spruce tree with whatever they wanted and performed their rituals near it. Then people began to bring green trees into their homes, decorate them with nuts, fruits and candles, and over time they turned them into an integral part of the atmosphere of celebrating the Nativity of Christ.

Taximeter

The meter for motorized hackney carriages was developed by German entrepreneur and inventor Wilhelm Brun, commissioned by industrial automotive pioneer Gottlieb Daimler. In 1897, the Daimler Viktoria model car was equipped with a taximeter by Brun, who spent a lot of effort to prevent manipulation of the meter. Many drivers were extremely dissatisfied with the innovation, which had a significant impact on further development industry.

Useful things invented in Germany updated: April 18, 2019 by: Marko Bayanov

Invention has a long tradition in Germany. At the end of the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz revolutionized printing with his development of moving letters. World famous inventors in the 19th century included, for example, Werner von Siemens (the dynamo principle) and Gottlieb Daimler, Karl Friedrich Benz and Nikolaus August Otto (engines), Carl Zeiss (optics) and Ernst Abbe.

The 20th century was also rich in German inventors whose ideas changed the world of technology: Hugo Junkers (all-metal airplanes), Konrad Zuse (computer-controlled computers) or Manfred von Ardenne (cathode ray tube). Already at the turn of the 20th century, Germany had a telephone, a car, a radio, X-ray machines, plastic, liquid crystals and vinyl. These were all German discoveries, developments and inventions.

Yet more than 85 percent of the population worked in agriculture. The Germans did not care about the guiding results of their scientists and greeted technological advances with suspicion. In 1835, between Nuremberg and Fürth, the first steam locomotive covered a distance of about six kilometers at a speed of 40 km/h; doctors feared that passengers might have health problems due to the high speed. and independently of him, Karl Friedrich Benz developed the world's first gasoline cars in 1886. However, they were not in demand in Germany. The first production cars were built in 1890 under license from Daimler from French manufacturers.

This fact gave impetus to the development of its own automobile industry: four years later, Karl Benz's car began to be produced. New impulses in the automotive industry quickly spread from Germany. In 1902, Robert Bosch's company introduced high-voltage magneto ignition for gasoline engines to the market. This laid the foundations of the modern car. In 1923, a MAN truck drove off, the first car with a diesel engine, invented by Rudolf Diesel back in 1897.

The roots of aviation stretch back to the 19th century. Here, too, decisive preparatory work was carried out by German engineers. Otto Lilienthal built the first gliders in 1877 and laid the scientific foundations of aerodynamics in 1889 with his book The Flight of Birds as the Basis of the Art of Flying. In 1936, the world's first viable helicopter was built by Heinrich Focke. A few months later, the world's first aircraft, the forerunner of modern jet aircraft, was unveiled.

The cradle of radio broadcasting was the discovery of electromagnetic waves by Heinrich Hertz (1887) and the oscillatory circuit, which was invented in 1898 by Karl Ferdinand Braun. They both contributed to the rapid international development of wireless communications and radio broadcasting. Ferdinand Braun is considered the spiritual father of television. He invented the cathode ray tube in 1897, which is still used in televisions and computers. Otto von Bronck received a patent back in 1902 for the invention of a method for transmitting color images. Still the best PAL television system in the world was developed in 1961 by the German Walter Bruch.

First digital Calculating machine program-controlled (computer) was introduced by Konrad Zuse. Modern age information technologies based on five means mass media: photography, film, communications, including radio, television and computer. German scientists and technicians participated in creating the foundation of all five.

Just in time for the turn of the century, the German physicist Max Planck developed quantum theory. He discovered that elementary particles (quanta) behave completely differently than larger objects. One of the most famous people in the world, Albert Einstein developed his special and general theory relativity. He showed, among other things, that mass can be converted into energy and vice versa, that lengths, masses, velocities and other physical quantities are not absolute, but are perceived differently by observers in different systems. Before this, there was nothing more significant in physics. And Einstein discovered something else: there is no speed faster than the speed of light. Fundamentally new in the 20th century are the disciplines of nuclear physics and physics high energies. Although scientists have long been convinced of the existence of atoms, only Einstein was able to prove that they really exist. So it began new era: era atomic bomb, but also the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The great era of particle physics began after World War II.

In 1964, the first large electron synchrotron was put into operation in Hamburg. In Germany, at the Society for the Study of Heavy Ions in Darmstadt in 1974, superheavy substances were discovered. chemical elements 106 to 112. The 20th century was rich in German inventors whose ideas significantly changed the world of technology.