Made in Germany is a merchandise mark indicating that a product has been manufactured in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

History

The label was introduced in Britain by the

Merchandise Marks Act 1887 The Merchandise Marks Act 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 28) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act stopped foreign manufacturers from falsely claiming that their goods were British-made and selling them in Britain and Europe on that ...

( 50 & 51 Vict. c. 28), to mark foreign produce more obviously, as foreign manufactures had been falsely marking inferior goods with the marks of renowned British manufacturing companies and importing them into the United Kingdom. Most of these were found to be originating from Germany, whose government had introduced a protectionist policy to legally prohibit the import of goods in order to build up domestic industry (Merchandise Marks Act - Oxford University Press). According to Professor Asaf Zussman, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, in "The Rise of German Protectionism in the 1870s: A Macroeconomic Perspective", the "Rye and Iron" tariffs introduced by Bismarck's Germany in 1879 caused a major reduction of imports in order to protect Germany's industries. As a response, the Free-trade Liberal government in the UK introduced the Merchandise Marks act to allow consumers to be able to choose whether or not they would continue to purchase goods from protectionist economies. Germany successfully leveraged the ''Made in Germany'' tag as a brand synonymous of product quality, durability and reliability. "Made in Germany" is not controlled by a central regulatory body. However, In 1973, the

Bundesgerichtshof The Federal Court of Justice (german: Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction (''ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit'') in Germany, founded in 1950. It has its seat in Karlsruhe with two panels being situat ...

made a ruling that the label ''Made in Germany'' cannot be restricted to west German companies only. After this ruling, Made in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

was often used in Western Germany, while Made in

GDR East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

was used in eastern Germany. In 1995, the

Oberlandesgericht An ''Oberlandesgericht'' (plural – ''Oberlandesgerichte''; OLG, en, Higher Regional Court, or in Berlin ''Kammergericht'': KG) is a higher court in Germany. There are 24 OLGs in Germany and they deal with civil and criminal matters. They ar ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

ruled that the term ''Made in Germany'' is misleading according to Germany's Fair Trades Act when the largest part is not German raw materials or German craftsmanship.

History

See also

References

Further reading