German inventions and discoveries are ideas, objects, processes or techniques invented, innovated or discovered, partially or entirely, 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 betwee ...

or abroad by a person from Germany (that is, someone born in Germany – including to non-German parents – or born abroad with at least one German parent and who had the majority of their education or career in Germany). Often, things discovered for the first time are also called inventions and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two. Einstein 1921 by F Schmutzer - restoration

Einstein 1921 by F Schmutzer - restoration

Germany has been the home of many famous inventors, discoverers and engineers, including

Carl von Linde Carl Paul Gottfried von Linde (11 June 1842 – 16 November 1934) was a German scientist, engineer, and businessman. He discovered a refrigeration cycle and invented the first industrial-scale air separation and gas liquefaction processes, whi ...

, who developed the modern

refrigerator A refrigerator, colloquially fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so th ...

;

Paul Nipkow Paul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow (22 August 1860 – 24 August 1940) was a German technician and inventor. He invented the Nipkow disk, which laid the foundation of television, since his disk was a fundamental component in the first televisions. Hu ...

and

Karl Ferdinand Braun Karl Ferdinand Braun (; 6 June 1850 – 20 April 1918) was a German electrical engineer, inventor, physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. Braun contributed significantly to the development of radio and television technology: he shared the ...

, who laid the foundation of the

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

with their Nipkow disk and

cathode-ray tube A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a Phosphorescence, phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms (osci ...

(or Braun tube) respectively;

Hans Geiger Johannes Wilhelm "Hans" Geiger (; ; 30 September 1882 – 24 September 1945) was a German physicist. He is best known as the co-inventor of the detector component of the Geiger counter and for the Geiger–Marsden experiment which discover ...

, the creator of the

Geiger counter A Geiger counter (also known as a Geiger–Müller counter) is an electronic instrument used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation. It is widely used in applications such as radiation dosimetry, radiological protection, experimental p ...

; and

Konrad Zuse Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse (; 22 June 1910 – 18 December 1995) was a German civil engineer, pioneering computer scientist, inventor and businessman. His greatest achievement was the world's first programmable computer; the functional program- ...

, who built the first fully automatic digital

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...

( Z3) and the first commercial computer ( Z4). Such German inventors, engineers and industrialists as Count

Ferdinand von Zeppelin Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (german: Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin; 8 July 1838 – 8 March 1917) was a German general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships. His name soon became synonymous with airships a ...

Otto Lilienthal Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal (23 May 1848 – 10 August 1896) was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the "flying man". He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders, therefore making ...

Gottlieb Daimler Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler (; 17 March 1834 – 6 March 1900) was a German engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf ( Kingdom of Württemberg, a federal state of the German Confederation), in what is now Germany. He w ...

Rudolf Diesel Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (, ; 18 March 1858 – 29 September 1913) was a German inventor and mechanical engineer who is famous for having invented the diesel engine, which burns diesel fuel; both are named after him. Early life and educat ...

Hugo Junkers Hugo Junkers (3 February 1859 – 3 February 1935) was a German aircraft engineer and aircraft designer who pioneered the design of all-metal airplanes and flying wings. His company, Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG (Junkers Aircraft and ...

and

Karl Benz Carl Friedrich Benz (; 25 November 1844 – 4 April 1929), sometimes also Karl Friedrich Benz, was a German engine designer and automotive engineer. His Benz Patent Motorcar from 1885 is considered the first practical modern automobile and fi ...

helped shape modern automotive and air transportation technology.

Aerospace engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...

developed the first space rocket at

Peenemünde Peenemünde (, en, " Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the ''Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The commu ...

and later on was a prominent member of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

and developed the

Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with multistage rocket, three stages, and powered with liquid-propellant r ...

Moon rocket.

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz Heinrich Rudolf Hertz ( ; ; 22 February 1857 – 1 January 1894) was a German physicist who first conclusively proved the existence of the electromagnetic waves predicted by James Clerk Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism. The unit ...

's work in the domain of

electromagnetic radiation In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) consists of waves of the electromagnetic (EM) field, which propagate through space and carry momentum and electromagnetic radiant energy. It includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, (visib ...

was pivotal to the development of modern telecommunication.

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...

introduced the

special relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates: # The law ...

and

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

theories for light and gravity in 1905 and 1915 respectively. Along with

Max Planck Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (, ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical p ...

, he was instrumental in the introduction of

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...

, in which

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematis ...

and

Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a ...

later made major contributions.

Wilhelm Röntgen Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (; ; 27 March 184510 February 1923) was a German mechanical engineer and physicist, who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or Röntgen rays, an achie ...

discovered

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

Otto Hahn Otto Hahn (; 8 March 1879 – 28 July 1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and father of nuclear fission. Hahn and Lise Meitner ...

was a pioneer in the fields of

radiochemistry Radiochemistry is the chemistry of radioactive materials, where radioactive isotopes of elements are used to study the properties and chemical reactions of non-radioactive isotopes (often within radiochemistry the absence of radioactivity leads ...

and discovered

nuclear fission Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radio ...

, while

Ferdinand Cohn Ferdinand Julius Cohn (24 January 1828 – 25 June 1898) was a German biologist. He is one of the founders of modern bacteriology and microbiology. Ferdinand J. Cohn was born in the Jewish quarter of Breslau in the Prussian Province of Sil ...

and

Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the bacteri ...

were founders of

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, ...

. The movable-type

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

was invented by German blacksmith

Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its kind, earlier designs ...

in the 15th century. In 1997,

Time Life Time Life, with sister subsidiaries StarVista Live and Lifestyle Products Group, a holding of Direct Holdings Global LLC, is an American production company and direct marketer conglomerate, that is known for selling books, music, video/DVD, ...

magazine picked Gutenberg's invention as the most important of the second millennium. In 1998, the

A&E Network A&E is an American basic cable network, the flagship television property of A&E Networks. The network was originally founded in 1984 as the Arts & Entertainment Network, initially focusing on fine arts, documentaries, dramas, and educational ent ...

ranked Gutenberg as the most influential person of the second millennium on their "Biographies of the Millennium" countdown. The following is a list of inventions, innovations or discoveries known or generally recognised to be German.

Anatomy

*17th century: First description of duct of Wirsung by

Johann Georg Wirsung Johann Georg Wirsung (July 3, 1589 Augsburg – August 22, 1643 Padua) was a German anatomist who was a long-time prosector in Padua. He is remembered for the discovery of the pancreatic duct ("duct of Wirsung") during the dissection of a ...

*1720: Discovery of the

ampulla of Vater The ampulla of Vater, also known as the or the hepatopancreatic duct, is formed by the union of the pancreatic duct and the common bile duct. The ampulla is specifically located at the major duodenal papilla. The ampulla of Vater is an imp ...

Abraham Vater Abraham Vater (9 December 1684 – 18 November 1751) was a German anatomist from Wittenberg. He received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Wittenberg in 1706, and his medical degree from the University of Leipzig in 1710. Afterw ...

''Dissertatio anatomica quo novum bilis dicetilicum circa orifucum ductus choledochi ut et valvulosam colli vesicæ felleæ constructionem ad disceptandum proponit'', 1720 *1745: First description of

crypts of Lieberkühn In histology, an intestinal gland (also crypt of Lieberkühn and intestinal crypt) is a gland found in between villi in the intestinal epithelium lining of the small intestine and large intestine (or colon). The glands and intestinal villi are co ...

by Johann Nathanael Lieberkühn *19th century: First description of

Auerbach's plexus The myenteric plexus (or Auerbach's plexus) provides motor innervation to both layers of the muscular layer of the gut, having both parasympathetic and sympathetic input (although present ganglion cell bodies belong to parasympathetic innervation ...

Leopold Auerbach Leopold Auerbach (27 April 1828 – 30 September 1897) was a German anatomist and neuropathologist born in Breslau. Education and career Auerbach studied medicine at the Universities of Breslau, Berlin and the Leipzig. He became a physician in ...

*19th century: First description of

Meissner's plexus The submucosal plexus (Meissner's plexus, plexus of the submucosa, plexus submucosus) lies in the submucosa of the intestinal wall. The nerves of this plexus are derived from the myenteric plexus which itself is derived from the plexuses of parasy ...

Georg Meissner George Meissner (19 November 1829 – 30 March 1905) was a German anatomist and physiologist born in Hanover. He studied medicine at the University of Göttingen, where he worked closely with Rudolf Wagner (1806–1864). In 1851 he accompa ...

*19th century: Discovery of

Schwann cell Schwann cells or neurolemmocytes (named after German physiologist Theodor Schwann) are the principal glia of the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Glial cells function to support neurons and in the PNS, also include satellite cells, olfactory en ...

s in the peripheral nervous system by

Theodor Schwann Theodor Schwann (; 7 December 181011 January 1882) was a German physician and physiologist. His most significant contribution to biology is considered to be the extension of cell theory to animals. Other contributions include the discovery of ...

*1836: Discovery and study of

pepsin Pepsin is an endopeptidase that breaks down proteins into smaller peptides. It is produced in the gastric chief cells of the stomach lining and is one of the main digestive enzymes in the digestive systems of humans and many other animals, w ...

by Theodor Schwann *1840: First medical report on

polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe sy ...

myelitis (''Heine-Medin disease''), and the first to recognize the illness as a clinical entity, by

Jakob Heine Jakob (or Jacob) Heine (April 16, 1800, Lauterbach, Black Forest, Germany – November 12, 1879, Cannstatt, Germany) was a German orthopaedist. He is most famous for his 1840 study into poliomyelitis, which was the first medical report on the d ...

*1852: First description of tactile corpuscle by Georg Meissner and Rudolf Wagner *1868: Discovery of

Langerhans cell A Langerhans cell (LC) is a tissue-resident macrophage of the skin. These cells contain organelles called Birbeck granules. They are present in all layers of the epidermis and are most prominent in the stratum spinosum. They also occur in the ...

Paul Langerhans Paul Langerhans (25 July 1847 – 20 July 1888) was a German pathologist, physiologist and biologist, credited with the discovery of the cells that secrete insulin, named after him as the islets of Langerhans. Eponymous terms * Islets of Langerh ...

*1869: Discovery of

islets of Langerhans The pancreatic islets or islets of Langerhans are the regions of the pancreas that contain its endocrine (hormone-producing) cells, discovered in 1869 by German pathological anatomist Paul Langerhans. The pancreatic islets constitute 1–2% of ...

by Paul Langerhans *1875: First description of

Merkel cell Merkel cells, also known as Merkel-Ranvier cells or tactile epithelial cells, are oval-shaped mechanoreceptors essential for light touch sensation and found in the skin of vertebrates. They are abundant in highly sensitive skin like that of the f ...

Friedrich Sigmund Merkel Friedrich Sigmund Merkel (5 April 1845 – 28 May 1919) was a leading German anatomist and histopathologist of the late 19th century. In 1875, he provided the first full description of ''Tastzellen'' (touch cells) which occur in the skin of all ...

*1882: First successful

cholecystectomy Cholecystectomy is the surgical removal of the gallbladder. Cholecystectomy is a common treatment of symptomatic gallstones and other gallbladder conditions. In 2011, cholecystectomy was the eighth most common operating room procedure performed i ...

by Carl Langenbuch in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

*1906: Discovery of the

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...

Alois Alzheimer Alois Alzheimer ( , , ; 14 June 1864 – 19 December 1915) was a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and a colleague of Emil Kraepelin. Alzheimer is credited with identifying the first published case of "presenile dementia", which Kraep ...

*1909: First description of

Brodmann's areas A Brodmann area is a region of the cerebral cortex, in the human or other primate brain, defined by its cytoarchitecture, or histological structure and organization of cells. History Brodmann areas were originally defined and numbered by the ...

Korbinian Brodmann Korbinian Brodmann (17 November 1868 – 22 August 1918) was a German neurologist who became famous for mapping the cerebral cortex and defining 52 distinct regions, known as Brodmann areas, based on their cytoarchitectonic (histological) char ...

*1977:

Plastination Plastination is a technique or process used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts, first developed by Gunther von Hagens in 1977. The water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or ...

Gunther von Hagens Gunther von Hagens (born Gunther Gerhard Liebchen; 10 January 1945) is a German anatomist who invented the technique for preserving biological tissue specimens called plastination. He has organized numerous ''Body Worlds'' public exhibitions a ...

Animals

*1907: Modern

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to z ...

(''

Tierpark Hagenbeck The Tierpark Hagenbeck is a zoo in Stellingen, Hamburg, Germany. The collection began in 1863 with animals that belonged to Carl Hagenbeck Sr. (1810–1887), a fishmonger who became an amateur animal collector. The park itself was founded by C ...

'') by

Carl Hagenbeck Carl Hagenbeck (10 June 1844 – 14 April 1913) was a German merchant of wild animals who supplied many European zoos, as well as P. T. Barnum. He created the modern zoo with animal enclosures without bars that were closer to their natural habi ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

*1916:

Guide dog Guide dogs (colloquially known in the US as seeing-eye dogs) are assistance dogs trained to lead blind or visually impaired people around obstacles. Although dogs can be trained to navigate various obstacles, they are red–green colour blin ...

; the world's first training school, established by Dr. Gerhard Stalling in Oldenburg

Archaeology

Archaeopteryx lithographica (Berlin specimen)

*1825: ''

Rhamphorhynchus ''Rhamphorhynchus'' (, from Ancient Greek ''rhamphos'' meaning "beak" and ''rhynchus'' meaning "snout") is a genus of long-tailed pterosaurs in the Jurassic period. Less specialized than contemporary, short-tailed pterodactyloid pterosaurs such ...

'' by

Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring (28 January 1755 – 2 March 1830) was a German physician, anatomist, anthropologist, paleontologist and inventor. Sömmerring discovered the macula in the retina of the human eye. His investigations on the brain ...

*1834: ''

Plateosaurus ''Plateosaurus'' (probably meaning "broad lizard", often mistranslated as "flat lizard") is a genus of plateosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period, around 214 to 204 million years ago, in what is now Central and Northern Eur ...

'' by Johann Friedrich Engelhardt near

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

, described in 1837 by

Hermann von Meyer Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer (3 September 1801 – 2 April 1869), known as Hermann von Meyer, was a German palaeontologist. He was awarded the 1858 Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London. Life He was born at Frankfurt am Ma ...

*1856:

Neanderthal 1 Feldhofer 1 or Neanderthal 1 is the scientific name of the 40,000-year-old type specimen fossil of the species ''Homo neanderthalensis'', found in August 1856 in a German cave, the Kleine Feldhofer Grotte in the Neandertal valley, east of D� ...

near

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

*1856–1857: First description of the

Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an Extinction, extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ag ...

Johann Carl Fuhlrott Prof. Dr. Johann Carl Fuhlrott (31 December 1803, Leinefelde, Germany – 17 October 1877, Wuppertal) was an early German paleoanthropologist. He is famous for recognizing the significance of the bones of Neanderthal 1, a Neanderthal specimen di ...

and

Hermann Schaaffhausen Hermann Schaaffhausen (19 July 1816, Koblenz – 26 January 1893, Bonn) was a German anatomist, anthropologist, and paleoanthropologist. Biography Hermann Schaaffhausen was the son of Josef Hubert Schaaffhausen and Anna Maria Wachendorf. He st ...

*1860: ''

Teratosaurus ''Teratosaurus'' is a genus of rauisuchians known from the Triassic Stubensandstein ( Löwenstein Formation - Norian stage) of Germany. It is estimated to be 6 meters (19.5 ft) long. Discovery In 1860, Sixt Friedrich Jakob von Kapff a ...

'' by Sixt Friedrich Jakob von Kapff near

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 Sw ...

, described in 1861 by Hermann von Meyer *1861: ''

Archaeopteryx ''Archaeopteryx'' (; ), sometimes referred to by its German name, "" ( ''Primeval Bird''), is a genus of bird-like dinosaurs. The name derives from the ancient Greek (''archaīos''), meaning "ancient", and (''ptéryx''), meaning "feather" ...

'' by Hermann von Meyer near

Solnhofen Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Middle Franconia in the ' of Bavaria in Germany. It is in the Altmühl valley. The local area is famous in geology and palaeontology for Solnhofen limes ...

*1868–1879:

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...

Heinrich Schliemann Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and pioneer in the field of archaeology. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeolog ...

*c. 1900:

Gordium Gordion ( Phrygian: ; el, Γόρδιον, translit=Górdion; tr, Gordion or ; la, Gordium) was the capital city of ancient Phrygia. It was located at the site of modern Yassıhüyük, about southwest of Ankara (capital of Turkey), in the ...

Alfred Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *'' Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interl ...

and Gustav Körte *1906–1913:

Hattusa Hattusa (also Ḫattuša or Hattusas ; Hittite: URU''Ḫa-at-tu-ša'', Turkish: Hattuşaş , Hattic: Hattush) was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of ...

Hugo Winckler Hugo Winckler (4 July 1863 – 19 April 1913) was a German archaeologist and historian who uncovered the capital of the Hittite Empire (Hattusa) at Boğazkale, Turkey. A student of the languages of the ancient Middle East, he wrote extensi ...

*1908: ''

Homo heidelbergensis ''Homo heidelbergensis'' (also ''H. sapiens heidelbergensis''), sometimes called Heidelbergs, is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human which existed during the Middle Pleistocene. It was subsumed as a subspecies of '' H. erectus'' i ...

'' by Daniel Hartmann and

Otto Schoetensack Otto Karl Friedrich Schoetensack (; 12 July 1850 in Stendal – 23 December 1912 in Ospedaletti) was a German industrialist and later professor of anthropology, having retired from the chemical firm which he had founded. During a 1908 archeologic ...

near

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

*1912: The

Nefertiti Bust The Nefertiti Bust is a painted stucco-coated limestone bust of Nefertiti, the Great Royal Wife of Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten. The work is believed to have been crafted in by Thutmose because it was found in his workshop in Amarna, Egypt. It ...

Ludwig Borchardt Ludwig may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ludwig (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Ludwig (surname), including a list of people * Ludwig Ahgren, or simply Ludwig, American YouTube live streamer and co ...

*1915: Description of ''

Spinosaurus ''Spinosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of spinosaurid dinosaur that lived in what now is North Africa during the Cenomanian to upper Turonian stages of the Late Cretaceous period, about 99 to 93.5 million years ago. The genus was known first f ...

'', the largest known theropod, by

Ernst Stromer Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach (12 June 1871 in Nürnberg – 18 December 1952 in Erlangen) was a German paleontologist. He is best remembered for his expedition to Egypt, during which the first known remains of ''Spinosaurus'' we ...

*1925: '' Stomatosuchus'' by Ernst Stromer *1931: Description of ''

Carcharodontosaurus ''Carcharodontosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of large carcharodontosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed during the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous in Northern Africa. The genus ''Carcharodontosaurus'' is named after the shark genus '' Carc ...

'' by Ernst Stromer *1932: ''

Aegyptosaurus ''Aegyptosaurus'' (meaning 'Egypt's lizard') is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Africa, around 95 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period (Cenomanian faunal stage). Discovery and naming The holotype (191 ...

'' by Ernst Stromer *1934: ''

Bahariasaurus ''Bahariasaurus'' (meaning " Bahariya lizard") is an enigmatic genus of large theropod dinosaur. ''Bahariasaurus'' is known to have included at least 1 species, ''Bahariasaurus ingens'', which was found in North African rock layers dating to the ...

'' by Ernst Stromer *1991:

Ötzi Ötzi, also called the Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived some time between 3350 and 3105 BC, discovered in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi") on the border between Austria and Italy. Ötzi is believed to ...

by Helmut and Erika Simon from

Arts

*15th century:

Drypoint Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically identical to engraving. The ...

by the Housebook Master, a south German artist *1525: Ray tracing by

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...

*1642:

Mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonal ...

by Ludwig von Siegen *1708:

Meissen porcelain Meissen porcelain or Meissen china was the first European hard-paste porcelain. Early experiments were done in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger continued von Tschirnhaus's work an ...

, the first European

hard-paste porcelain Hard-paste porcelain, sometimes "true porcelain", is a ceramic material that was originally made from a compound of the feldspathic rock petuntse and kaolin fired at very high temperature, usually around 1400 °C. It was first made in China ...

, by

Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (or Tschirnhauß, ; 10 April 1651 – 11 October 1708) was a German mathematician, physicist, physician, and philosopher. He introduced the Tschirnhaus transformation and is considered by some to have been th ...

Meissen Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albre ...

*1810: Theory of Colours by Johann Wolfgang Goethe *Early 1900s: The modernist movement

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it ra ...

*1919:

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...

Astronomy

*1609–1619:

Kepler's laws of planetary motion In astronomy, Kepler's laws of planetary motion, published by Johannes Kepler between 1609 and 1619, describe the orbits of planets around the Sun. The laws modified the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus, replacing its circular orb ...

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws ...

*1781: Discovery of

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus ( Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of ...

, with two of its major moons ( Titania and

Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fairi ...

), by

William Herschel Frederick William Herschel (; german: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-born British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline ...

*1846: Discovery of

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 time ...

by Johann Galle *1902: Discovery of the

stratosphere The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air h ...

Richard Assmann Richard Assmann (Anglicized spelling of the German name Richard Aßmann) (13 April 1845 in Magdeburg – 28 May 1918 in Gießen) was a German meteorologist and physician who was a native of Magdeburg. He made numerous contributions in high altit ...

*1909: Discovery of

cosmic ray Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...

Theodor Wulf Theodor Wulf (28 July 1868 – 19 June 1946) was a German physicist and Jesuit priest who was one of the first experimenters to detect excess atmospheric radiation. Theodor Wulf became a Jesuit priest at the age of 20, before studying physi ...

*1916:

Schwarzschild metric In Einstein's theory of general relativity, the Schwarzschild metric (also known as the Schwarzschild solution) is an exact solution to the Einstein field equations that describes the gravitational field outside a spherical mass, on the assump ...

and

Schwarzschild radius The Schwarzschild radius or the gravitational radius is a physical parameter in the Schwarzschild solution to Einstein's field equations that corresponds to the radius defining the event horizon of a Schwarzschild black hole. It is a characteri ...

Karl Schwarzschild Karl Schwarzschild (; 9 October 1873 – 11 May 1916) was a German physicist and astronomer. Schwarzschild provided the first exact solution to the Einstein field equations of general relativity, for the limited case of a single spherical non-r ...

Biology, genetics and memory

*1759: Description of

mesonephros The mesonephros ( el, middle kidney) is one of three excretory organs that develop in vertebrates. It serves as the main excretory organ of aquatic vertebrates and as a temporary kidney in reptiles, birds, and mammals. The mesonephros is included ...

Caspar Friedrich Wolff Caspar Friedrich Wolff (18 January 1733 – 22 February 1794) was a German physiologist and one of the founders of embryology. Life Wolff was born in Berlin, Brandenburg. In 1759 he graduated as an M.D. from the University of Halle with his dis ...

*1790s:

Recapitulation theory The theory of recapitulation, also called the biogenetic law or embryological parallelism—often expressed using Ernst Haeckel's phrase "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"—is a historical hypothesis that the development of the embryo of an a ...

Johann Friedrich Meckel Johann Friedrich Meckel (17 October 1781 – 31 October 1833), often referred to as Johann Friedrich Meckel, the Younger, was a German anatomist born in Halle. He worked as a professor of anatomy, pathology and zoology at the University of Halle, ...

and

Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer (22 October 1765 – 14 August 1844) was a German biologist and naturalist born in Bebenhausen, today part of the city of Tübingen. He was a pioneer of ''Naturphilosophie'', helped to establish organic chemistry (''Pflan ...

*Late 1790s/early 1800s:

Humboldtian science Humboldtian science refers to a movement in science in the 19th century closely connected to the work and writings of German scientist, naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. It maintained a certain ethics of precision and observation, ...

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister ...

*1834:

Humboldt penguin The Humboldt penguin (''Spheniscus humboldti'') is a medium-sized penguin. It resides in South America, its range mainly contains most of coastal Peru. Its nearest relatives are the African penguin, the Magellanic penguin and the Galápagos pen ...

by Franz Meyen, after its initial discovery by Alexander von Humboldt *1835:

Cell division Cell division is the process by which a parent cell divides into two daughter cells. Cell division usually occurs as part of a larger cell cycle in which the cell grows and replicates its chromosome(s) before dividing. In eukaryotes, there ...

Hugo von Mohl Hugo von Mohl FFRS HFRSE (8 April 1805 – 1 April 1872) was a German botanist from Stuttgart. He was the first person to use the word "protoplasm". Life He was a son of the Württemberg statesman Benjamin Ferdinand von Mohl (1766–1845), ...

*1835: Discovery and description of

mitosis In cell biology, mitosis () is a part of the cell cycle in which replicated chromosomes are separated into two new nuclei. Cell division by mitosis gives rise to genetically identical cells in which the total number of chromosomes is maintai ...

by Hugo von Mohl *1839:

Cell theory In biology, cell theory is a scientific theory first formulated in the mid-nineteenth century, that living organisms are made up of cells, that they are the basic structural/organizational unit of all organisms, and that all cells come from pre ...

and Matthias Jakob Schleiden (with contributions from

Rudolf Virchow Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (; or ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder ...

) *1840: Discovery of

hemoglobin Hemoglobin (haemoglobin BrE) (from the Greek word αἷμα, ''haîma'' 'blood' + Latin ''globus'' 'ball, sphere' + ''-in'') (), abbreviated Hb or Hgb, is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein present in red blood cells (erythroc ...

by Friedrich Ludwig Hünefeld *1845:

Odic force The Odic force (also called Od �d Odyle, Önd, Odes, Odylic, Odyllic, or Odems) is the name given in the mid-19th century to a hypothetical vital energy or life force by Baron Carl von Reichenbach. Von Reichenbach coined the name from that of ...

Carl Reichenbach Carl Ludwig von Reichenbach (full name: Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Reichenbach; February 12, 1788January 1869) was a German chemist, geologist, metallurgist, naturalist, industrialist and philosopher, and a member of the Prussian Academy of Scienc ...

*1851: Discovery of

alternation of generations Alternation of generations (also known as metagenesis or heterogenesis) is the predominant type of life cycle in plants and algae. It consists of a multicellular haploid sexual phase, the gametophyte, which has a single set of chromosomes alt ...

as a general principle in plant life by Wilhelm Hofmeister *1876: Discovery and description of

meiosis Meiosis (; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately ...

by Oscar Hertwig *1877: Description of

dyslexia Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

by Adolf Kussmaul *1880s:

Bacteriology Bacteriology is the branch and specialty of biology that studies the morphology, ecology, genetics and biochemistry of bacteria as well as many other aspects related to them. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classificat ...

*Late 19th century: Isolated the non-protein component of "nuclein", determining the chemical composition of

nucleic acid Nucleic acids are biopolymers, macromolecules, essential to all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main ...

s, and later isolated its five primary

nucleobase Nucleobases, also known as ''nitrogenous bases'' or often simply ''bases'', are nitrogen-containing biological compounds that form nucleosides, which, in turn, are components of nucleotides, with all of these monomers constituting the basi ...

s (

adenine Adenine () ( symbol A or Ade) is a nucleobase (a purine derivative). It is one of the four nucleobases in the nucleic acid of DNA that are represented by the letters G–C–A–T. The three others are guanine, cytosine and thymine. Its deriv ...

cytosine Cytosine () ( symbol C or Cyt) is one of the four nucleobases found in DNA and RNA, along with adenine, guanine, and thymine ( uracil in RNA). It is a pyrimidine derivative, with a heterocyclic aromatic ring and two substituents attached ( ...

guanine Guanine () ( symbol G or Gua) is one of the four main nucleobases found in the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, the others being adenine, cytosine, and thymine ( uracil in RNA). In DNA, guanine is paired with cytosine. The guanine nucleoside is ...

thymine Thymine () ( symbol T or Thy) is one of the four nucleobases in the nucleic acid of DNA that are represented by the letters G–C–A–T. The others are adenine, guanine, and cytosine. Thymine is also known as 5-methyluracil, a pyrimidin ...

and

uracil Uracil () (symbol U or Ura) is one of the four nucleobases in the nucleic acid RNA. The others are adenine (A), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). In RNA, uracil binds to adenine via two hydrogen bonds. In DNA, the uracil nucleobase is replaced b ...

) by

Albrecht Kossel Ludwig Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel (; 16 September 1853 – 5 July 1927) was a German biochemist and pioneer in the study of genetics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1910 for his work in determining the ch ...

*1885: Forgetting curve and

learning curve A learning curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between how proficient people are at a task and the amount of experience they have. Proficiency (measured on the vertical axis) usually increases with increased experience (the ...

Hermann Ebbinghaus Hermann Ebbinghaus (24 January 185026 February 1909) was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to descri ...

*1888: Description and naming of the

centrosome In cell biology, the centrosome (Latin centrum 'center' + Greek sōma 'body') (archaically cytocentre) is an organelle that serves as the main microtubule organizing center (MTOC) of the animal cell, as well as a regulator of cell-cycle prog ...

Theodor Boveri Theodor Heinrich Boveri (12 October 1862 – 15 October 1915) was a German zoologist, comparative anatomist and co-founder of modern cytology. He was notable for the first hypothesis regarding cellular processes that cause cancer, and for desc ...

*1890: Description of

mitochondrion A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is use ...

Richard Altmann Richard Altmann (12 March 1852 – 8 December 1900) was a German pathologist and histologist from Deutsch Eylau in the Province of Prussia. Altmann studied medicine in Greifswald, Königsberg, Marburg, and Giessen, obtaining a doctorate at ...

*1892:

Weismann barrier The Weismann barrier, proposed by August Weismann, is the strict distinction between the "immortal" germ cell lineages producing gametes and "disposable" somatic cells in animals (but not plants), in contrast to Charles Darwin's proposed pangenesi ...

and

germ plasm Germ plasm () is a biological concept developed in the 19th century by the German biologist August Weismann. It states that heritable information is transmitted only by germ cells in the gonads (ovaries and testes), not by somatic cells. The ...

August Weismann August Friedrich Leopold Weismann FRS (For), HonFRSE, LLD (17 January 18345 November 1914) was a German evolutionary biologist. Fellow German Ernst Mayr ranked him as the second most notable evolutionary theorist of the 19th century, after Cha ...

*1908:

Hardy–Weinberg principle In population genetics, the Hardy–Weinberg principle, also known as the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, model, theorem, or law, states that allele and genotype frequencies in a population will remain constant from generation to generation in t ...

Wilhelm Weinberg Wilhelm Weinberg (Stuttgart, 25 December 1862 – 27 November 1937, Tübingen) was a German obstetrician-gynecologist, practicing in Stuttgart, who in a 1908 paper, published in German in ''Jahresheft des Vereins für vaterländische Naturkund ...

*1928: First reliable

pregnancy test A pregnancy test is used to determine whether a female is pregnant or not. The two primary methods are testing for the female pregnancy hormone (human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)) in blood or urine using a pregnancy test kit, and scanning with ...

Selmar Aschheim Selmar Aschheim (4 October 1878 – 15 February 1965) was a German gynecologist who was a native resident of Berlin. Born into a Jewish family, in 1902 he received a doctorate of medicine in Freiburg, and later became director of the laborat ...

and Bernhard Zondek *1928: Artificial

cloning Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, c ...

of organisms by

Hans Spemann Hans Spemann (; 27 June 1869 – 9 September 1941) was a German embryologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935 for his student Hilde Mangold's discovery of the effect now known as embryonic induction, an influence, ...

and Hilde Mangold *1932:

Urea cycle The urea cycle (also known as the ornithine cycle) is a cycle of biochemical reactions that produces urea (NH2)2CO from ammonia (NH3). Animals that use this cycle, mainly amphibians and mammals, are called ureotelic. The urea cycle converts h ...

Kurt Henseleit Kurt Henseleit (1907–1973) studied medicine in Berlin, where he was born, with final exams 1929 and was beginning in the winter semester 1930/31 a graduate student of and assistant to Hans Krebs in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he got his M.D. Be ...

and

Hans Adolf Krebs Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, FRS (, ; 25 August 1900 – 22 November 1981) was a German-born British biologist, physician and biochemist. He was a pioneer scientist in the study of cellular respiration, a biochemical process in living cells that ex ...

*1937:

Citric acid cycle The citric acid cycle (CAC)—also known as the Krebs cycle or the TCA cycle (tricarboxylic acid cycle)—is a series of chemical reactions to release stored energy through the oxidation of acetyl-CoA derived from carbohydrates, fats, and prot ...

by Hans Adolf Krebs *1974: First

genetically modified animal Genetically modified animals are animals that have been genetically modified for a variety of purposes including producing drugs, enhancing yields, increasing resistance to disease, etc. The vast majority of genetically modified animals are at th ...

(a mouse) by

Rudolf Jaenisch Rudolf Jaenisch (born April 22, 1942) is a Professor of Biology at MIT and a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He is a pioneer of transgenic science, in which an animal’s genetic makeup is altered. Jaenisch ...

Chemistry

*1625:

Glauber's salt Sodium sulfate (also known as sodium sulphate or sulfate of soda) is the inorganic compound with formula Na2SO4 as well as several related hydrates. All forms are white solids that are highly soluble in water. With an annual production of 6 milli ...

Johann Rudolf Glauber Johann Rudolf Glauber (10 March 1604 – 16 March 1670) was a German-Dutch alchemist and chemist. Some historians of science have described him as one of the first chemical engineers. His discovery of sodium sulfate in 1625 led to the compou ...

*1669: Discovery of

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ea ...

Hennig Brand Hennig Brand (; c. 1630c. 1692 or c. 1710) was a German alchemist who lived and worked in Hamburg. In 1669, Brand accidentally discovered the chemical element phosphorus while searching for the "philosopher's stone", a substance which was believed ...

*1706:

Prussian blue Prussian blue (also known as Berlin blue, Brandenburg blue or, in painting, Parisian or Paris blue) is a dark blue pigment produced by oxidation of ferrous ferrocyanide salts. It has the chemical formula Fe CN)">Cyanide.html" ;"title="e(Cyani ...

by Heinrich Diesbach in

*1724: Temperature scale

Fahrenheit The Fahrenheit scale () is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined hi ...

Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit FRS (; ; 24 May 1686 – 16 September 1736) was a physicist, inventor, and scientific instrument maker. Born in Poland to a family of German extraction, he later moved to the Dutch Republic at age 15, where he spen ...

*1746: Basic theory of isolating

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

by Andreas Marggraf *c. 1770 – c. 1785: Identification of

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42 which is located in period 5 and group 6. The name is from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'', which is based on Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lead ...

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...

barium Barium is a chemical element with the symbol Ba and atomic number 56. It is the fifth element in group 2 and is a soft, silvery alkaline earth metal. Because of its high chemical reactivity, barium is never found in nature as a free element. Th ...

and

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine i ...

Carl Wilhelm Scheele Carl Wilhelm Scheele (, ; 9 December 1742 – 21 May 1786) was a Swedish German pharmaceutical chemist. Scheele discovered oxygen (although Joseph Priestley published his findings first), and identified molybdenum, tungsten, barium, hydr ...

*1773 or earlier: discovery of

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements ...

(although

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted ...

published his findings first) by Carl Wilhelm Scheele *1789: Discovery of the elements

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

and

zirconium Zirconium is a chemical element with the symbol Zr and atomic number 40. The name ''zirconium'' is taken from the name of the mineral zircon, the most important source of zirconium. The word is related to Persian '' zargun'' (zircon; ''zar-gun'' ...

Martin Heinrich Klaproth Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1 December 1743 – 1 January 1817) was a German chemist. He trained and worked for much of his life as an apothecary, moving in later life to the university. His shop became the second-largest apothecary in Berlin, and ...

*1799: Production of sugar from

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet ('' Beta vulgaris''). Together ...

s, the beginning of the modern

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...

industry, by

Franz Karl Achard Franz Karl Achard (28 April 1753 – 20 April 1821) was a German (Prussian) chemist, geoscientist, physicist, and biologist. His principal discovery was the production of sugar from sugar beets. Life and work Achard was born in Berlin, the s ...

, after foundations were laid by Andreas Marggraf *19th century:

Eupione Eupione, or eupion, is a hydrocarbon of the paraffin series, probably a pentane, C5H12, discovered by Carl Reichenbach in wood tar. It is also formed in the destructive distillation of many substances, as wood, coal, caoutchouc Rubber, al ...

*1817: Discovery of

cadmium Cadmium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12 element, group 12, zinc and mercury (element), mercury. Li ...

by Karl Samuel Leberecht Hermann and

Friedrich Stromeyer Prof Friedrich Stromeyer FRS(For) FRSE (2 August 1776 – 18 August 1835) was a German chemist. He was the discoverer of cadmium. From 1982 a Friedrich Stromeyer Prize has been awarded for chemical achievement in Germany. Life He was born in ...

*1820s:

Oechsle scale The Oechsle scale is a hydrometer scale measuring the density of grape must, which is an indication of grape ripeness and sugar content used in wine-making. It is named for Ferdinand Oechsle (1774–1852) and it is widely used in the German, Swiss ...

by Ferdinand Oechsle *1823: Döbereiner's lamp, often hailed as the first

lighter A lighter is a portable device which creates a flame, and can be used to ignite a variety of items, such as cigarettes, gas lighter, fireworks, candles or campfires. It consists of a metal or plastic container filled with a flammable liquid or ...

, by

Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner (13 December 1780 – 24 March 1849) was a German chemist who is best known for work that foreshadowed the periodic law for the chemical elements, and for inventing the first lighter, which was known as the Döbere ...

*1828: Discovery of

creosote Creosote is a category of carbonaceous chemicals formed by the distillation of various tars and pyrolysis of plant-derived material, such as wood or fossil fuel. They are typically used as preservatives or antiseptics. Some creosote types were ...

by Carl Reichenbach *1828, 1893: Isolation (1828) of

nicotine Nicotine is a naturally produced alkaloid in the nightshade family of plants (most predominantly in tobacco and '' Duboisia hopwoodii'') and is widely used recreationally as a stimulant and anxiolytic. As a pharmaceutical drug, it is use ...

by Wilhelm Heinrich Posselt and Karl Ludwig Reimann. The structure (1893) of nicotine was later discovered by Adolf Pinner and Richard Wolffenstein *1828: Synthesis of

urea Urea, also known as carbamide, is an organic compound with chemical formula . This amide has two amino groups (–) joined by a carbonyl functional group (–C(=O)–). It is thus the simplest amide of carbamic acid. Urea serves an important ...

Friedrich Wöhler Friedrich Wöhler () FRS(For) Hon FRSE (31 July 180023 September 1882) was a German chemist known for his work in inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements beryllium and yttrium in pure metallic form. He was the fi ...

(''

Wöhler synthesis The Wöhler synthesis is the conversion of ammonium cyanate into urea. This chemical reaction was described in 1828 by Friedrich Wöhler. It is often cited as the starting point of modern organic chemistry. Although the Wöhler reaction concerns ...

'') *1830: Creation of

paraffin wax Paraffin wax (or petroleum wax) is a soft colorless solid derived from petroleum, coal, or oil shale that consists of a mixture of hydrocarbon molecules containing between 20 and 40 carbon atoms. It is solid at room temperature and begins t ...

by Carl Reichenbach *1832: Discovery of pittacal by Carl Reichenbach *1834:

Melamine Melamine is an organic compound with the formula C3H6N6. This white solid is a trimer of cyanamide, with a 1,3,5-triazine skeleton. Like cyanamide, it contains 67% nitrogen by mass, and its derivatives have fire retardant properties due t ...

Justus von Liebig Justus Freiherr von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 20 April 1873) was a German scientist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry. As a professor at th ...

*1834: Discovery of

phenol Phenol (also called carbolic acid) is an aromatic organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a white crystalline solid that is volatile. The molecule consists of a phenyl group () bonded to a hydroxy group (). Mildly acidic, it r ...

Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge (8 February 1794 – 25 March 1867) was a German analytical chemist. Runge identified the mydriatic (pupil dilating) effects of belladonna (deadly nightshade) extract, identified caffeine, and discovered the first c ...

*1836 (or 1837): Discovery of

diatomaceous earth Diatomaceous earth (), diatomite (), or kieselgur/kieselguhr is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that can be crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. It has a particle size ranging from more than 3 μm to l ...

(''Kieselgur'' in German) by Peter Kasten on the northern slopes of the Haußelberg hill, in the

Lüneburg Heath Lüneburg Heath (german: Lüneburger Heide) is a large area of heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen ...

North Germany Northern Germany (german: link=no, Norddeutschland) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony an ...

*1838:

Fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...

by Christian Friedrich Schönbein *1839: Discovery of ozone by Christian Friedrich Schönbein *1839, 1930: Discovery of polystyrene by Eduard Simon, was made a commercial product by IG Farben in 1930 *c. 1840: Nitrogen-based fertilizer, fertiliser by Justus von Liebig, important innovations were later made by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch (''Haber process'') in the 1900s *1846: Discovery of Nitrocellulose, guncotton by Christian Friedrich Schönbein *1850s: Open hearth furnace, Siemens-Martin process by Carl Wilhelm Siemens *c. 1855: Bunsen burner by Robert Bunsen and Peter Desaga *1855: Chromatography by Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge *1857: Siemens cycle by Carl Wilhelm Siemens *1859: Pinacol coupling reaction by Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig *1860–61: Discovery of caesium and rubidium by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff *1860: Erlenmeyer flask by Emil Erlenmeyer *1863–64: Discovery of indium by Ferdinand Reich and Hieronymous Theodor Richter *1863: First synthesis of TNT, trinitrotoluene (TNT) by Julius Wilbrand *1864: First synthesis of barbiturate by Adolf von Baeyer, first marketed by Bayer under the name "Barbital, ''Veronal''" in 1903 *1865: Synthetic indigo dye by Adolf von Baeyer, first marketed by BASF in 1897 *c. 1870: Brix unit by Adolf Ferdinand Wenceslaus Brix, Adolf Brix *1872: Synthesis of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by Eugen Baumann *1877: Poly(methyl methacrylate) by Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig, was made a commercial product (''Plexiglas'') by Otto Röhm in 1933 *1882: Tollens' reagent by Bernhard Tollens *1883: Claus process by Carl Friedrich Claus *1884: Paal–Knorr synthesis by Carl Paal and Ludwig Knorr *1885–1886: Discovery of germanium by Clemens Winkler *1887: Petri dish by Julius Richard Petri *1888: Büchner flask and Büchner funnel by Ernst Büchner *1895: Hampson–Linde cycle by

*1897: Galalith by Wilhelm Krische *1898: Polycarbonate by Alfred Einhorn, was made an commercial product by Hermann Josef Schnell, Hermann Schnell at Bayer in 1953 in Uerdingen *1898: Synthesis of polyethylene, the most common plastic, by Hans von Pechmann *1898: First synthesis of purine by Emil Fischer. He had also coined the word in 1884. *Early 20th century: Schlenk flask by Wilhelm Schlenk *1900s: Haber process by Carl Bosch and Fritz Haber *1902: Ostwald process by Wilhelm Ostwald *1903: First commercially successful decaffeination process by Ludwig Roselius (later of ''Café HAG''), after foundations were laid by Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge in 1820 *1907: Thiele tube by Johannes Thiele (chemist), Johannes Thiele *1913: Coal liquefaction (''Bergius process'') by Friedrich BergiusD. Valentin: Kohleverflüssigung - Chancen und Grenzen, Praxis der Naturwissenschaften, 1/58 (2009), S. 17-19. *1913: Identification of protactinium by Oswald Helmuth Göhring *1925: Discovery of rhenium by Otto Berg (scientist), Otto Berg, Ida Tacke, Ida Noddack and Walter Noddack *1928: Diels–Alder reaction by Kurt Alder and Otto Diels *1929: Discovery of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by Karl Lohmann *1929: Creation of styrene-butadiene (synthetic rubber) by Walter Bock *1935: Karl Fischer titration by Karl Fischer (chemist), Karl Fischer *1937: Creation of polyurethane by Otto Bayer at IG Farben in Leverkusen *1953: Ziegler–Natta catalyst by Karl Ziegler *1954: Wittig reaction by Georg Wittig *1981–1996: Discovery and creation of bohrium by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt *1982: Discovery and creation of meitnerium at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research *1984: Discovery and creation of hassium at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research *1994: Discovery and creation of darmstadtium at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research *1994: Discovery and creation of roentgenium at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research *1996: Discovery and creation of copernicium at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research

Clothing, cosmetics and fashion

*13th century: Functional buttons with buttonholes for fastening or closing clothes *18th century or earlier: Dirndl, Lederhosen and Tracht *1709: Eau de Cologne by Johann Maria Farina (Giovanni Maria Farina) in Cologne *1871–1873: Jeans by German-born Levi Strauss (together with Russian-American Jacob W. Davis, Jacob Davis) *1905: Perm (hairstyle), Permanent wave that was suitable for use on people, by Karl Nessler *1911: Nivea, the first modern Cream (pharmacy), cream, by Beiersdorf AG *1960s: BB cream by Christine Schrammek

Computing

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Bernhard Christoph Francke

*Late 17th century: Modern binary numeral system by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz *1918–1923: Enigma machine by Arthur Scherbius *1920s: Hellschreiber (precursor of the impact dot matrix printers and faxes) by Rudolf Hell *1941: First programmable, fully automatic digital

( Z3) by

*1942–1945: Programming language ''Plankalkül'', the first High-level programming language, high-level programming language to be designed for a computer, by Konrad Zuse *1945: The world's first commercial digital computer ( Z4) by Konrad Zuse *1957: Stack (abstract data type) by Klaus Samelson and Friedrich L. Bauer of Technical University Munich *1960s: Smart card by Jürgen Dethloff and Helmut Gröttrup

Construction, architecture and shops

*1831–1834: Wire rope by Wilhelm Albert (engineer), Wilhelm Albert *1858: Hoffmann kiln by Friedrich Hoffmann *1880: The world's first electric elevator by Werner von Siemens *1895: Electrically driven hand drill by Carl and Wilhelm Emil Fein, Wilhelm Fein in

*1895: Exothermic welding process by Hans Goldschmidt *1926–1927: Portable electric (by Andreas Stihl in 1926 in Cannstatt) and the first petrol chainsaw (by Emil Lerp in 1927). A precursor of chainsaws was made around 1830 by Bernhard Heine (osteotome) *1927: Concrete pump by Max Giese and Fritz Hull *1930s: Particle board by Max Himmelheber *1954: Angle grinder by ''Ackermann + Schmitt (Flex-Elektrowerkzeuge, FLEX-Elektrowerkzeuge GmbH)'' in Steinheim an der Murr *1958: Modern (plastic) wall plug (''Fischer Wall Plug'') by Artur Fischer *1962: The world's first sex shop by Beate Uhse AG in Flensburg *1963–1967: First Breaker (hydraulic), hydraulic breaker by Krupp in Essen *1988–1990: The concept of the ''Passive house, Passivhaus'' (Passive house) standard by Wolfgang Feist in Darmstadt

Cuisine

*Altbier *Angostura bitters by Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert in Venezuela, 1824 *First automat restaurant (''Quisisana'') in

, 1895 *Baumkuchen *Modern beer – Reinheitsgebot and "developing the beverage [beer] to its highest perfection" *Berliner (doughnut) *Bethmännchen *Berliner Weisse *Bienenstich *Black Forest cake *Bock *Bratwurst *Braunschweiger (sausage), Braunschweiger *Currywurst by Herta Heuwer *Dominostein by Herbert Wendler *Donauwelle *Modern doner kebab sandwich in Berlin, 1972 *Dortmunder Export *Fanta *Frankfurter Kranz *Frankfurter Würstchen *Gummy bear *Hamburger (the "founder" is unknown, but it has German origins) *Hamburg steak *Hedgehog slice (''Kalter Hund'') *Helles *Hot dog, Hot Dog *Jägermeister *Kölsch (beer), Kölsch *Lager *Lebkuchen *Marmite by

*Märzen *Meat extract by Justus von Liebig *Obatzda *Parboiled rice (''Huzenlaub Process'') by Erich Huzenlaub *Pilsner, Pilsener by Josef Groll *Pinkel *Potato salad (''Kartoffelsalat'') *Pretzel (the origin is disputed, but the earliest recorded evidence of pretzels appeared in Germany) *Prinzregententorte *Pumpernickel *Shandy, Radler *Riesling wine *Rye beer *Saumagen *Schwarzbier *Sprite (drink), Sprite *Strammer Max *Stollen *Streuselkuchen *Teewurst *Thuringian sausage *Toast Hawaii *Vienna sausage by in 1805 *Welf pudding *Wheat beer *Zwieback *Zwiebelkuchen

Education, language and printing

*12th century: Lingua Ignota, the first entirely Constructed language, artificial language, by Hildegard of Bingen, St. Hildegard of Bingen, OSB *c. 1440: Printing press with movable type by

*1605: First newspaper (''Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien'') by Johann Carolus in Strasbourg (then part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation) *1774: The process of deinking by Justus Claproth *1796: Lithography by Alois Senefelder *Early 19th century: Humboldtian model of higher education by Wilhelm von Humboldt, which led to the creation of the first modern university (''Humboldt University of Berlin, Universität zu Berlin'') in 1810, although the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, University of Halle is also regarded as "the first truly modern university" *1812–1858: Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm *1830s: Kindergarten concept by Friedrich Fröbel *1844: Pulp (paper), Wood pulp process for use in papermaking by Friedrich Gottlob Keller *1879–80: The constructed language ''Volapük'' by Johann Martin Schleyer *1884–1886: Linotype machine by Ottmar Mergenthaler *1905: The Morse code distress signal () *1919: Waldorf education by Emil Molt and Rudolf Steiner in

*1937–1951: Interlingua by Alexander Gode

Entertainment, electronics and media

*c. 1151: The earliest known morality play (''Ordo Virtutum'') by Hildegard of Bingen, St. Hildegard of Bingen, OSB *1505: The world's first (pocket) watch (''Watch 1505'') by Peter Henlein *1663: First magazine (''Erbauliche Monaths Unterredungen'') *1885: Nipkow disk (fundamental component in the earliest

s) by Paul Gottlieb Nipkow *1897: Cathode-ray tube (CRT) and the oscilloscope by Ferdinand Braun *1903: Printed circuit board by Albert Hanson of

*1907: Earplug by Max Negwer (Ohropax) *1907: Pigeon photography by Julius Neubronner *1920s: Leica Camera, Small format camera (35mm format) by Oskar Barnack *1928: Magnetic tape in Dresden, later developed and commercialized by AEG *1930s: (Modern) tape recorder by BASF (then part of the chemical giant IG Farben) and AEG in cooperation with the state radio Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft, RRG *1934: Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow (''TV Station Paul Nipkow'') in

, first public television station in the world *1949: Integrated circuit by :de:Werner Jacobi (Erfinder), Werner Jacobi (Siemens AG) *1961: PAL, Phase Alternating Line (PAL), a colour encoding system for analogue television, by Walter Bruch of Telefunken in Hanover *1970: Twisted nematic field effect by Wolfgang Helfrich (with Swiss physicist Martin Schadt) *1983: CAN bus, Controller Area Network (CAN bus) by Robert Bosch GmbH *1984: Short Message Service (''SMS'') concept by Friedhelm Hillebrand *Late 1980s and early 1990s: MP3 compression algorithm (fundamental for MP3 players) by i.a. Karlheinz Brandenburg (Fraunhofer Society) *1990: First Radio control, radio-controlled wristwatch (''MEGA 1'') by Junghans *1991: SIM card by Giesecke & Devrient in Munich *2005: YouTube by Jawed Karim (together with Steve Chen and Chad Hurley) *2011 or earlier: Li-Fi by Harald Haas (engineer), Harald Haas

Geography, geology and mining

*1812: Mohs scale of mineral hardness by Friedrich Mohs *1855: Stauroscope by Wolfgang Franz von Kobell *1884: Köppen climate classification by Wladimir Köppen. Changes were later made by Rudolf Geiger (it is thus sometimes hailed as the "Köppen–Geiger climate classification system"). *1912: Theory of continental drift and the postulation of the existence of Pangaea by Alfred Wegener *1933: Central place theory by Walter Christaller *1935: Richter magnitude scale by Beno Gutenberg (together with Charles Francis Richter)

Household and office appliance

*1835: Modern (Silvering, silvered-glass) mirror by

*1864: Ingrain wallpaper by Hugo Erfurt *1870–1895: Modern

and modern refrigeration by

. *1871: Modern mattress (the innerspring mattress) by Heinrich Westphal in Berlin *1886: Hole punch and ring binder by Friedrich Soennecken in Bonn *1886: Folding ruler by Anton Ullrich in Maikammer *1901: Adhesive tape by company Beiersdorf, Beiersdorf AG *1907: (Modern) Laundry detergent (''Persil'') by Henkel *1908: Paper coffee filter by Melitta Bentz *1909: Egg slicer by Willy Abel in

*1929, 1949: First machine-produced tea bag (1929) and the modern tea bag (1949) by Adolf Rambold and Teekanne (company), Teekanne *1930s: Ink eraser by Pelikan *1941: Chemex Coffeemaker by Peter Schlumbohm *1954: Wigomat, the first Drip brew, electrical drip coffee maker *1969: Glue stick by Henkel

Mathematics

*1611: Kepler conjecture by

*1623: Mechanical calculator by Wilhelm Schickard *Late 17th century: Calculus and Leibniz's notation by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz *1673–1676: Leibniz formula for π by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz *1675: Integral symbol by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz *1795: Least squares by Carl Friedrich Gauss *c. 1810: Gaussian elimination by Carl Friedrich Gauss *1824: Generalization of the Bessel function by Friedrich Bessel *1827: Gauss map and Gaussian curvature by Carl Friedrich Gauss *1837: Analytic number theory by Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet *c. 1850: Riemann geometry by Bernhard Riemann *1859: Riemann hypothesis by Bernhard Riemann *1874: Cantor's first uncountability proof and set theory by Georg Cantor *1882: Klein bottle by Felix Klein *1891: Cantor's diagonal argument and Cantor's theorem by Georg Cantor *1897: Cantor–Bernstein–Schroeder theorem by Felix Bernstein (mathematician), Felix Bernstein and Ernst Schröder (mathematician), Ernst Schröder *c. 1900: Runge–Kutta methods by Wilhelm Kutta and Carl Runge *1900s: Hilbert space by David Hilbert *Early 20th century: Weyl tensor by Hermann Weyl

Medicine and drugs

*1796: Homeopathy by Samuel Hahnemann *1803–1827: First isolation of morphine by Friedrich Sertürner in Paderborn; first marketed to the general public by Sertürner and Company in 1817 as a Analgesic, pain medication; and the first commercial production began in 1827 in Darmstadt by Merck Group, Merck. *1832: First synthesis of chloral hydrate, the first Hypnotic, hypnotic drug, by

at the University of Giessen; Oscar Liebreich introduced the drug into medicine in 1869 and discovered its hypnotic and sedative qualities. *1840: Discovery and description of Graves-Basedow disease by Karl Adolph von Basedow *1847: Kymograph by Carl Ludwig *1850s: Microscopic pathology by

*1850–51: Ophthalmoscopy, Ophthalmoscope by Hermann von Helmholtz *1852: First complete blood count by Karl von Vierordt *1854: Sphygmograph by Karl von Vierordt *1855: First synthesis of the cocaine alkaloid by Friedrich Gaedcke; development of an improved purification process by Albert Niemann (chemist), Albert Niemann in 1859–1860, who also coined the name "cocaine". First commercial production of cocaine began in 1862 in Darmstadt by Merck. *1881: First modern caesarean section performed by Ferdinand Adolf Kehrer (introduction of the transverse incision technique) *1882: Adhesive bandage (''Guttaperchapflastermulle'') by Paul Carl Beiersdorf *1882: Discovery of the ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria which causes tuberculosis, by

*1884: Discovery of the pathogenic bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae'' which causes diphtheria, by Edwin Klebs and Friedrich Löffler *1884: Koch's postulates by Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler, based on earlier concepts described by Jakob Henle *1884: Discovery of the ''vibrio cholerae'' bacteria which causes cholera, by Robert Koch *1887: Amphetamine by Romanian-born Lazăr Edeleanu in

*1887: Löffler's medium by Friedrich Loeffler *1888: First successful Afocal system, afocal Scleral lens, scleral glass contact lenses by Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick *1890: Diphtheria antitoxin by Emil von Behring *1897–1899: Aspirin by Felix Hoffmann or Arthur Eichengrün at Bayer in Elberfeld *1897: Heroin by Felix Hoffmann at Bayer in Elberfeld *1897: Silver proteinate, Protargol by Arthur Eichengrün. *1897: Discovery of the cause of foot-and-mouth disease (''Aphthovirus'') by Friedrich Loeffler *1907–1910: First synthesis of arsphenamine, the first antibiotic, by Paul Ehrlich and Alfred Bertheim. In 1910 marketed by Hoechst AG, Hoechst under the name ''Salvarsan''. *1908–1911: Creation of dihydrocodeine *1909, 1929: First intrauterine device (IUD) by Richard Richter (of Wałbrzych, Waldenburg, then part of Germany; in 1909), and the first ring (''Gräfenberg's ring'', 1929) used by a significant number of women by Ernst Gräfenberg. *1909: Labello by Dr. Oscar Troplowitz *1912–1916: Invention of the modern condom by Poland-born Julius Fromm in Berlin *1912: MDMA by Merck Group, Merck chemist Anton Köllisch *1914: Development and creation of oxymorphone *1916: Creation of oxycodone by Martin Freund and Edmund Speyer at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, University of Frankfurt *1920–1924: First synthesis of hydrocodone by Carl Mannich and Helene Löwenheim in 1920, first marketed by former German drug development company Knoll Pharmaceuticals, Knoll as ''Dicodid'' in 1924. *1922: Discovery and creation of desomorphine by Knoll *1923: Creation of hydromorphone (''Dilaudid'') by Knoll *1924: First human electroencephalography (EEG) recording by Hans Berger. He also invented the electroencephalogram and discovered alpha waves. *1929: Cardiac catheterization by Werner Forssmann *1932: Prontosil by Josef Klarer and Fritz Mietzsch at Bayer *1934: Synthesis of Chloroquine by Italian-born Hans Andersag, Johann "Hans" Andersag working for Bayer AG *1937–1939: Creation of methadone by Max Bockmühl and Gustav Ehrhart of IG Farben *1939: Intramedullary rod by Gerhard Küntscher *1943: Luria–Delbrück experiment by Max Delbrück *1953: Echocardiography by Carl Hellmuth Hertz (with Swedish physician Inge Edler) *1961: Combined oral contraceptive pill by Schering AG *1969: Articaine (Ultracain), a dental local anesthetic first synthesized by pharmacologist Roman Muschaweck and chemist Robert Rippel (former Hoechst AG) *1997: C-Leg by Ottobock *2007: Small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) by Walter Sekundo and Marcus Blum *2020: MRNA vaccine, mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, BNT162b2) based on research by Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci

Military and (chemical) weapons

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R22888, Westfront, Flammenwerfer

*1498: Barrel rifling in Augsburg *1836: Dreyse needle gun by Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse *1842: ''Pickelhaube'' by King Frederick William IV of Prussia *1901: Modern flamethrower by Richard Fiedler''First World War'', Willmott, H.P., Dorling Kindersley, 2003, Page 106 *1916: First anti-tank grenade *1916: ''Stahlhelm'' by Dr. Friedrich Schwerd *1918: First anti-tank rifle (''Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr'') by Mauser *1918: First practical submachine gun (''MP 18'') by Theodor Bergmann *1920s: Creation of Zyklon B by Walter Heerdt and Bruno Tesch at Degesch *1935: ''Flecktarn'' by Johann Georg Otto Schick *1935–37: Jerrycan by Müller & Co in Schwelm *1936: The first ever nerve agent, Tabun (nerve agent), tabun, by Gerhard Schrader (IG Farben) in Leverkusen *1938: The nerve agent sarin by IG Farben in Wuppertal-Elberfeld *1939: Warfare method of ''blitzkrieg'' by i.a. Heinz Guderian *1941: The only rocket-powered fighter aircraft ever to have been operational and the first piloted aircraft of any type to exceed 1000 km/h (621 mph) in level flight, the Messerschmitt Me 163, by Alexander Lippisch. *1942: First modern assault rifle (''StG 44'') by Hugo Schmeisser *1943: First aviation unit (''Kampfgeschwader 100'') to use precision-guided munition *c. 1944: First anti-tank missile (the X-7) *1944: First operational cruise missile (''V-1 flying bomb'') by Robert Lusser at Fieseler *1944: A modern pioneer and the world's first long-range Missile guidance, guided ballistic missile (V-2 rocket) under the direction of

*1944: The nerve agent soman by Konrad Henkel in

Musical instruments

*c. 1700: Clarinet by Johann Christoph Denner in

*1805: Panharmonicon by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel *1814–1816: Metronome by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel and Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel *1818: (Modern) French horn by Heinrich Stölzel and Friedrich Blühmel *1821: Harmonica by Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann *1828: Flugelhorn by Heinrich Stölzel in

*1830 or earlier: Accordion in

*1835: Tuba by Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht and Johann Gottfried Moritz in Berlin *1850s: Wagner tuba by Richard Wagner *1854: Bandoneon by Heinrich Band *1877: Microphone by Emile Berliner *1887: Gramophone record by Emile Berliner *1914: Hornbostel–Sachs, the most used system in musical instrument classification, by Curt Sachs (together with Erich Moritz von Hornbostel)

Physics and scientific instruments

First medical X-ray by Wilhelm Röntgen of his wife Anna Bertha Ludwig's hand - 18951222

Ernst Ruska Electron Microscope - Deutsches Museum - Munich-edit

*1512, 1576: Theodolite by Gregorius Reisch and Martin Waldseemüller (1512), although the first "true" version was created by Erasmus Habermehl (1576) *1608: Telescope by Hans Lippershey *1650: First vacuum pump by Otto von Guericke *1654: Magdeburg hemispheres by Otto von Guericke *1663: First electrostatic generator by Otto von Guericke *1745: Leyden jar (''Kleistian jar'') by Ewald Georg von Kleist *1777: Discovery of Lichtenberg figures by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg *1801: Discovery of ultraviolet by Johann Wilhelm Ritter *1813: Gauss's law by Carl Friedrich Gauss *1814: Discovery of Fraunhofer lines by Joseph von Fraunhofer *1817: Ackermann steering geometry by Georg Lankensperger in Munich *1817 or earlier: Gyroscope by Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger in Tübingen *1820: Galvanometer by Johann Salomo Christoph Schweigger, Johann Schweigger in Halle (Saale), Halle *1827: Ohm's law by Georg Ohm *1833: Magnetometer by Carl Friedrich Gauss *1845: Kirchhoff's circuit laws by Gustav Kirchhoff *1850: Formulation of the First law of thermodynamics, first and second law of thermodynamics by Rudolf Clausius *1852: First experimental investigation of the Magnus effect by Heinrich Gustav Magnus *1857: Geissler tube by Heinrich Geißler *1959: Helmholtz resonance by Hermann von Helmholtz *1859: Spectrometer by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff *1861: First telephone, telephone transmitter by Johann Philipp Reis; he also coined the term "telephone" *1864–1875: Centrifuge by brothers Alexander and Antonin Prandtl from Munich *1865: Concept of entropy by Rudolf Clausius *1869: First observation of cathode rays by Johann Wilhelm Hittorf and Julius Plücker *1870: Virial theorem by Rudolf Clausius *1874: Refractometer by Ernst Abbe *1883: First accurate electricity meter (''Pendelzähler'') by Hermann Aron *1886: Discovery of anode rays by Eugen Goldstein *1887: Discoveries of

, photoelectric effect and radio waves by Heinrich Hertz *1887: First parabolic antenna by Heinrich Hertz *1893–1896: Wien approximation (1896) and Wien's displacement law (1893) by Wilhelm Wien *1895: Discovery of

s by

in Würzburg *1897: Nernst lamp by Walther Nernst in Göttingen *1900: Drude model by Paul Karl Ludwig Drude, Paul Drude *1900: Planck constant and Planck's law by

*1900–1930: Quantum mechanics by i.a. Max Planck and

*1901: Modern pyrometer by Ludwig Holborn and Ferdinand Kurlbaum *1904: Boundary layer theory by Ludwig Prandtl *1904: First radar system by Christian Hülsmeyer (''Telemobiloscope'') *1905: Mass–energy equivalence (''E'' = ''mc''²) and

*1905: Rubens tube by Heinrich Rubens *1906–1912: Third law of thermodynamics (''Nernst's theorem'') by Walther Nernst *1913: Echo sounding by Alexander Behm *1913: Discovery of the Stark effect by Johannes Stark *1915: Noether's theorem by Emmy Noether *1916: General relativity by Albert Einstein *1917: Laser's theoretical foundation by Albert Einstein *1919: Discovery of the Barkhausen effect by Heinrich Barkhausen *1919: Betz's law by Albert Betz *1920s: (Modern) hand-held metal detector by Gerhard Fischer (inventor), Gerhard Fischer *1921: Discovery of nuclear isomerism by

*1921–22: Stern–Gerlach experiment by Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach *1924: Description of Coincidence circuit, coincidence method by Walther Bothe *1924–25: Bose–Einstein statistics, Bose–Einstein condensate and Boson by Albert Einstein *1927: Free electron model by Arnold Sommerfeld *1927: Uncertainty principle by Werner Heisenberg *1928: Geiger–Müller counter by

and Walther Müller *1931: Electron microscope by Ernst Ruska and Max Knoll *1933: Discovery of the Meissner effect by Walther Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld *1937–39: CNO cycle (Bethe–Weizsäcker process) by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Carl von Weizsäcker and Hans Bethe *1937: Scanning electron microscope (SEM) by Manfred von Ardenne *1938: Discovery of

by Otto Hahn and Fritz Straßmann in

*1949: Development of the nuclear shell model by Maria Goeppert-Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen *1950s: Quadrupole ion trap by Wolfgang Paul *1958: Discovery of the Mössbauer effect by Rudolf Mössbauer *1959: Penning trap by Hans Georg Dehmelt *1961: Bark scale by Eberhard Zwicker *1963: Proposition of heterojunction by Herbert Kroemer *1980: Quantum Hall effect by Klaus von Klitzing *1980s: Atomic force microscope and the scanning tunneling microscope by Gerd Binnig *1988: Discovery of giant magnetoresistance by Peter Grünberg *1994: STED microscopy by Stefan Hell and Jan Wichmann *1998: Frequency comb by Theodor W. Hänsch

Sociology, philosophy and politics

Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2005-0057, Otto von Bismarck

*Late 18th century: German idealism by Immanuel Kant *19th century: Marxism by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels *1852: Credit union by Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch in Kingdom of Saxony, Saxony, later further developed by Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen *Late 19th century: Verstehen by Max Weber *1879: Psychology by Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig *1880s: The German Empire (1871–1918) became the first modern welfare state in the world under statesman Otto von Bismarck, when he e.g. innovatively implemented the following: **Health insurance (''Krankenversicherung)'' in 1883 **Accident insurance (''Unfallversicherung)'' in 1884 **Pension, Pension insurance (''Gesetzliche Rentenversicherung)'' in 1889 *1897: ''Scientific-Humanitarian Committee'', List of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender firsts by year, first LGBT rights organization in history, founded by Magnus Hirschfeld in

*1916: The German Empire became the first country in the world to implement Daylight saving time, daylight saving time (DST) *1930s: Critical theory by the Frankfurt School *1966: Private copying levy (also known as blank media tax or levy) *1978: Blue Angel (certification), Blue Angel (''Der Blaue Engel'') certification, the world's first ecolabel

Religion, ethics and festivities

*1434: The world's first christmas market (''Striezelmarkt'') in Dresden *1517: Protestantism and Lutheranism by Martin Luther *16th century: Modern Christmas tree *17th century: Easter Bunny *c. 1610: Tinsel in

*1776: Illuminati by Adam Weishaupt *1810: ''Oktoberfest'', the world's largest ''Volksfest'', in Munich *1839: Advent wreath by Johann Hinrich Wichern *c. 1850: Advent calendar by German Lutherans; the modern version was created by Gerhard Lang (1881–1974) from Munich

Sport

*c. 1790: Balance beam by Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths *c. 1810: Horizontal bar, parallel bars, Rings (gymnastics), rings and the Vault (gymnastics), vault apparatus by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, who is often hailed as the "father of modern gymnastics" *1901: Modern bodybuilding by Eugen Sandow *1906: Schutzhund, a List of dog sports, dog sport that tests a dog's Tracking (dog), tracking *c. 1910: Loop jump in figure skating by Werner Rittberger *1917–1919: Handball by Max Heiser, Karl Schelenz, and Erich Konigh in

*1920: Gliding by Oskar Ursinus *1925: Wheel gymnastics by Otto Feick in Schönau an der Brend *1936: The tradition of the Olympic Flame, Olympic torch relay by Carl Diem and Alfred Schiff in Berlin *1946: Goalball by Sepp Reindle *1948: Paralympic Games by German-born Ludwig Guttmann *1954: Modern football boots with screw-in studs by Adolf Dassler, Adolf (Adidas) or Rudolf Dassler (Puma (brand), Puma) *1961: Underwater rugby by Ludwig von Bersuda in Cologne *1963: Grass skiing by Josef Kaiser *1989: International Paralympic Committee in

*1993: Jugger in

*2001: Speed badminton by Bill Brandes in Berlin

Tourism and recreation

*1882: Strandkorb by Wilhelm Bartelmann in Rostock *1891: First purpose-built cruise ship (''Prinzessin Victoria Luise'') by Albert Ballin *Early 20th century: Pilates by Joseph Pilates *1911: Carabiner for climbing by Otto "Rambo" Herzog *1915 or earlier: Modern parachute (the first collapsible parachute) by Katharina Paulus *1920s: Autogenic training by Johannes Heinrich Schultz

Toys and games

*c. 1780: Schafkopf card game *c. 1810: Skat (card game), Skat card game in Altenburg *1890: Modelling clay, Plastilin by Franz Kolb *1892: Chinese checkers by Ravensburger *1902: Teddy bear (''55 PB'') by Richard Steiff *1907–08: Mensch ärgere Dich nicht board game by Josef Friedrich Schmidt *1964: fischertechnik by Artur Fischer *1972: First Video game console, home video console (''Magnavox Odyssey'') by German-born Ralph H. Baer *1974: Playmobil by Hans Beck *1995: The Settlers of Catan by Klaus Teuber

Transportation

*1655: First self-propelled wheelchair by Stephan Farffler *1817: The first bicycle (dandy horse, or ''Laufmaschine'' in German) by Freiherr, Baron Karl Drais, Karl von Drais *1817: Tachometer by Diedrich Uhlhorn *1834: First practical rotary electric motor by Moritz von Jacobi *1838: First electric boat by Moritz von Jacobi *1876: Otto engine by Nicolaus Otto *1879–1881: First electric locomotive and Tram, electric tramway (''Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway'') by Siemens & Halske *1882: Trolleybus (''Electromote'') by Werner von Siemens *1885: First Car, automobile (''Benz Patent-Motorwagen'') by

in Mannheim *1885, 1894: First motorcycle (''Daimler Reitwagen'') by

and Wilhelm Maybach. The motorcycle of Hildebrand & Wolfmüller from 1894 (created by Heinrich and Wilhelm Hildebrand, and Alois Wolfmüller) was the first machine to be called a "motorcycle" and the world's first production motorcycle. *1885: First modern internal combustion engine by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach *1886: First automobile on four wheels, by Gottlieb Daimler *1886: Motorboat by Lürssen, in commission of Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, in Bremen *1888: Driver's license by Karl Benz *1888: The world's first filling station was the city pharmacy in Wiesloch *1888: ''Flocken Elektrowagen'', regarded by some as the first real electric car, by Andreas Flocken in Coburg *1889: V engine by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach *1891: Taximeter by Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Bruhn *1893: Diesel engine, diesel fuel and biodiesel by

in Augsburg *1893: ''Lilienthal Normalsegelapparat'', the first Airplane, aeroplane to be serially produced, by

*1893: Zeppelin, the first rigid airship, by

Dooley, Sean C.
The Development of Material-Adapted Structural Form
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Part II: Appendices
. THÈSE NO 2986 (2004), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne *1895: Internal combustion engine bus by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, Daimler *1896: First truck (''Daimler Motor Lastwagen, Daimler Motor-Lastwagen'') by Gottlieb Daimler *1897: Flat engine by Karl Benz *1897: Internal combustion engine taxicab by Gottlieb Daimler *1901: ''Mercedes 35 hp'', regarded by some as the first real modern automobile, by Paul Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. The car also had the world's first drum brakes. *1902, 1934: Concept of maglev by Alfred Zehden (1902) and Hermann Kemper (1934). *1902: First high voltage spark plug by Gottlob Honold *1902: First practical speedometer by Otto Schultze *1906: Gyrocompass by Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe *1909, 1912: The world's first passenger airline; DELAG in Frankfurt (1909). The company also employed the first flight attendant, Heinrich Kubis (1912). *1912: The world's first diesel locomotive by Gesellschaft für Thermo-Lokomotiven Diesel-Adolf Klose, Klose-Sulzer (manufacturer), Sulzer GmbH from Munich and Borsig from Berlin *1915: The world's first all-metal aircraft (''Junkers J 1'') by Junkers, Junkers & Co *1916: Gasoline direct injection, Gasoline direct injection (GDI) by Junkers & Co *1928: First rocket-powered aircraft (''Lippisch Ente'') by Alexander Lippisch *1935: Swept wing by Adolf Busemann *1936: The first operational and practical helicopter (''Focke-Wulf Fw 61''), by Focke-Achgelis *1939: First aircraft with a turbojet (''Heinkel He 178''), and the first practical jet aircraft, by Hans von Ohain *1943: Krueger flap by Werner Krüger *1951: Airbag by Walter Linderer *1957: Wankel engine by Felix Wankel *1960s: Defogger by Heinz Kunert *Late 1960s: Oxygen sensor by Robert Bosch GmbH *1995: Electronic stability control (ESC) by Robert Bosch GmbH and Mercedes-Benz

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:German Inventions And Discoveries German inventions, * Germany history-related lists, Inventions And Discoveries Lists of inventions or discoveries