ValiantDust

Ah thanks, I was beginning to question everything I thought I knew about how my dishwasher works.

Keep in mind that this is not true for other parts of Germany. It’s only a tiny fraction of a huge picture.

When and why did Germans become known for ‘engineering’?

I can only talk about the region I’m most familiar with, in the south-west of Germany.

I’ve read that here a big factor was inheritance law. Unlike in many other places where the eldest son inherited everything, all children (or all sons, depending on region) inherited an equal fraction. This lead to smaller and smaller plots of land and people not being able to live solely on that. Many took up a craft or manufactoring on a small scale, while still maintaining their small farms.¹

Thus, during the industialisation there were many potential workers who were already skilled and willing to come work in the factories. This kickstarted the industrialisation and gave this region an advantage we were able to ride for a long time.

Then, after WW2 (West-)Germany profited from large-scale economic help which lead to quick access to global markets.

This is of course very simplified. There are many other factors, like religion and cultural values and Germany being a centre of science, especially physics and maths, before the world wars, with many papers being published in German instead of English like today.

¹Bonus fact: This is probably also a factor why worker’s movements never gained much traction here. People didn’t see themselves as workers because they owned land.