Germany's Accomplishments

In truth, Germany has accomplished so much in its long, rather complicated history. There are a lot accomplishments of note that can be traced back to Germany or by individuals who had originated from Germany. Most of these accomplishments, however, could be traced back to the best kind of accomplishments – intellectual accomplishments. It's no small thing that Germany has been dubbed the land of poets and thinkers. And while the philosophers, artists, writers and poets are, indeed influential, it was the scientists and inventors of Germany that had changed the world. These thinkers have become so important to Germany, that scientific and technological research and technology has become an important part of the country's economy – and no doubt, Germany is being recognized for these accomplishments.

In fact, there are ninety-eight German laureates that won the Nobel Prize in the field of Science for their work and contributions in the fields of physics, mathematics, chemistry and engineering. Out of the first thirty-one Nobel Prizes in chemistry, fourteen were German – Herman Emil Fischer, who worked on the synthesis properties of purine and sugar, was the first of them all, winning in 1901; the last of the first fourteen was the duo consisting of Carl Bosch and Friedrich Bergius who received it in 1931 for their work in high-pressure chemistry.

Physics as we know it now, could not have come to be if it were not for the works of German-born gentlemen Max Planck and Albert Einstein and the expansion of their theories by two other German physicists – Werner Heisenberg and Max Born. Come to think of it, the Germans are rather adept at physics; prior to Einstein, it basked in the accomplishments of physicists like Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit and Hermann von Helmholtz.

Then there were other great minds like Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen who discovered X-rays (he was the first Nobel Prize Winner in Physics for this discovery) and Heinrich Rudolph Hertz (whose work led to modern telecommunications). Other accomplished Germans in the field of science and technology are Wilhelm Wundt (made psychology an independent empirical science), Alexander von Humboldt (credited for the beginnings of biogeography), Johannes Gutenberg (who invented the movable type) and Conrad Zuse (who built the first fully automatic digital computer).

Today, much of the scientific research that compound the accomplishments of Germany as a thinking nation is supported by scientific state institutions, industries that would benefit from the research, and German Universities (some of which were among the oldest in Europe); the scientific output generated by this is still ranked among the best in the world.