Star products from Germany
Products designed and made in Germany that defined their category or are used around the world, with the engineering story behind each one.
6 products
Haber-Bosch process
Industrial ammonia synthesis from nitrogen and hydrogen, first operated by BASF at Oppau in 1913. Haber supplied the laboratory process; Bosch led its industrialisation.
Heraeus synthetic fused silica for optical fibre
Large cylinders and tubes of ultrapure synthetic quartz glass that become the cladding of telecom fibre. Heraeus says it is the largest maker of synthetic fused silica for telecommunication fibres.
Merck liquid crystals (licristal)
Liquid crystal mixtures from Darmstadt that switch the pixels of LCD screens. Merck has sold liquid crystals since 1904 and said in 2015 it produced more than 60% of those sold worldwide.
SCHOTT CERAN glass-ceramic cooktop
The glass-ceramic cooktop panel SCHOTT launched in 1971, which can be heated to high temperatures without cracking and changed the look of kitchens worldwide.
Wacker hyperpure polysilicon
Semiconductor-grade silicon more than 99.9999999999% pure, made in Burghausen, Nünchritz and Charleston. Wacker says every second computer chip is made from its polysilicon.
fischer nylon expansion plug
The plastic wall plug Artur Fischer patented in 1958: a nylon dowel that expands as a screw is driven in, now a fixture in virtually every toolbox.
Product stories
The German inside: what Germany builds into your car, your flight and the data centre
Your car may be Japanese or Italian, your airliner Airbus or Boeing. Inside both, and in the data centres behind them, sit German gearboxes, seals, bearings, chips, turbines, landing gear and racks.
Germany's strangest world champions: the small firms that quietly own odd niches
Ship propellers from a lake town, Christmas stars from a church village, the trolley sketched on a flight home. A tour of German niche champions and the stories behind them.
Inside your smartphone: the German parts nobody sees
No phone sold today carries a German brand of note, yet German sensors, liquid crystals, glass and silicon sit inside a great many of them. A walk up the supply chain, from Reutlingen to Burghausen.
Mittelstand icons: Thermomix, Playmobil, HARIBO and Steiff, and what keeps them German
Four beloved consumer brands, four family-shaped histories. Their products are global, and some are now largely made abroad. So what is German about them? Ownership, headquarters and a habit of patience.
Medtech made in Germany: scanners, ventilators, prosthetics and the lab bench
From imaging in Erlangen to anaesthesia in Lübeck, prosthetics in Duderstadt and lab equipment in Hamburg and Göttingen, German firms supply much of modern medicine's hardware.
The energy transition's hardware: turbines, inverters and electrolysers made in Germany
Wind turbines from Aurich and Rostock, solar inverters from northern Hesse, electrolysers from Dresden and grid equipment from Siemens Energy. Who builds the physical kit of decarbonisation.
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