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From automobile nation to high-tech centre
Around 10% of all the Nobel Prizes ever awarded went to German scientists. In the past 15 years, the work of eight German researchers has been acknowledged in the form of a Nobel Prize. This places German third, behind the United States and Britain. A total of 27 German researchers have received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 22 in Physics, and 15 in Medicine respectively Physiology.

Germany enjoys a tradition of outstanding research and development. These roots begin with Johannes Gutenberg's book printing via Carl Friedrich Benz's automobile and Einstein's Theory of Relativity through to Karlheinz Brandenburg's MP3 format. Moreover, the invention of the refrigerator, the neon lamp, the tram, the glider or the smartcard all go back to the work of German scientists.

Innovative force and strong trade marks
The inventions, knowledge and understanding produced by German scientists represent milestones in science and research and form a basis for modern technologies:

• The discovery of x-rays paved the way for the use of computed tomography in medical diagnostics,
• the Braun Tube created the basis for the development of the television,
• the first programmable calculator – Z3 – was the forerunner to the present-day computer, and
• the Haber-Bosch process is still considered today to be the most important and most economical way of producing ammonia. 90% of all fertilisers are made from ammonia.

So, science and research and business and industry go hand-in-hand, and German companies successfully market numerous research findings by German scientists as innovative products. World famous examples include products like Ferrari red, Aspirin, Adidas trainers, polymethyl methacrylate (perhaps better known as Plexiglas, Perspex or Lucite), spark plugs, electric motors and the German car engine. GMR read heads for computer hard disks, liquid crystals for use in LCD technology, dirt-repelling paints with Lotus Effect, MP3 format and language recognition are all products with innovation.

Further information on German inventors and inventions is provided by the German Patent and Trade Mark Office.

• Inventors Gallery of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office