German Inventions

Based on the clues, name these German inventions and discoveries.

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Last updated: January 22, 2017

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First submitted	May 10, 2014
Times taken	29,169
Average score	55.0%
Rating	3.78

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Clue	Answer
Karl Benz's invention	Automobile
Workers of the world, unite!	Communism
Closest relatives of Homo sapiens	Neanderthals
Addictive derivative of coca leaves	Cocaine
Place to grow bacteria	Petri Dish
Place to store your 5 year old	Kindergarten
Branch of mathematics simultaneously invented by Newton and Leibniz	Calculus
Addictive pain relief medication	Morphine
The furthest planet in the solar system	Neptune
Polka instrument with bellows	Accordion

Clue	Answer
Way to see inside the body	X-Ray
Tannenbaum	Christmas Tree
Springtime holiday mascot	Easter Bunny
Fahrenheit's invention	Thermometer
Rigid dirigible	Zeppelin
Pain reliever synthesized by Bayer	Aspirin
Ursine candy	Gummy Bear
Hovering aircraft	Helicopter
Magnetic way to record sound	Tape Recorder
Einstein's theory of space-time	Relativity

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89 Comments

Level 78

May 12, 2014

How about Cassette Player for Tape Recorder? Or was the German invention the device that you put on a table to record conversations in boardrooms or prison interrogations? If that is the case, the clue is really misleading since CDs were never really used for that purpose.

Level ∞

May 12, 2014

Germans didn't invent cassette tapes, just magnetic tape as a way to record sound. I fixed the clue .

Level 83

Jul 16, 2014

I eventually got it, but "audio tape" seems like a reasonable answer to accept.

Level 69

Jul 20, 2019

I’m with the lemur on this one: I immediately put “audiotape”. When they invented the tape recorder, they would have had to have simultaneously invent audiotape too, or it would have been a pretty useless invention, no? On the other hand, I immediately and logically was about to try “tape recording”, and then was surprised when it just took “tape”…🤷🏻‍♀️

Level ∞

Feb 24, 2020

Audio tape will work now.

Level 41

Apr 23, 2020

Wouldn't it have been the other way around, someone first found a way to record sound onto tape and then a way to play it back? Or you'd have to be working on both simultaneously.

+14

Level 31

May 20, 2014

Can you accept Oven/ Cupboard/ Closet etc. for 5 year old? I was trying different answers for ages..

Level 57

Jun 3, 2014

Kindergarten is more school than a place to "store" a 5 year old. A daycare is a place to store a 5 year old. I think Kindergarten is an educational requirement. A daycare is more where you drop them off and someone takes care of them, which is more in line with the word "store". Maybe reword the clue to "A school for 5 year olds" or something.

Level 48

Jun 5, 2014

Do not store living things anywhere if you do so they tend to becom non-living, especially if you forget to make airholes.

Level 50

Jul 14, 2014

It's a joke! Geez!

Level 66

Jun 9, 2015

Yeah, really.

Level 85

May 1, 2017

So a non-helpful, somewhat misleading clue is okay as long as it's intention was to get yucks?

Level 65

Apr 24, 2020

It may be a joke, but the clue is kind of useless. The clue should mention something about education.

Level 77

Sep 3, 2020

The current 71% on the answer says the majority of quizzers got it, which means the clue serves it purpose. Some people these days are so literal minded. -__-

Level 80

Aug 10, 2019

In Germany, a Kindergarten actually is "where you drop them off and someone takes care of them," and it's for ages 3 through 5, sometimes 6. Some education is often involved (not always), but no actual schooling. It's not the Germans' fault that the Americans use the word slightly differently.

Level 61

Apr 22, 2020

Are you free on Friday? I'm having a party but I'm afraid it might be boring.

Level 85

Jun 3, 2014

Was the helicopter not invented by Igor Sikorsky, a Russian?

Level 61

May 19, 2017

It WAS invented by Igor Sikorsky, a Russian, in America. No idea how Germany factors into this at all...

Level 48

Jun 16, 2018

Nope it WASNT invented by him. Helicopter existed long before WW2.There had been helicopters in the 19th century but they couldnt fly for a long time. The first helicopters to see the production line were the fa223 and the fl 282 and later the sirkorsky r-4

Level ∞

Feb 24, 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_61

The Focke-Wulf Fw 61 is often considered the first practical, functional helicopter, first flown in 1936.

Guys, this isn't hard to look up.

Level 80

Jun 3, 2014

It's spelled Tannenbaum - which, strictly speaking, means fir tree. Christmas tree would be Weihnachtsbaum! And it may be wrong to say the Christmas tree was invented by Germans. More likely, it was invented IN Germany by foreign monks who used the pagan tree of life symbolically to help make conversion to Christianity more palatable to the heathens ;-)

Level ∞

Jun 3, 2014

Fixed the spelling

Level 75

Apr 23, 2020

I prefer Christbaum, but that's Bavarian German

Level 68

Jun 3, 2014

Isn't Uranus the furthest planet?

Level 68

Jun 3, 2014

Um, no.

Level 69

Jun 3, 2014

It's the closest black hole though.

Level 66

Oct 28, 2014

No, but Pluto is.

Level 80

Apr 23, 2020

Not anymore.

Level 55

Jun 5, 2014

I'm not American or German, consequently "Tannenbaum" as a clue meant absolutely nothing to me. You might want to put a more generally meaningful clue for that one.

Level 70

Aug 8, 2018

I am American and had no clue what a Tannenbaum is. All I could think of was Wes Anderson and red track suits. Sometimes you just don't know stuff.

Level 70

Apr 22, 2020

If we all knew everything there would be no Jetpunk and no learning ... good isn't it.

Level 65

Jun 11, 2014

Shouldn't the clue read "Device which records sound magenitcally," or something similar? The clue as it reads now suggests a method, not a device.

Level 25

Jun 13, 2014

I have discovered that I can't spell anything

Level 58

May 2, 2017

You seemed to do alright in that sentence...! ;-)

Level 48

Oct 7, 2018

it's easy....A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G......

Level 67

Jun 24, 2015

I tried theory of relativity and it didn't work. Just to let you know.

Level 74

Nov 19, 2015

The Easter Bunny isn't associated with spring where I come from

Level 87

May 1, 2017

The clue just says that Easter is a "springtime holiday", which it is...

Level 65

May 1, 2017

Unless you're from Australia, or New Zealand, or anywhere south of the equator, in which case it really is not.

Level 87

May 1, 2017

Well, Christianity is a mediterranean thing. Nobody knew about Australia or even the southern hemisphere when Easter was created.

Level 70

Aug 8, 2018

Australia and New Zealand may have been terra incognita to Europeans in the 4th century but the Earth being spherical in shape was known centuries before that.

Level 76

May 1, 2017

Röntgen Rays, please.

Level 58

May 2, 2017

That's not what they're called in English - hardly anyone would have a clue what you were referring to if you did call them that.

Level 72

Sep 6, 2019

I cant be bothered to look it up, but i have a suspicion that in non english speaking countries (or countries that have a strong english connection like india) more people would have something similar to röntgen than x-rays

ok i actually did go and look it up now. Of all the european languages, only 5 other languages use x-ray to describe the radiation type. So you are definitely wrong.

btw the english wiki article say x-rays, or röntgen rays. So not only would many people from other countries get what you mean, it is actually correct in english aswell.

Level ∞

Feb 24, 2020

Röntgen will work now.

Level 68

May 1, 2017

Better clue for kindergarten would be appreciated; it's distinguished from creches and other settings because of its educational nature.

Also for Christmas Tree; why use a limited cultural reference (I think that's what it is?) that doesn't even actually refer to Christmas trees?

Perhaps something else could be found for Easter Bunny; "springtime" doesn't do that great for anyone at the poles, at the equator or in the southern hemisphere without some mental calculation.

"Ursine" for gummy bear also seems rather contrived, given the difficulty is in the description rather than in the answer, which doesn't seem the point.

Level 74

May 1, 2017

Accept different spellings of the drug names, like Morfin and Asprin?

Level 87

May 1, 2017

Maybe you can accept "Easter rabbit"?

Level 65

Jun 16, 2018

Yes please

Level 90

May 1, 2017

I kept trying things like honey for 'ursine candy'. My brain was thinking candy FOR a bear, not candy shaped like a bear!

Level 60

May 1, 2017

The Germans just narrowly missed out on inventing leprechauns or St Patrick.

Level 76

May 1, 2017

Printing Press? It is THE most important German invention in my opinion

Level 85

May 1, 2017

(Being picky) I understand that only Neanderthals were discovered in Germany, but the modern consensus is that Denisovans are as closely related to modern humans as they are (believed to be sister species). However, the clue implies that Neanderthals are out closest relatives in their own right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denisovan

Level 75

May 1, 2017

Back in my day, we had NINE planets....

Level 70

Apr 22, 2020

You win some...... you lose some!

Level 55

May 3, 2017

Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was born in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and spent most of his life in the Dutch Republic.

Classifying his inventions as "German" is ridiculous.

Level 73

Apr 22, 2020

He was born in Danzig(Gdansk), a city belonging to Poland-Lithuania but like most inhabitants of the city at the time his parents were ethnic germans. So it is certainly debatable wether he is German or Dutch or even Polish, but to call it "ridiculous" is ridiculous.

Level 79

Apr 22, 2020

Straight from the Wikipedia article on Fahrenheit. "The Fahrenheits were a German Hanse merchant family...Fahrenheit's great-grandfather had lived in Rostock, and research suggests that the Fahrenheit family originated in Hildesheim." He is also listed on the 'List of German Inventors and Discoverers' Wikipedia page.

Level 57

Apr 23, 2020

I would never trust Wikipedia for something like that! Lots of people want to claim famous inventors as their own, how ever thin the evidence

Level 55

May 3, 2017

Printing Press?

Level 38

Jun 4, 2017

Could you add more spellings of Zeppelin? I spelled it "zepplin" and got it wrong.

Level 54

Jun 16, 2018

That's the correct way to spell it.

Level 82

Aug 1, 2017

Heroin is a better answer for the Bayer question than aspirin, might want to make it more specific.

Level 80

Apr 24, 2020

It also works for the addictive pain relief medication

Level 54

Jun 16, 2018

What about Easter rabbit? Isn't it the same?

Level 71

Jun 16, 2018

Place to store your 5 year old: CLOSET

Level 75

Apr 22, 2020

Fridge

Level 87

Jun 28, 2018

The exclusion of the printing press is a bit odd. To quote Wiki, "the invention and global spread of the printing press was one of the most influential events in the second millennium." Maybe QM didn't include it because movable-type printing was invented in China centuries earlier?

Level 34

Oct 6, 2018

A large number of these were not invented in Germany or by Germans, while some of the answers are not even "inventions" or "discoveries." It was still easy to get 100% on the first try.

Level 55

Aug 4, 2019

Please accept "neaderthal" for "neaderthals"!

Level 70

Apr 22, 2020

It's neither.......... Neanderthals

Level 25

Oct 28, 2019

You forgot:

the printing press

the globe

binary

the computer

rockets

heredity

radio waves

geiger counter

wireless remote control

mp3-Format

airbag

chipcard

c-leg

screw-anchor

lightbulb

camera

periodic system

telefone

t-bag

and many more....

i feel so patriotic now

Level 75

Apr 22, 2020

I think those are some good suggestions, which might be good substitutes for the drugs.

Level 80

Apr 22, 2020

This quiz isn't exhaustive (which you know).

Level 75

Apr 22, 2020

Chinese

Level 75

Apr 22, 2020

I think it's a bad reflection on Germany to put two addictive hard drugs on this quiz. Furthermore, I find it grotesque to say that children are stored somewhere.

Level 80

Apr 22, 2020

Not at all.

Level 75

Apr 23, 2020

Are you saying that storing a person is a thought, that does not nauseate you? If you are only talking about the drug comment, I have sort of changed my mind, since it is simply a question of preference which things you add in a quiz like this. I would change the "store" hint to "a place where toddlers are taken care of".

Level 80

Apr 26, 2020

In my opinion I find the 'stored' verb quite amusing, but not necessarily grotesque. I still immediately thought of Kindergarten as it is a German loan word (and I am currently studying German).

Level 75

Apr 22, 2020

Lighten up!

Level 75

Apr 23, 2020

I went to Kindergarten, and I don't want three years of my life to fall under the category "stored somewhere".

Level 80

Apr 22, 2020

Could 'airship' be accepted for Zeppelin?

Level 75

Apr 22, 2020

Neanderthals and Neptune were German inventions?! :p Nice quiz, I like finding out that I know more about a country than I thought :) One thing, I've often heard Gummy Bears being referred ot as simply "Haribo", I know it's the name of the company, but even so, if that's the sort of thing you accept then go for it.

Level 80

Apr 22, 2020

Reed ze deskription.

Level 80

Apr 22, 2020

The people who "invented" the christmas tree were in what is now the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia, not Germany. German people then adopted it and popularised its use throughout Protestant northern Europe, but they didn't invent it.

Level 74

Apr 22, 2020

Yup, don't associate Easter Bunny with Springtime at all as a Southern Hemispherean.

Level 58

Apr 23, 2020

Temperature gauge for Thermometer?

Level 21

Apr 23, 2020

How about the first Computer?

Level 80

Dec 15, 2022

5/5 for the quiz. 2/5 for the title.

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