In 1876 the engineer Franz Reuleaux chaired the German panel of judges at the world’s fair in Philadelphia. In his Briefe aus Philadelphia, letters from Philadelphia, he found that German industry stood out for billige und schlechte Exponate, cheap and poor exhibits. His verdict caused a public controversy in Germany.
engineering
One Square Meter, Halved
German office paper follows a standard set in 1922. Walter Porstmann proposed it, and the standards committee founded in 1917 adopted it. Size A0 is exactly one square meter. The sides stand in the ratio of 1 to the square root of 2. Every smaller size comes from halving the one before, so a sheet of A4 is one sixteenth of a square meter. In everyday German, DIN A4 simply means an ordinary sheet of paper. The German standard later became the basis of the international standard ISO 216.
The Specialist Site Manager
On a German building site, the Bauleiter, the site manager, must make sure that the work meets the requirements of public law. The building code of North Rhine-Westphalia adds a rule for the limits of his knowledge. If he lacks the necessary expertise and experience in particular areas, suitable specialist site managers must be brought in. These Fachbauleiter then take his place for those areas.
The First Phase of Design
In 1977 Gerhard Pahl and Wolfgang Beitz published Konstruktionslehre, a handbook of engineering design. Through many new editions it is still a standard work, and it has been translated into seven languages. Its method begins with Klären der Aufgabenstellung, clarifying the task. The result of this phase is a written requirements list, the Anforderungsliste. The phases of concept, layout and detailed design come after it. The engineering guideline VDI 2221 also begins with clarifying the task. In its 1993 edition, this is the step in which the requirements for the product are defined.
After the Ice Rink Roof Fell
On 2 January 2006 the roof of the ice rink in Bad Reichenhall collapsed. Fifteen people died, twelve of them children and young people. In September 2006 the conference of state building ministers adopted guidance on checking the structural safety of buildings. The engineering guideline VDI 6200 grew out of it and appeared in February 2010. It covers buildings of all kinds except transport structures. It requires operators to keep a building logbook, and certified experts must carry out the inspections. Each building is placed in a class according to the consequences its failure would have.
The Bridge at Rahmede
The main inspections of the Rahmede valley bridge on the A45 motorway gave it the condition grade 3.0 in 2011, and again in 2017. On 2 December 2021 the bridge was closed for good because of irreparable damage to its structure. It was blown up on 7 May 2023. The state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia set up a committee of inquiry into the backlog of bridge repairs. The new bridge opened on 22 December 2025, earlier than planned. At the opening, Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder said: “Rahmede-Tempo wird Alltagstempo in Deutschland sein.” Rahmede speed will be everyday speed in Germany.
The Software That Recognized the Test
On 18 September 2015 it became public that Volkswagen diesel engines of the EA189 series contained software that recognized emissions tests. In normal driving, a large part of the exhaust cleaning system was largely switched off. About eleven million vehicles worldwide were affected. Chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned on 23 September 2015. In 2017 Volkswagen paid 2.8 billion US dollars in a criminal settlement in the United States. Winterkorn’s trial began in September 2024.
All Eighteen Failed
The Puma is the German army’s new infantry fighting vehicle. It is considered highly modern, but its introduction suffered long delays and large cost increases. On 15 December 2022 an armored infantry brigade reported grave defects in all 18 Pumas used in a two-week exercise. All 18 had broken down after at most eight days. Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht then stopped the purchase of further Pumas. According to later reports, most of the problems came from a lack of trained personnel, spare parts and special tools. Only a cable fire in one vehicle counted as a serious fault. By early January 2023, 17 of the 18 vehicles had been repaired. On 5 May 2023 an order for 50 more Pumas was announced.
The Train That Only Ran in Shanghai
The Transrapid maglev train was developed in Germany. Its only line in regular service opened at the end of 2002 in Shanghai. In Germany, three planned lines were abandoned after years of planning. In September 2006 a Transrapid on the test track in Emsland ran into a maintenance vehicle, and 23 people died. The cause was found to be human error. On 27 March 2008 the federal transport minister, Wolfgang Tiefensee, and the Bavarian premier, Günther Beckstein, ended the planned line to Munich airport. Its estimated cost had risen from 1.85 to 3.4 billion euros. Beckstein said: Damit hat sich das Thema leider erledigt. (With that, the matter is unfortunately closed.) The test track in Emsland was shut down at the end of 2011.
So That the Market Accepts the Standard
The German standards institute DIN explains why it works by consensus: Damit der Markt die Normen akzeptiert, sind eine breite Beteiligung, Transparenz und Konsens Grundprinzipien bei DIN. (So that the market accepts standards, broad participation, transparency and consensus are basic principles at DIN.) All groups with an interest in a topic can take part. Before a standard is adopted, the draft is published, and the professional public can comment on it through an online portal. All participants then revise the draft on the basis of the comments. Applying a DIN standard is in principle voluntary. It becomes binding only when a contract or a law requires it.