# Where is all the German stuff? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 13, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028 "2018-06-13T15:57:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/1 "2018-06-13T15:57:59Z")
So Trump has tangled with Germany over its huge trade surplus with the US. People could be excused from asking, “Huh?”. I don’t remember buying anything besides my BMWs, Mercedes, and Porches made in Germany. Even there, many “German” cars are made in the south of the US. Furthermore, I don’t see ANYTHING for sale anywhere. except maybe in the high end market. " So is Germans stuff mostly industrial stuff that we can’t see, or are there other factors. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/2 "2018-06-13T16:12:13Z")
Interesting question from you because we import a lot of German tools, including carbide tools. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/3 "2018-06-13T16:15:35Z")
Vehicles certainly seem to top the list of German exports: [https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/deu/](https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/deu/) Pharmaceuticals and chemicals are also important. There’s a big chunk of “Unspecified”, too, so best not ask too closely. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/4 "2018-06-13T16:18:45Z")
I found a [breakdown.](http://www.worldsrichestcountries.com/top_us_imports.html) Germany is a bit down the page to the right. It is $120 billion where vehiclaes, machinery and pharmaceuticals are the top 3. ETA: This is a top 10 list, so might be useful also. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/5 "2018-06-13T16:18:58Z")
This table is specific for exports from Germany to the US: [The Observatory of Economic Complexity | OEC - The Observatory of Economic Complexity](https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/deu/usa/show/2016/) 19% cars. 9% “packaged medicaments”. Then lots of other vehicles and vehicle parts, chemicals, metals and industrial machinery seem to make up the bulk of it. (I looked up the same table for the UK to USA and was pleased to see “hard liquor” figuring strongly. But not as high as "human or animal blood!) ---
**Author:** ![Delicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delicious)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/6 "2018-06-13T16:34:43Z")
My company is headquartered in Germany, we do lab equipment and molecular biology stuff, I think the US is our biggest market atm, might be China. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/7 "2018-06-13T16:35:18Z")
> [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](#): > > I don’t remember buying anything besides my BMWs, Mercedes, and Porches made in Germany. Don’t forget Volkswagen. It’s the ninth biggest automobile company in America, by sales. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/8 "2018-06-13T16:43:42Z")
Although the import value and the trade surplus might be a very large number, you need to compare it to the US economy, which is necessarily an even larger number. Only by looking at the comparative sizes can you judge whether or not you should be seeing more German cars. (I gave up looking for comparative numbers. For some reason the easily available statistics for the US is all about the number of vehicles, not their value, and I can’t be bothered putting a lot of work into this.) ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/9 "2018-06-13T17:25:05Z")
Don’t forget the number 1(2?) and 4? agricultural companies in the world are now German. Bayer (purchased Monsanto) and BASF. BASF is also the largest chemical company in the world by a fairly large margin. So Germany might not make a lot of the things, but they make a lot of the things better. And grow the things too! ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/10 "2018-06-13T19:15:27Z")
To a large extent its industrial machinery. You don’t get to see a lot of that as a consumer, but the trade is there. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/11 "2018-06-13T19:36:42Z")
Trump makes his [home furnishings](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-products/?noredirect=on) in Germany. > [@](#): > > **Furniture** > > Trump Home sells furniture to consumers made in Germany and Turkey, but his own hotels often get furniture from massive distributors such as the multinational IHS Global Alliance. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/12 "2018-06-13T19:39:42Z")
I seem to remember hearing about a company called **Bayer** , which holds patents on Aspirin, Heroin, green cloth dye, and a whole lot of other things. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/13 "2018-06-13T19:44:09Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > I seem to remember hearing about a company called **Bayer** , which holds patents on Aspirin, Heroin, green cloth dye, and a whole lot of other things. The patents on Aspirin and heroine have expired long ago. Bayer still holds, in many countries (though not in the U.S., where the term is in the public domain), a _trade mark_ on Aspirin, but the patent has expired pretty much everywhere. The stuff can freely be manufactured and sold, under a non-trademarked name, by anybody; the generic name is acetylsalicylic acid. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/14 "2018-06-13T19:47:22Z")
Yes, a lot of high quality industrial machinery is German. Just today I saw Pharma equipment by Bohle in transportation. Things like KUKA robotics are industry standard and names such as Krupp and Leibherr should be familiar (though I think that last one is German but Swiss-based now). ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/15 "2018-06-13T20:09:27Z")
My house is heated by a German-made Buderus furnace. > **[Bosch Thermotechnology Commercial & Industrial](https://www.bosch-thermotechnology.us/us/en/commercial/home/)** > > Complete solutions for steam, hot water, heating, decentralised energy supply, as well as air conditioning and ventilation. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/16 "2018-06-13T20:12:00Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > I seem to remember hearing about a company called **Bayer** , which holds patents on Aspirin, Heroin, green cloth dye, and a whole lot of other things. Not to mention that they just acquired Monsanto. And don’t forget BASF. Both former pieces of IG Farben, at one time the largest chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate in the world. Yes, a lot of German stuff IS “industrial stuff we don’t see.”. ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/17 "2018-06-13T20:20:11Z")
I believe I’ve heard for years German machine tools, precision instruments an optics are/were the industry standard in MANY industries. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/18 "2018-06-13T20:28:31Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > The patents on Aspirin and heroine have expired long ago. Bayer still holds, in many countries (though not in the U.S., where the term is in the public domain), a _trade mark_ on Aspirin, but the patent has expired pretty much everywhere. The stuff can freely be manufactured and sold, under a non-trademarked name, by anybody; the generic name is acetylsalicylic acid. Even if the patents were somehow magically still in force, the Allies confiscated all similar German IP after the wars. It is a really, really, really, dead issue for such old products. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/19 "2018-06-13T20:30:46Z")
Don’t forget,[a lot of stuff at Aldi](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20604580&postcount=15)! ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028/20 "2018-06-13T20:45:27Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Even if the patents were somehow magically still in force, the Allies confiscated all similar German IP after the wars. It is a really, really, really, dead issue for such old products. Bayer sold 1.3 billion Euros worth of aspirin last year. I wish my paycheck was that ‘dead’! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-the-german-stuff/816028.md?page=2)