Those inventive Germans

last updated 8 January 2015

Berlin

A public-relations firm hired by the German government put out a book this week crediting many of the world’s great inventions to Germans. The book, whose title translates to “German Stars: 50 Innovations Everyone Should Know About,” claims that Heinrich Göbel, not Thomas Edison, invented the light bulb and that Otto von Guericke, not the Italian Evangelista Torricelli, invented the vacuum. The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel mocked the book, saying that Americans “would be surprised to learn” that Alexander Graham Bell was not responsible for the telephone, nor Levi Strauss for blue jeans. But the authors defended their work. “It’s fair to say many German figures have made significant contributions to innovations,” Lars Heitmüller of PR agency Fischer Appelt told the London Independent, “even if they don’t hold the patent.”