Science and technology in Germany

Science and technology in Germany has a long and illustrious history, and research and development efforts form an integral part of the country's economy. Germany has been the home of some of the most prominent researchers in various scientific disciplines, notably physics, mathematics, chemistry and engineering.^[1] Before World War II, Germany had produced more Nobel laureates in scientific fields than any other nation, and was the preeminent country in the natural sciences.^[2]^[3] Germany is currently the nation with the 3rd most Nobel Prize winners, 115.

The German language, along with English and French, was one of the leading languages of science from the late 19th century until the end of World War II.^[4]^[5] After the war, because so many scientific researchers' and teachers' careers had been ended either by Nazi Germany which started a brain drain, the denazification process, the American Operation Paperclip and Soviet Operation Osoaviakhim which exacerbated the brain drain in post-war Germany, or simply losing the war, "Germany, German science, and German as the language of science had all lost their leading position in the scientific community."^[6]

Today, scientific research in the country is supported by industry, the network of German universities and scientific state-institutions such as the Max Planck Society and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The raw output of scientific research from Germany consistently ranks among the world's highest.^[7] Germany was declared the most innovative country in the world in the 2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index and was ranked 9th in the Global Innovation Index in 2024.^[8]

^ "Back to the Future: Germany – A Country of Research". German Academic Exchange Service. 23 February 2005. Retrieved 8 December 2006.
^ National Science Nobel Prize shares 1901–2009 by citizenship at the time of the award and by country of birth. From J. Schmidhuber (2010), Evolution of National Nobel Prize Shares in the 20th Century Archived 27 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine at arXiv:1009.2634v1
^ Swedish academy awards. ScienceNews web edition, Friday, 1 October 2010: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/63944/title/Swedish_academy_awards
^ "Nobel Prize: How English beat German as language of science". BBC News. 11 October 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
^ Garcia-Navarro, Lulu (8 January 2017). "How English Came To Be The Dominant Language In Science Publications". NPR. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
^ Hammerstein, Notker (2004). "Epilogue: Universities and War in the Twentieth Century". In Rüegg, Walter (ed.). A History of the University in Europe: Volume Three, Universities in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (1800–1945). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 637–672. ISBN 9781139453028. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
^ Top 20 Country Rankings in All Fields, 2006, Thomson Corporation, retrieved 4 January 2007.
^ World Intellectual Property Organization (2024). Global Innovation Index 2024. Unlocking the Promise of Social Entrepreneurship. Geneva. p. 18. doi:10.34667/tind.50062. ISBN 978-92-805-3681-2. Retrieved 22 October 2024.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[1] "Back to the Future: Germany – A Country of Research". German Academic Exchange Service. 23 February 2005. Retrieved 8 December 2006.

[2] National Science Nobel Prize shares 1901–2009 by citizenship at the time of the award and by country of birth. From J. Schmidhuber (2010), Evolution of National Nobel Prize Shares in the 20th Century Archived 27 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine at arXiv:1009.2634v1

[3] Swedish academy awards. ScienceNews web edition, Friday, 1 October 2010: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/63944/title/Swedish_academy_awards

[4] "Nobel Prize: How English beat German as language of science". BBC News. 11 October 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2024.

[5] Garcia-Navarro, Lulu (8 January 2017). "How English Came To Be The Dominant Language In Science Publications". NPR. Retrieved 25 November 2024.

[Hammerstein-6] Hammerstein, Notker (2004). "Epilogue: Universities and War in the Twentieth Century". In Rüegg, Walter (ed.). A History of the University in Europe: Volume Three, Universities in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (1800–1945). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 637–672. ISBN 9781139453028. Retrieved 20 September 2020.

[7] Top 20 Country Rankings in All Fields, 2006, Thomson Corporation, retrieved 4 January 2007.

[8] World Intellectual Property Organization (2024). Global Innovation Index 2024. Unlocking the Promise of Social Entrepreneurship. Geneva. p. 18. doi:10.34667/tind.50062. ISBN 978-92-805-3681-2. Retrieved 22 October 2024.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

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