Tuesday, May 13, 2025

The seven inventions for which we "owe" to the Nazis (Photo)

8 years ago

From Fanta to the first computer, from Volkswagen to synthetic fuel: some of the inventions born in Nazi Germany are still used today.

VOLKSWAGEN

After the devastating blow of the Depression of 1929, Hitler was determined to support the consumption of the middle class, and in particular to motorize even the poorest Germans. In 1937, the Führer commissioned the engineer Ferdinand Porsche to establish in Wolfsburg, the plant that would produce Volkswagen, "the people's cars". From 1938 until the end of the war, the production of vehicles was converted from civilian to military, to resume immediately after the end of the conflict with the production of the famous car.

FANTA

When, in 1940, Coca-Cola was banned by the Reich due to the cessation of trade exchanges with the USA, the German head of the American agency decided to find a "German" alternative to the most famous carbonated drink in the world. The solution? A drink based on milk and apple marmalade, ingredients that were easily found in Germany. It took a very intense brainstorming session to find a suitable name for the invention, but with the strong desire to find fantasy, it happened that the drink was also baptized "Fanta".

To achieve the citrus flavor we know, we had to wait until 1955. In that year, in the Fanta factory in Naples, it is said that a certain Matarazzo added orange to the original recipe. It is therefore an invention of Nazi Germany, not exactly of the Nazis.

Z1, THE FIRST COMPUTER

In 1937, engineer Konrad Zuse designed and built (in his parents' home) the first electronic calculator, a forerunner of modern computers. Powered by electromechanical power and a binary-coded number calculation unit, Zuse's programmable machine was able to solve long mathematical operations in a short time, taking only one second for one calculation cycle. Z1 performed subtraction, addition, division, and multiplication according to instructions transmitted through a file system. Konrad Zuse was never part of the Nazi party.

ROCKETS TO GO TO THE MOON

Engineer Werner von Braun was one of the most brilliant minds of the Third Reich, and not only. His studies and inventions in the combat field, especially that of V-2 ballistic missiles, also served NASA very well, which used them to develop the first rockets for space exploration. At the end of the conflict, von Braun went to work for the US space agency and led the design of the Saturn V, the multi-stage rocket and the largest ever built. The Saturn V was used in the Apollo and Skylab space programs.

PETROL TANK

During the war, it was a great need to store fuel for the German army. Thus, in 1936, the Eisenverke Mueller & Co company set to work to design and manufacture special 20-liter canisters, intended to store the gasoline needed for aviation and other Nazi vehicles. As requested by Hitler, in July 1937 mass production of these steel resistance tanks, which are still in use today, began.

SYNTHETIC FUELS

Following difficulties in securing fuel due to the trade embargo, Germany began to produce synthetic oil in large quantities. Indeed, the process of converting carbon into fuel was patented as early as 1913 by its inventor, the German Frederik Bergius. But it was in the years after the second war that this discovery was really exploited and perfected: the Bergius process was actually used by Nazi Germany to produce large quantities of the main petroleum derivatives, or gasoline and oil, that were used to supplied the means of the army.

JET AIRCRAFT

The first patent for such an aircraft was obtained in 1929 by the designer, Englishman Frank Whittle, but he could not find any industry willing to realize it. So the first aircraft that entered service was 15 years later, the "Messerschmitt Me.163B Komet". The aircraft was the result of the work of Alexander Lippisch, an expert in non-motorized aircraft, and Helmuth Valter, the inventor of the first liquid-fueled engine. It could climb up to 10 meters in 150 seconds and reach 900 km/h, but its autonomy at full power was only ten minutes. The first meeting with the Allied bombers took place on July 28, 1944, and the Komet was extraordinary: the B-17 armament personnel needed time to rotate the "turret". /Bota.al/

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10 Products Created By Nazi Germany That Are Still Used Today

The Volkswagen Beetle was commissioned by Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.
The first functional helicopter was developed in Nazi Germany in 1937.
Jägermeister was developed in Germany in 1933 by Curt and Wilhelm Mast, sons of the German vinegar manufacturer Wilhelm Mast.

While innovation in Nazi Germany is often associated with its weapons of mass destruction, there are also a number of surprising products people take for granted on a daily basis that can trace their origins to Nazi Germany. The Volkswagen Beetle is a prime example. An iconic car on the road today, few would look at it and think of the car's association with Adolf Hitler. While some of these products were created in response to military needs, others were developed for widespread use. Nazi German was responsible for the creation of a number of products that reached international markets in the wake of World War II and still persist today.

10. Volkswagen Beetle

The Beetle was designed by automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche. Image credit: wikimedia.org

An iconic vehicle today, the Volkswagen Beetle was commissioned by Hitler in the 1930s as the “peoples car”, designed as a practical, affordable car for German families.

The Beetle was designed by the Austrian-German automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche, a member of the Nazi Party. First manufactured in 1938, the Beetle was discontinued in the 1970s, only to be revived in 1998. Due to declining sales, Volkswagen announced that it would discontinue production of the Beetle in 2019.

9. Anechoic Tile

Anechoic tiles were designed by Nazi Germany’s Navy. Image credit: reddit

Used on the outer hulls of military ships and submarines, anechoic tiles are rubber or synthetic polymer tiles designed to absorb and distort sonar sound waves and dampen noise to avoid detection.

Anechoic tiles were designed by Nazi Germany’s Navy in World War II, and first applied on a German U-boat in 1940. Today use of anechoic tiles on military submarines is common, though there are problems with the tiles falling off of vessels.

8. Anti-ship Missile

The effectiveness of anti-ship missiles against Allied vessels in 1943-1944 prompted other countries to develop their own.Image credit: www.savetheroyalnavy.org

First developed in Nazi Germany during World War II, the effectiveness of anti-ship missiles against Allied vessels in 1943-1944 prompted other countries to develop their own. They have been used in active combat by Soviet Russia, India, Israel, Argentina, Iraq, Iran, the United States, and Lebanon. Many other countries have tested their own missiles.

Anti-ship missiles have been refined over the years. While the original German design was radio-guided, subsequent missiles used various guidance systems including manual guidance, radar, infrared, laser, GPS, video, imaging IR, terrain referenced imaging, and automatic target recognition. In March 2020, Russia tested its hypersonic anti-ship missile.

7. Acoustic Torpedo

Acoustic torpedoes are still in use today as anti-submarine weapons. Image credit: YouTube

The first acoustic torpedoes were developed for Nazi Germany’s navy in 1943, at the same time at the United States Navy was developing its own torpedoes, and used extensively for the remainder of World War II as a weapon against naval ships and submarines. Acoustic torpedoes, modified from their original German and American designs over the years, are still in use today as anti-submarine weapons.

6. Helicopter

The Focke-Achgelis was the world’s first practical helicopter. Image credit: YouTube

The invention of the helicopter cannot wholly be credited to Nazi Germany, as the development of the Focke-Achgelis FA-61 in 1937 followed on decades of theory and experimentation in helicopter design. As far back as 1480, Leonardo da Vinci was drawing sketches of flying devices powered by a spiral rotor. Nevertheless, the Focke-Achgelis was the world’s first practical helicopter, and it naturally influenced the design of helicopters to come.

5. Jerrycan

The British learned of the jerrycan in 1940 and worked to duplicate the design. Image credit: hiconsumption.com

Many would not give a thought to the origins of a regular, unassuming object like the jerrycan, a steel container used today both for military purposes and in every-day life to hold liquids such as fuel and water.

The jerrycan (Wehrmacht-kanister) was developed by the German engineer firm Müller in 1937 commissioned by Hitler to meet the need for efficient fuel distribution systems for the military. Though the jerrycan was developed in secrecy, the design fell into American hands in 1939. American attempts to redesign it were unsuccessful, but the British learned of the jerrycan in 1940 and worked to duplicate the design, and began mass production in 1944.

4. Sarin

Even Hitler was hesitant to use the deadly nerve agent sarin, developed by Nazi scientists while they were actually searching for a cheaper pesticide to use against weevils. Nazi Germany produced 12,000 tons by 1945. Despite pressure from his advisers, Hitler never used the compound as a chemical weapon in World War II. But the compound persisted, and in the following decades others used sarin to deadly effect.

Sarin was later labeled as a weapon of mass destruction, and the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 outlawed the compound. Nevertheless, there have been several instances of the use of sarin since. In 2017 the Syrian Air Force released sarin gas in against a rebel town in the Idlib Province of Syria.

3. Methadone

Today methadone, an opioid drug, is used as a pain-reliever and as a treatment for addiction to other opioids. The drug was developed in Germany in 1939 as a product of the search for a solution to Germany’s opium shortage. Following the War, the Allies confiscated the German research on this drug, and the drug was introduced in the United States in 1947.

2. Fanta

Fanta was developed in Germany during the Second War as a result of the American trade embargo. Image credit: Iamgoingvegan.com

Though not strictly speaking a Nazi invention, Fanta was developed in Germany during the Second War as a result of the American trade embargo in 1941 that blocked access to necessary ingredients for Coca-Cola. In order to maintain the business in, the German branch of the American Coca-Cola company concocted a new recipe based on the availability of wartime rations. The name Fanta comes from the German word fantasie, meaning imagination or fantasy.

Fanta was a wartime hit in Germany, and though discontinued at the end of War, when it was reintroduced in 1955 it soon spread to markets around the world. Today Fanta can be found in a large variety of flavors, and is sold in many countries worldwide.

1. Jägermeister

Jägermeister was developed in Germany in 1933. Image credit: vinepair.com

A popular alcoholic beverage today, Jägermeister was developed in Germany in 1933 by Curt and Wilhelm Mast, sons of the German vinegar manufacturer Wilhelm Mast. While the drink was marketed in Germany as an “after-dinner digestive aid,” in the 1970s and 80s American Sidney Frank promoted Jägermeister as a party drink for students and youths and sparked its international popularity.