91 Genial Facts About Germany Few Enthusiasts Know About

In the 13th century, in order to discover which language humans would speak naturally, Frederick II, emperor of Germany, placed 50 newborns in the care of nurses who would only feed and bathe the babies but not speak or hold them. The emperor never got an answer because all of the infants died.

52. Before the FIFA World Cup 2014 Semi-Final Match in which they lost 7-1 from Germany, Brazil hadn’t lost a single match at a home stadium in competitive matches since 1975.

53. Between 73% and 100% of all individuals with schizophrenia living in Germany between 1939 and 1945 were sterilized or killed. Today Germany does not show deviation from first world levels of schizophrenia.

54. Andorra declared war on Germany during WW1 but didn’t send any soldiers because they didn’t have an army. At the Treaty of Versailles, Andorra was forgotten and technically remained at war with Germany, until the two countries declared peace in 1958.

55. Germany has 15 skyscrapers, 14 of which are located in Frankfurt.

During WW1, Britain ran out of binoculars, so they turned to the leading manufacturer of optics to buy them: Germany. In turn, Germany bought from Britain what they most needed: rubber.

57. A 14 karat gold LEGO brick was given out in the early 1980s to employees who had worked at the Germany LEGO factory for over twenty-five years. They are valued at nearly $15,000.

58. In 1888, Friedrich Engels wrote that Germany’s next war will be a world war, “eight to ten million soldiers will massacre one another” and “the devastations of the Thirty Years’ War” will be “compressed into three or four years, and spread over the whole Continent.”

59. When the Romans returned from France and Germany with blonde slaves, some Roman women tried copying their look by dying their hair blond, only for it to fall out. Instead, the women cut off the slave’s hair to use them as wigs.

60. In Cologne, Germany it is common to donate your used Christmas trees to the local zoo. An elephant can eat up to 3 of these trees a day and can also use them to clean their teeth.

In 1921, workers at an ammonium nitrate factory in Germany tried clearing a clogged silo with dynamite. The resulting explosion killed 500 people and left 6500 homeless.

62. Pumpernickel means “devil's fart.” Originating in Germany, the bread was called that due to the digestive problems that many people experience from eating it.

63. Americans spend more money on pets yearly than Germany spends on its entire defense budget.

64. Hebrew essentially died between 200 and 400 CE, and was revived in 19th century Germany, now having about 9 million speakers.

65. Some Syrian rebels are now using the Sturmgwehr 44, an assault rifle produced in Nazi Germany in late WW2 and which can be worth up to $30,000 in the USA.

Africans in Nazi Germany had a better chance of surviving than Germans since they were excluded from the military due to their non-Aryan status but also were not segregated/incarcerated.

67. 3 men whom broke into a luxury store in Germany and ran off with $6.8M worth of jewelry. They left behind a piece of evidence, sweat. DNA analysis led to not one but two suspects- identical twins. They couldn't determine from which one. They went free.

68. In 2010, a Polish man living in Germany asked doctors to remove what he thought was a several-year-old cyst at the back of his head. However, doctors found that the “cyst” was actually a .22-caliber round lodged in his scalp. He didn’t notice it because he was drunk

69. There are hundreds of thousands of unexploded Allied bombs in Germany. An average of 15 bombs is discovered daily.

70. In 1981, a tenant was evicted in Germany after spreading Surströmming (fermented Baltic Sea herring) brine in the stairway. The landlord was taken to court, where he brought a can of Surströmming as evidence. After being opened, the court unanimously ruled in his favor because of the smell.

In Germany (and other parts of Europe) there are brass plaques set on the sidewalks in front of the former homes of people who fell victim to German Nazism.

72. Albert Einstein was among 5,000 plus individuals who signed a petition to overturn Germany’s ban on Homosexuality.

73. During World War II, USA sent former major league baseball catcher and OSS agent Moe Berg to attend a lecture from Dr. Heisenberg. Berg was armed with a pistol and had orders to shoot Dr. Heisenberg if his lecture indicated that Germany was close to completing an atomic bomb.

74. In the 1960s, Germany decided to retroactively pay pensions to African soldiers that served in the imperial colonial army. Claimants were handed a broom and ordered in German to perform the manual of arms. Not one of them failed the test.

75. The streets in Northeast Minneapolis were named after the U.S. presidents in order of their election to help new residents from Poland, Ukraine, Lebanon, and Germany prepare for citizenship exams.