Well, as for washing machines: All the washing machines I used while living in the US were top-loaders, and I tried using their 30-minute programs to get my clothes clean, but that wouldn't work, so I tried the longer programs, and I still didn't get my clothes all that clean (They were ok, but coffee-stains or something I just couldn't get completely out, no matter what I did), whereas the first wash in a German washing machine took care of those old stains once and for all when I was back in Germany. That was a German brand machine, front loader, and yes, I admit, it was the long program that takes an hour. However, German machines are engineered to use less water and little energy. And they generally are front loaders. I like to wash with German brand machines better than with the American brands. I love American brand dryers, though. I don't know if it's true, or if I was just always standing by to wait for the dryer to be done over in the US, whereas here I sometimes miss the end and than of course my clothes are not all fluffy and warm and ready to fold without being ironed. Though right now I can use a commercial style dryer, and it comes scary close to the results I am used to get from American brand dryers.
But, on the contrary to what you say, I think American brands are not all that good, sorry. Take kitchen aids, for instance. The households in which I lived in the US had one kitchen aid for every task in the kitchen (one for stirring, one for mixing, one for grinding...), which all had low power (~300W) and a design from the 50s, whereas German brands such as Bosch offer combination machines that are able to perform all those tasks, have a motor with more power (~800W), and come at a price equal to the famous "KitchenAid" stirrer. My immersion blender (which is something I have never seen in the States, by the way, though I never actually looked for one over there, either, knowing I would move back to Germany) alone has 500W! Does the blending job in whatever bowl or pot the stuff I want blended is in without me having to worry about volume and how to get the stuff I want blended into the blender (in case one has to use one of the table top blenders that are the only ones I have seen in the US) and the blended stuff out, and having to wash two things (blender and original bowl, if the volume you wanted to blend was bigger than what your table top blender would hold)...
As for other products: What about Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, VW? They don't seem to be that substandard that Americans don't want to by them! Eppendorf, a maker of pipettes, is German, and everyone I know working in labs is either a fan of the Eppendorfs, or of their French concurrent, but even in the US, I've seen people in labs fight about whose Eppendorfs the pipettes were, whereas the pipettes from the American company were mainly ignored.
What about Aspirin? That's a German product, too, and it seems to help a lot of people. Just as a lot of other medication from the Bayer company, which is German. Just as BASF, which produces chemicals, fertilizers, plastics, paper additives... Or what about Merck? (ha! Even the spell check on the American yahoo page knows how to correctly spell that company!) Also a German company whose products can be found everywhere around the world.
All in all, though I am German and might be biased, I don't think Germany can't have been the worlds top export country for a couple of years in a row for nothing, can it?
So, since you have lived all over the world... Ever checked the labels?
EDIT: I'm sorry, but what? Siemens is a German company, and while the production sites are in Japan, the engineering is done in Germany. German schooled Engineers are among the best. And you said: PRODUCTS in your question, and that, by definition, is anything and everything that is produced in Germany. If we wanted to, the way you phrased your question, we could argue your socks off about the quality of German-grown mushrooms versus Japanese-grown mushrooms. Go rant somewhere else!
@JW: Well, I mind being called a "Kraut", because it is a prejudice. I can't remember the last time I ate Sauerkraut, and the way some people on here talk about Germany, you might think we ate it for breakfast and every other meal, every day and double that on sunday. Funnily enough, those people are the first to offer "genuine" German recipies to everyone who asks, and a German just knows they have no clue whatsoever about Germany. So yes, it bugs me if people like that call me a "Kraut". I'm not calling US-Americans "Yank" or, worse yet, "burger", am I?
Answered By: frackledJJ - 8/15/2008 |