Good ideas from Germany?

(From a German brochure on the electronic identity cards now being introduced)

I don't know. I'll give them Gutenberg. And I guess Nipkow got the first patent on something that looks like a TV, although that was in 1884. Or do they mean the first regular broadcasts? That may have been Germany, the Nazis were keen on broadcasting the Olympics 1936.


The computer - and most certainly the PC - was not invented by Konrad Zuse, no matter what Germans want to believe. The ABC computer was first. They won the patent fight.

Didn't the Japanese do the Fax? Okay, Germans again with a patent for smart cards, but the French were the first to use them widely.

As to whether the adjective "good" can be used in conjunction with the electronic identity card, the votes are still out on that.