German workmanship

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German workmanship is a stereotype related to technical properties . In this regard, workmanship is understood as a characteristic that is attributed to German products and services abroad. It contains meanings such as reliability, functionality , lasting value, know-how , ingenuity and innovation . During National Socialism , German workmanship was often a political commitment. Abroad it has a good image again, on which the German export economy is building. The designation of origin Made in Germany can be seen as a guarantee for German workmanship.

Coining of the term

Erected in 1909 for the purposes of the German Werkbund.

In the first years of its existence, the Deutsche Werkbund , founded in 1907 as an economic and cultural association of artists , architects , entrepreneurs and experts, pursued the goal of giving the increasingly industrially manufactured mass products of everyday use a design that meets both craft and craft quality requirements in its aesthetics becomes. In 1912, the Dürerbund founded the non-profit sales agency for German quality work in Dresden- Hellerau, with Ferdinand Avenarius playing a major role , which, as a consumer protection organization , endeavored to meet quality standards for household appliances. In 1914 the Dürerbund-Werkbund-Genossenschaft was affiliated to this institution, which organized the distribution of quality goods made in Germany as a purchasing cooperative . In 1915, the cooperative published the German Commodity Book with quality ratings for industrial products. In the history of design , this contemporary trend, which was based on the Arts and Crafts Movement , is referred to as the workshop movement. At the Cologne Werkbund exhibition in 1914, the term German workmanship was coined, which was designed as a seal of quality .

At that time, solidity was a major selling point. According to the ideas of the Dürerbund, founded in 1902, “bourgeois-moral characteristics of the genuine, the simple and the truthful, the popular and the down-to-earth, the cheap and durable should manifest themselves in the exemplary utensils. That went far beyond an aesthetic taste formation and aimed at people's educational work ”.

German workmanship under National Socialism

At the beginning of National Socialism one could observe how marketing communication and political propaganda merged. In May 1933, the Berlin cigar manufacturer Josetti wrote in a newspaper advertisement: "Today's slogan is: to create the best German workmanship in all areas". The company used a signet made up of the word Deutsche Wertarbeit in Fraktur . The graphic design of the advertisement contained nationalist motifs. The advertising text had a clear political conviction: "The Josetti-Werke consider it their most important duty to fully fulfill this task". Other companies also used corresponding symbols in their advertising. Die Form, a magazine for creative work, wrote in 1934 under the heading The great task of the Werkbund : “want to be a role model for the whole world, a role model that emerges from every workpiece, every building, every poster, every font, in a word, Visibly reflected in every shape thanks to the German workmanship ”. Even the kindergarten pedagogy of the German Reich (1933–1945) gave the term German workmanship a nationalistic meaning: A boy from a German kindergarten abroad hoped to be able to become a German man and asked “whether his neatly folded boat was also German Workmanship is ".

German workmanship in the Federal Republic of Germany

Symbol for German workmanship Made in Germany

After the Second World War, Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer appealed to the domestic economy: “The German workmanship and the word Made in Germany have to get the old good sound back in the world. The quality of German work is our future ”. In 1952, the central office for the promotion of German workmanship was founded in Hanover, which held the special show of industrial products of the right shape at the Hanover Fair in 1953 . In the following years she was an e. Permanent sample show of German workmanship has been continued. The iF Industrie Forum Design emerged from the central office . Later Konrad Adenauer's successor in the office of Federal Chancellor, Ludwig Erhard , restricted : “The term German workmanship is no longer unchallenged. The will to achieve quality has noticeably suffered ”. According to Konrad Adenauer's government declaration of October 9, 1962, the Federal Republic of Germany established the Stiftung Warentest in December 1964 with the aim of improving price awareness and the ability of consumers to influence market developments.

The consequences of the globalization

The success of the German export industry is based on the image that German workmanship has abroad. This applies, for example, to the automotive, mechanical engineering and medical technology industries. In the age of globalization, the term German workmanship was discussed. The success of German products abroad does not only depend on the perceived quality, but also on the price. The competitiveness of German companies is influenced by their international suppliers. Meanwhile, “German workmanship” comes from all over the world. In addition, large German companies increasingly relocated production facilities abroad. The products manufactured there are considered German workmanship if they were developed in Germany or if their design originates from there. According to a narrower interpretation, at least half of the added value must take place in Germany in order to receive the Made in Germany seal of approval .

Stereotype in advertising

In Romanic countries, advertisers like to use the stereotype of German workmanship, which is based on another stereotype, that of the hard and careful German. Appropriate advertising strategies play with the strange, the other. Ready-made images and ideas that exist abroad of German products are to be reinforced by advertising spots. Stereotypes are helpful when advertising messages have to be conveyed in the shortest possible time, as in television advertising. German workmanship is a pattern that is stored in the collective knowledge of consumers and can be used by advertising. This recourse to what is generally known increases credibility. In the Romance countries, the German attitude towards life is not effective in advertising. “The only positive stereotype that can still be found is that of German workmanship, the m ade in Germany as an argument for reliability and quality”. German workmanship is otherwise known as a cliché in sports, especially in football.

Image transfer to pseudo brands

German workmanship enjoys a leap of faith worldwide. Similar to how German companies adorned themselves with American-sounding product names in the 1980s, marketing strategists have been exploiting this image in foreign markets for years by offering products with German-sounding brands without fulfilling the quality promise associated with German workmanship. Russian companies sell refrigerators under the pseudo-brand Kaiser or stationery by Erich Krause . There is a shoe chain in Moscow with 28 shops that operate under the name of Thomas Münz . Likewise, German flags are often printed on kitchen utensils from Chinese production abroad and brand names such as Grunhof or Bekker are used.

Web links

Commons : Made in Germany  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Deutscher Werkbund NW - news. (No longer available online.) In: deutscherwerkbund-nw.de. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; accessed on September 2, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deutscherwerkbund-nw.de
  2. ^ Heide Rezepa-Zabel : Dürerbund-Werkbund-Genossenschaftt, quality work for the German house. (No longer available online.) In: design20.eu. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on September 2, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.design20.eu
  3. ↑ German Werkbund. In: designlexikon.net. Retrieved September 2, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Was the Bauhaus really everything? In: designmadeingermany.de. Retrieved September 2, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Recent research results on the German Commodity Book | Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge. In: museumderdinge.de. Retrieved September 2, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Sales communication under National Socialism. In: German Press Museum. Retrieved September 2, 2015 .
  7. ^ Die Form: Zeitschrift für gestaltende Arbeit (9.1934). In: digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de. Retrieved September 3, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Popular, German, National Socialist children. In: kindergartenpaedagogik.de. Retrieved September 2, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Seal of quality: After 1945 nobody wanted to buy German products anymore. In: Der Tagesspiegel . Retrieved September 3, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Sample show of German workmanship. In: THE TIME. August 13, 1953, accessed September 9, 2015 .
  11. ↑ The reputation has suffered! - Key sentences about "Made in Germany". In: spiegel.de. Spiegel-Verlag Rudolf Augstein , June 10, 1964, accessed on September 3, 2015 .
  12. ↑ October 9, 1962: Government declaration by the Federal Chancellor at the 39th session of the German Bundestag on the domestic and foreign policy situation in 1962. Konrad Adenauer Foundation, accessed on September 9, 2015 .
  13. ↑ Overall economy & environment - foreign trade. In: destatis.de. Retrieved September 1, 2015 .
  14. ↑ Jan Guldner: Fight against the economic downturn. In: Zeit Online . Zeitverlag Gerd Bucerius , September 3, 2014, accessed on September 3, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Project business in the Arabian Gulf remains at a high level. (PDF; 4.2 MB) (No longer available online.) In: BDI-Außenwirtschafts-Report 2/2015. Federation of German Industries V., 2015, p. 14 , archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; accessed on September 1, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bdi.eu
  16. ↑ Heidi Hagen-Pekdemir: Dürkopp Adler: Sewing machines for the whole world. In: nw.de. Neue Westfälische GmbH & Co. KG , accessed on September 1, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Martina Merten: Medtech in the Middle Kingdom - the Chinese like German workmanship. (No longer available online.) In: medizintechnologie.de. January 28, 2015, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on September 1, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.medizintechnologie.de
  18. ↑ How we became export world champions - own goal for the Empire. In: Spiegel Online . Spiegel-Verlag Rudolf Augstein, August 26, 2008, accessed on September 3, 2015 .
  19. ↑ Ludwig Jovanovic: Made in Germany: How German are German cars still? In: RP Online . Rheinische Post Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, accessed on September 3, 2015 .
  20. ↑ Globalization: István now has Martin's job. In: Zeit Online . Zeitverlag Gerd Bucerius, July 28, 2005, accessed on September 3, 2015 .
  21. ↑ Björn Finke: Made in Germany - dangerous seal of approval. In: sueddeutsche.de. Süddeutscher Verlag , August 23, 2012, accessed on September 3, 2015 .
  22. ↑ Viktoria Unterreiner among others: That is simply quality. In: Welt Online . August 18, 2007, accessed September 3, 2015 .
  23. ^ Moritz Honert: Economic Power Germany: The Myth of the Busy German. In: tagesspiegel.de. Verlag Der Tagesspiegel GmbH, March 24, 2013, accessed on September 3, 2015 .
  24. ↑ Hanna Milling: French charm, southern temperament and German workmanship? On the use of national stereotypes in advertising television. (PDF) In: QVR (32.2008) page 85. Institute for Romance Studies at the University of Vienna, 2008, accessed on September 2, 2015 .
  25. ↑ About dancers and workers - How clichés work in football. In: DerWesten.de . Funke Mediengruppe , June 18, 2012, accessed September 1, 2015 .
  26. ^ German pseudo brands in Russia: Greetings from Düsseldorf. In: Spiegel Online . December 24, 2014, accessed September 3, 2015 .