History Main / GermanicEfficiency

Interestingly, before their country was unified under the Wilhelmine Empire, Germans had a very different portrayal in fiction: they tended to be comic, lackadaisical, or pedantic, but not especially efficient. Since Bismarck, a lot of that depiction has shifted over to Austrians and (to a lesser extent) the Dutch (partly because it seems that all of the stern, hardworking, devoutly Calvinist Dutch moved to West Michigan, and partly because of the influence of [[FreestateAmsterdam Vrijstaat Amsterdam]]).

* The German drinking team in ''{[Beerfest}}'' is shown to be maximizing their efficiency by drinking while working out to some Neue Deutsche Härte music. The American team is... [[UnderStatement much more laid-back]].

*** SWAT:578-to-GSG 9:422... oops... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deadliest_Warrior_episodes#Episode_10:_SWAT_vs._GSG_9

*** SWAT:578-to-GSG9:422... oops... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deadliest_Warrior_episodes#Episode_10:_SWAT_vs._GSG_9

** Heckler und Koch GmbH makes many of the {{Cool Guns}} known to audiences today. The MP5, the G36, the USP, the XM8, etc. etc. etc.

** Heckler und Koch GmbH makes many of the [[Cool Guns]] known to audiences today. The MP5, the G36, the USP, the XM8, etc. etc. etc.

** "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win."

* German Counter-Terror unit GSG 9 is usually considered to be one of the worlds best.

-> "Ich: deutsche Präzision. (Me: German Precision)."

* The Headless Horsemen from the movie ''SleepyHollow''.
* Hans Gruber and his men in ''DieHard''.
** And his brother (played by Jeremy Irons) in ''Die Hard with a Vengeance". Comes packaged with his "Helga" girlfriend and his ideologically suspect henchmen, almost all of them being tall, blond and muscular.
* The Swiss bobsled team in ''CoolRunnings'' - their discipline is what Derice wanted to emulate.

** And a [[YouHaveToHaveJews Jew]].

* When Maximus is send to fight in the Arena of Rome in ''{{Gladiator}}'', the current champion is a Germanic barbarian.

*** Which actually subverts this tope, because the impetus for the group creation was the ''[[IdiotBall incompetence]]'' of the regular police.

** This is not so surprising considering the circumstances of their founding (the Munich Olympic Massacre in 1972) and the political climate in the 1970s Germany, with the [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Red Army Faction]] rampant and killing people left and right.

* Subverted in the WWII novels by SvenHassel, where the feared German war machine is portrayed as incompetent and inefficient.
** Actually the battle scenes portray the Germans as very efficient troops, at least the unit the author was presumably part of. But it presents various officers as incompetent and the stubbornness to fight on as inefficient. Still there are several officers that are presented as competent and efficient, ranging from Lieutenant to even several Generals (they normally being the ButtMonkeys).

** Or Volkswagen marketing slogan "@/DasAuto", which translates as "The Car", as in we are the only ones that make cars, everybody else are just a bunch of hacks.

** Just look at Audi's marketing slogan "Vorsprung durch Technik", which translates to "a margin ahead thanks to its technology", or French car company Citroen claiming their new car was "unmistakably German" to convince potential buyers that it was well engineered and efficient.

* The Citroen C5 was advertised as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMQnPWjK5pE unmistakably German]].

* Michael Schumacher, statistically the greatest FormulaOne driver the sport has ever seen. So efficient, he tunes his car's settings ''as he drives''. He is also (possibly) [[TopGear The Stig]]. Which explains alot.

* The Citroen C5 was advertised as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMQnPWjK5pE unmistakably german]].

** And his brother (played by Jeremy Irons) in ''Die Hard with a Vangeance". Comes packaged with his "Helga" girlfriend and his ideologically suspect henchmen, almost all of them being tall, blond and muscular.

-> "Nobody is perfect, but we are working on it."

Interestingly, before their country was unified under the Wilhelmine Empire, Germans had a very different portrayal in fiction: they tended to be comic, lackadaisical, or pedantic, but not especially efficient. Since Bismarck, a lot of that depiction has shifted over to Austrians and to a lesser extend the Dutch (partly because it seems that all of the stern, hardworking, devoutly Calvinist Dutch moved to West Michigan, and partly because of the influence of [[FreestateAmsterdam Vrijstaat Amsterdam]]).

** Every singe ''recurring'' German. Many of the one-off villains were actually threatening, but were usually handled by the end of the episode.

** Just look at Audi's marketing slogan "Vorsprung durch Technik", which translates to "Progress through technology", or French car company Citroen claiming their new car was "unmistakably German" to convince potential buyers that it was well engineered and efficient.