What made Germany an industrial power?

What factors aided in making Germany a powerhouse of industry and science by the 1900s?
 
theres a lot of coal and iron their, the two main ingredients in any industry, especially warfare. Along with having one of the best education systems in the world this allowed it to grow and create factories,trains,ect... that allowed them to have one of the best industries in the world.

the human factor can be credited to Prussia before the Deutschland, which already had factories and trains before german unification (which allowed them to win their war against france). Prussia was known for having intelligent men who made great soldiers, and excellent generals; all willing to die for their fatherland.
 
Please elaborate.:)

Germany has the Ruhr, the Rhine, and until 1918 Silesia. All of which are major regions of good iron and coal, and large forests for timber, along with significant deposits of other industrial resources, which are easily accessible, while also laying along major rivers. Really you couldn't create a more perfect situation for industrialization if you tried. That's why after WWI the allied occupied the whole length of the Ruhr-Rhine region until 1925 and broke Silesia off from Germany.
 
Coal, iron, educated populace, large internal market, local capital and access to foreign capital and post 1870 peace and the rule of law.
 
Don't forget that they were the world leaders in industrial chemistry, due to the efforts of Justus von Liebig to establish laboratory instruction of chemistry. He educated a huge number of prominent chemists, who tended to stay in Germany establishing their own chemical laboratories. Germany quickly became the world's chemical powerhouse, a position that they held until WWI.

In the early stages of industrialization the chemical industry was central to the process, one of the primary drivers. Add to this Germany's abundant natural resources (iron ore, coal, etc.) and large very well-educated population, and its rise was to be expected.
 
theres a lot of coal and iron their, the two main ingredients in any industry, especially warfare. Along with having one of the best education systems in the world this allowed it to grow and create factories,trains,ect... that allowed them to have one of the best industries in the world.

the human factor can be credited to Prussia before the Deutschland, which already had factories and trains before german unification (which allowed them to win their war against france). Prussia was known for having intelligent men who made great soldiers, and excellent generals; all willing to die for their fatherland.
Could you explain to me the evolution of Germany's education system?
 
A certain geographical disadvantage also helped: Germany could not rely on coastal shipping, channels through the mountains and major rivers for internal transportation as Britain could. The German transportation network was based on railways, which in turn required a lot of industries to be established to build and support that system. Some sort of self-propelling stimulus package.
 
Some other things to consider, too:

- neighbourhood. It's nearly impossible to be across the street from Belgium, the Netherlands, Northern France and Britain and not see some industrialisation.

- A tradition of urbanism. Germany has a long history of cities, and while they tended to be smallish before, the institutions scaled reasonably well. People moving to town was not strange.

- a tradition of mechanised artisanal production. People were already machine-minded.

- a relatively high degree of social disciplining in place, especially in the towns and cities. Germany produced industrial workers before it had industry on an appreciable scale.

- ambition. Industrial development was a field through which it was possible for a middle-class person of artisanal background to rise to the highest levels of society. Few others were open.

I also suspect that Prussia was in part responsible both through providing a market and through creating resentment. Berlin was not popular in the Rhine and Ruhr, and a lot of the influential families from there were very consciously not like the Junkers. Embracing business and modernity was a good way of distinguishing themselves, much like the people in the Hanseatic cities defined themselves through commerce as opposed to traditional inward-looking civicness.
 
Some other things to consider, too:

- neighbourhood. It's nearly impossible to be across the street from Belgium, the Netherlands, Northern France and Britain and not see some industrialisation.

- A tradition of urbanism. Germany has a long history of cities, and while they tended to be smallish before, the institutions scaled reasonably well. People moving to town was not strange.

- a tradition of mechanised artisanal production. People were already machine-minded.

- a relatively high degree of social disciplining in place, especially in the towns and cities. Germany produced industrial workers before it had industry on an appreciable scale.

- ambition. Industrial development was a field through which it was possible for a middle-class person of artisanal background to rise to the highest levels of society. Few others were open.

I also suspect that Prussia was in part responsible both through providing a market and through creating resentment. Berlin was not popular in the Rhine and Ruhr, and a lot of the influential families from there were very consciously not like the Junkers. Embracing business and modernity was a good way of distinguishing themselves, much like the people in the Hanseatic cities defined themselves through commerce as opposed to traditional inward-looking civicness.

If there's one GOOD thing the incredible Balkanization of the HRE did, it was giving Germany a head start on urbanization.
 
The way I see it is if you have a small principality or princedom or whatever those things were called back then, each tended to create some central capital from which all power emanated. The people of the area naturally gravitated there, creating urban centers around provincial capital (most likely palace or castle of some sort) with many blacksmiths and other artisan shops necessary to provide for ruling noble military and other needs.
 
The way I see it is if you have a small principality or princedom or whatever those things were called back then, each tended to create some central capital from which all power emanated. The people of the area naturally gravitated there, creating urban centers around provincial capital (most likely palace or castle of some sort) with many blacksmiths and other artisan shops necessary to provide for ruling noble military and other needs.

I suppose. Although it would be interesting to see if the areas that were particularly divided (Saxony - the younger duchy, I mean - for instance) were more urbanized than say, Austria. Just for something more specific here.

Yes, Austria wasn't part of modern Germany, but as a comparison of a centralized (or at least trying to be) polity emerging from the HRE mess.
 
Well a good part of it was state-driven; Imperial Germany was one of the few centralized nations that actively pursued industrialization (for military applications) . It's harder to start up infant industries without government assistance.
 
Well a good part of it was state-driven; Imperial Germany was one of the few centralized nations that actively pursued industrialization (for military applications) . It's harder to start up infant industries without government assistance.

So did Russia, but Russia is a distant fourth in this period.
 
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