Made in Germany

Made in Germany is a merchandise mark indicating that a product has been manufactured in Germany.

History

The label was originally introduced in Britain by the "Merchandise Marks Act 1887", to mark foreign produce more obviously, as British society considered foreign produce to be inferior to domestic produce, and tried to get buyers to adhere to the concept of 'buying British'.

In 1894, however, the German Reichstag's commission already reported that after suffering slight losses, German manufacturers soon found the label to be of good use since they could distinguish themselves better from the British manufacturers. This led to more and more manufacturers voluntarily applying the label, and not even World War I, in which marks were mandatory in Britain in order to boycott the Central Powers countries' products, could dent the growing popularity of the mark.

The term "Made in Germany" was soon associated with product reliability, quality and even perfection.

Legal status

"Made in Germany" is not controlled by a central regulatory body. However, its status has been defined by several court rulings in Germany. In 1974, the Bundesgerichtshof made a ruling that "Made in Germany" does not enable people to properly distinguish between the two Germanys of the time, so Made in West Germany and Made in GDR became popular.

In 1995, the Oberlandesgericht Stuttgart ruled that the term "Made in Germany" is misleading according to Germany's Fair Trades Act when the largest part is not German raw materials or German craftsmanship.

See also

* Country of origin

References

* cite book
first = Hans-Günther
last = Borck
year = 1993
title = Ein gemeinsames Erbe: "Made in Germany". Wettbewerb in Recht und Praxis
pages = 301-303
* cite book
first = Julia
last = Wulf
year = 1995
title = "Made in Germany": Wirtschaftliche Bedeutung und rechtliche Schutzmöglichkeiten
location = Frankfurt am Main; New York
publisher = Peter Lang Verlag
id = ISBN 3-631-47785-6