The Second World War was a terrible time, to say the least. Millions of people died, and million others had to leave their home forever. It was a time in history that we only look back for lessons.

At the center of it was Nazi Germany – the country that started it all with its tyrannical Fuhrer. If time travel were possible, then most people would want to kill Hitler. But would it really be worth it?

With the Allied forces going against Germany in the Second World War, world domination was at stake, and that is why Germany pulled no stops when it came to inventing new technology to fight against their enemies. Now, they may be murderers, but they liked to murder people with utmost sophistication and organization which led to the invention of different technologies.

The technology which once was the reason behind deaths of millions has now become an essential part of our lives. Without the technology from Nazi Germany, our life wouldn’t really be the same as it is today. Thanks to the Nazis, we have passenger aircraft, microwave ovens, and advanced computers. Even the electronic punch cards that you use in your offices every day are courtesy of the Nazis.

Here are 15 technologies we have Nazi Germany to thank for.

15. Programmable computers

There were a lot of top secret conversations happening all around the world during the Second World. But no one wanted their enemies to know exactly what they were talking about. That is why Germans used programmable computers and encryption to send secret codes over the radio.

Over the time, the Allied forces were able to crack these code by using computers at their end, and this played a very important role in their victory.

While for Germans, this technology might have ended in a failure, it later triggered the invention of modern electronic devices like laptops, computers, and smartphones.

14. Mass Radio

From terrestrial radio to satellite radio, a lot has changed in the radio world, but you would be surprised to know that for mass radio blasting all the top hit songs you have Nazis to thank for.

Radios became a useful equipment right at the start of the First World War because they helped soldiers communicate with each other. But they were big which made them very difficult to carry.

So, the first thing that Nazis focused on the right at the start of the Second World War was to make radios that were smaller and lighter with lesser static issues. They also modified the technology to ensure that the radios worked at sea and high up in the air as well.

13. Jet engines

Nazi Germany was responsible for developing the very first jet engine plane called Heinkel He 178. The plane took its first flight in 1939 and gave the Germans air superiority against the Allied forces.

While the Heinkel He 178 is the predecessor of all the subsequent jet engines till date but it wasn’t as advanced as you would expect. It had a lot of issues in it, and the total operating life of the jet engine was only ten years.

After getting inspired from the Germans and learning from their mistakes, the British too invented their own jet engine which was far more advanced than the Heinkel.

12. Electronic punch card machines

We all remember those electronic punch cards which were being used in almost all the big companies in the 90’s. Now, those old-school punch cards have advanced to magnetic ones that we just need to flash in front of a scanner, and there is no need to “punch” anything.

But the card which you might have used several times in your life was used by Nazi Germans first. It was IBM that invented the punch card system and then happily handed it to the Germans so that they could murder Jews in the most systematic and technologically advanced way possible.

The card sorting operations were then set up in every concentration camp to keep track of all the prisoners and kill them without any delay.

11. Microwave Ovens

While it was an American researcher of radar technology, Percy Spencer, who developed the microwave oven that we use today, many people believe that Nazis used a version of the microwave oven during the Second World War.

Radar had already been invented during the war, and it is believed that when the Germans invaded Russia, they used a device called the radiomisser to keep their food warm. It was a primitive portable microwave and worked much like the modern microwave oven. While the invention of the microwave by Spencer is well-documented, there is not much evidence to support this Nazi claim.

10. Anti-Gravity technology

While officially unconfirmed, there are numerous evidence pointing to the fact that the Nazi Germans had already developed anti-gravity technology but hadn’t used it in the war because they had other plans for it. It was called “The Bell” because it resembled a large church bell. The aircraft was capable of launching itself and achieve propulsion without the use of any engine.

After the war was over and Nazis were being convicted of war crimes, all the scientists connected to the Bell project died one by one, and many assume that the Allied forces stole their technology.

9. Space programs

While it was the Cold War that resulted in a narrow space race and the US astronauts reaching the Moon in 1969, the technology which was used to create rockets was actually developed during the Second World War.

Nazi Germans created V-1 Flying Bombs which was the first cruise missile and was followed by V2 rockets which were the first ever ballistic missile weapons. The V2 rockets were special because they could go faster and higher than any aircraft in the world at that time. In fact, the V2 rockets could go through the stratosphere of the Earth.

But since Germany couldn’t support the program and many of the scientists working on the project were Jews, they were brought to the United States as part of Project Paperclip and then helped the US to develop the Saturn V rocket which took astronauts to the Moon.

8. Nuclear Weapons

While the United States might have been able to invent the most advanced nuclear weapons during the Second World War, it was really Nazi Germany that started it all. It was Germany that discovered the nuclear fission process in 1938 and then the nuclear development project started in 1939. Unfortunately, the project had to be halted after just a few months because of Germany’s invasion of Poland. Then the Nazis had to let go of Jewish physicists and send other capable doctors to the war which led to the project being completely halted.

But it was the German nuclear weapons research which the Allied forces took complete advantage of during the Cold War.

7. Giant Super Cannons

The giant super cannons invented by Nazi Germans were just as dangerous as they sound. It was also given many nicknames including the London gun and V3. It was called “giant” because it was 140 meters wide and could fire a 140-kilogram shell towards a target over 170 kilometers away. The Germans had planned to attack London with it by digging tunnels near the coast of France. The speed of the shell could be varied as well.

Sadly, the first prototype was immobile making it easy for the Allied forces to attach it. But it did manage to do a lot of damage.

6. Tanks

Germans were known for their superior tank technology in the Second World War. Not only were their tanks far more advanced but they were constantly working on the newer technology.

Their tanks were super heavy with models like P.1000 Ratte weighing around 1000 tons and P.1500 weighing 1500 tons. These tanks alone were more stronger and efficient than battleships, naval guns, and armed man.

While the Germans couldn’t complete manufacturing their newer models before the end of the war, it’s believed that if they did, then their tanks would have been completely indestructible.

5. Guided Missiles

We all know about the guided rockets that Germans invented during the Second World War to take down the Allied Forces and Jews. But apart from that, they also invented anti-ship guided bombs and missiles that could be air-dropped. They were also successful in inventing missiles which could be air guided, television guided or wire guided.

While these missiles couldn’t really help Germans during the war because they were initial prototypes and still in the testing phase, they helped lay the ground for the modern weaponry that armies around the world use today.

4. Orbital Mirror Lasers

The Nazi Germans during the Second World War were in the process of developing a weapon called the Sun Gun. The weapon was supposed to have a concave mirror with a diameter of about a mile, and it would focus the light from the sun towards a point on the Earth. It was still being developed during the war by scientists Herman Oberth, and it was expected to change the direction of the war.

While it could never be used in the battle field, recent reports have suggested that the US Army is designing an advanced weapon inspired by the sun gun and it’s already in the testing phase.

3. Gas masks

Nazi Germans were big on chemical weapons since it was a quick and bloodless way to get rid of a large number of Jews. They first experimented with the chemical weapons at Ypres in 1915 when they sprayed chlorine gas all over.

With gas chambers, the Germans needed equipment which would allow Nazi officers to go in and out of the chambers without inhaling any harmful gas and that’s how the gas masks were invented. Later the Allied forces also used gas masks to fight against the Germans.

2. Mass Meth production

One of the most surprising entries on the list, mass meth production was made popular by Nazi Germany even though it was first invented by a Japanese Chemist in 1893. The Germans used meth to keep pilots and tankers awake for a longer time. Even the ground soldiers would use it to get rid of fatigue.

While the Germans used it continuously, the Allied forces had to stop giving drugs to their pilots because their tests failed badly.

Did the German soldiers get addicted to meth after the war was over? Probably.

1. Penicillin

While penicillin was invented by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928, it was during the Second World War when it was mass produced to treat wounded patients. The great part of penicillin was that it could help get rid of different kinds of infection, especially gangrene.

With millions of soldiers getting wounded in the war, the biggest issue was that they didn’t have medicines that could work fast. Many of them died from minute infections just because they couldn’t get treatment on time. Penicillin helped get around that and potentially saved many lives. Although the Nazis had access to laboratory penicillin, they could not produce it in industrial quantities during the war. They attempted to do so but failed before the end of the second world war.