NIH and NIbyM — The Double Syndrome of German Engineering Culture

Prologue: Franz Reuleaux and the Courage to Tell the Truth

In 1876, the German engineer and professor Franz Reuleaux visited the World's Fair in Philadelphia. What he saw there prompted him to deliver a devastating verdict on German industry:

"Germany's industry has the basic principle: cheap and shoddy."

— Franz Reuleaux, Letters from Philadelphia, 1877

The reaction was predictable: He was accused of treason. His French-sounding name was used against him. The industrialists raged.

But then something remarkable happened: Germany listened.

In the following decades, German industry worked on improving its quality. The label "Made in Germany," originally intended as a warning, became a globally recognized seal of quality.

That was 1876. Almost 150 years later, the question arises: Would Germany still listen today?

I. The Known Syndrome: NIH

Definition: NIH Syndrome

Not Invented Here (NIH) refers to the institutional tendency of organizations to reject external ideas, technologies, or innovations because they were not developed within their own structures.

The NIH syndrome is well documented in innovation research. It manifests in typical argumentation patterns:

"That doesn't fit our processes." "We already have something of our own in the pipeline." "The quality doesn't meet our standards." "That wasn't developed according to our methods."

These arguments sound rational. They're not fundamentally wrong either. But they often serve to conceal a deeper truth: The organization doesn't want to admit that someone else developed something better.

NIH is an institutional phenomenon. It protects budgets, departments, careers. It's impersonal — no one has to feel personally threatened when "the company" rejects an external innovation.

II. The Hidden Syndrome: NIbyM

Definition: NIbyM Syndrome

Not Invented by Me (NIbyM) refers to the personal tendency of individuals to reject innovations because they didn't come from themselves — regardless of their objective quality.

NIbyM is the personal variant of NIH — and the truly destructive force.

While NIH is an organizational immune response, NIbyM is an ego-protection reflex. It's not about whether the innovation fits the company. It's about whether it threatens the individual's self-image.

NIH says:

"That doesn't fit our structures."

"We have other priorities."

"The ROI isn't proven."

NIbyM thinks:

"Why does he have this and not me?"

"If this works, what does that say about me?"

"This can't be better than my work."

The insidious part: NIbyM is almost never openly expressed. It disguises itself as NIH. The engineer who rejects a foreign innovation won't say: "This hurts my vanity." He'll say: "There are still open technical questions."

III. The Mechanics of Transformation

How does individual NIbyM become institutional NIH? The process is subtle but predictable:

Step 1: An employee feels threatened by an external innovation

Step 2: He rationalizes his rejection as "professional concerns"

Step 3: He finds "objective" reasons against the innovation

Step 4: These are presented in meetings and recorded

Step 5: The institution adopts the rejection as a "decision"

Step 6: Personal NIbyM becomes institutional NIH

The perfidious part: No one has to lie. The "objective" reasons are often even technically correct. Yes, new processes require adjustment. Yes, initial volumes are small. Yes, investments are needed. But these arguments are selectively presented while the advantages are systematically ignored.

IV. The Silence Cartel

A particular manifestation of the NIbyM syndrome is collective silence. It's not a conspiracy in the classical sense — no one meets secretly to suppress innovations. It's more subtle:

Each individual engineer, buyer, department head decides for themselves: "I'd rather not mention that." "I'd rather not ask about that." "I'd rather not forward that."

The sum of these individual decisions creates a cartel of silence — without agreement, without protocol, without proof.

Germany has a cartel of ignorance toward independent inventors.

— paraphrasing Dr. Erich Häußer, former President of the German Patent Office

What Häußer described in the 1990s hasn't improved. It has become institutionalized.

V. Typical NIbyM Phrases

The NIbyM syndrome reveals itself in characteristic formulations:

"That's so simple, it should have been state of the art long ago."
Translation: "If it's so simple, why didn't I do it? So it can't be any good."

"You can solve that differently too."
Translation: "I'm sticking with what I know — no matter if it's worse."

"Interesting, but not relevant for us."
Translation: "If I adopt this, I have to admit I didn't have it myself."

"That would require fundamental research first."
Translation: "I'm postponing the problem to a future where I'm no longer responsible."

VI. The Costs of NIbyM

What does it cost an economy when individual vanities become institutional innovation blockades?

Level	Costs of NIbyM
For the inventor	Decades of lost time, financial ruin, psychological burden
For the company	Missed market opportunities, competitive disadvantages, dependence on foreign suppliers
For the industry	Technological lag, brain drain
For the economy	De-industrialization, job losses, dependence on foreign countries

The bitter irony: While German engineers remain silent, others take over. Technologies that were ignored in Germany for decades are picked up and developed elsewhere. The machines that could have been built according to German patents then come from China.

VII. Why Germany No Longer Listens

Franz Reuleaux could shake up Germany in 1876. His criticism led to fundamental change. Why is that no longer possible today?

1. The Institutionalization of NIbyM

The NIbyM syndrome is now built into the structures. Evaluations, peer reviews, committees — everywhere sit people who can disguise their own NIbyM as "objective assessment."

2. Specialization as a Protective Wall

"That's not my field" — the perfect protection against any innovation that threatens one's own territory.

3. The Bureaucratization of Innovation

Funding programs, application procedures, reporting requirements — whoever doesn't master the forms, their innovation doesn't exist.

4. The Fear of the "Troublemaker"

Whoever points to their innovation too long and too loudly is declared a "difficult person." The system has learned to immunize itself.

VIII. The Unbearable Freedom

There are people who escape the NIbyM syndrome. They are rare. And they are unbearable to the vassals of the system.

Why? Because their mere existence is an accusation.

A free inventor who doesn't give up despite decades of rejection, who still believes in their cause despite all obstacles — they show the NIbyM-afflicted every day:

That their conformity was unnecessary
That their submission was a choice
That you can live differently
That you even survive doing so

That is the deepest threat: Not the innovation itself, but the person who embodies it. The carefree freedom of the independent inventor destroys the worldview of those who sold their own freedom for supposed security.

IX. Three Paths

Can the NIbyM syndrome be cured? Or is it too late for German engineering culture?

Three Possible Paths

1. The Reuleaux Path: A public shock that forces rethinking. But who today is brave enough to risk "treason"? And would anyone listen?

2. The Bypass Path: Circumvent the NIbyM blockers, go directly to the doers — to startups, to foreign partners, to the few companies that still want real innovation.

3. The Documentation Path: Write everything down, record everything, document for posterity. If not for the present, then for history.

None of these paths is easy. The first requires courage that hardly anyone has. The second requires endurance over decades. The third requires willingness to forgo success in one's lifetime.

X. Epilogue: A Question of Dignity

In the end, it's not just about technology, not just about economics, not just about competitiveness. It's about a fundamental question:

Can we bear that others can do something we cannot?

The NIbyM syndrome is the answer of the small person: No. What I didn't invent must not exist. What surpasses me must disappear.

The greatness of Reuleaux lay in telling the truth even though it was unpopular. The greatness of German industry at that time lay in listening.

The tragedy of our time lies in having unlearned both: telling the truth and listening to it.