When thinking of germany, playmobil tends to be one of the first things that comes to mind. 
Not sure if that is true for people who don't collect Playmobil or don't have an association with the toy. I think most Europeans of today (and who momentarily don't live in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Cyprus) link Germany with quality, especially with regard to products like f.e. cars, household equipment etc.
And beer of course (though nothing beats belgian abbey beers
)
On a sidenote:
Though WWII caused the death of millions and incredible destruction, it also brought along a great speeding-up in technological advancement, with later many civilian applications during the golden era of the 1950s and 1960s...
Would be nice if mankind would not need a terrible worldwide war and a slaughtering of it's own kind to get a quantum leap in technological advancement. Even the internet today is the result of military scientific development during a (Cold) war...
