Not necessarily only in German. A lot of Indian languages also say number in this way. In Bengali, we don't use full words for the 1's place, but a derivative

Not necessarily only in German. A lot of Indian languages also say number in this way. In Bengali, we don't use full words for the 1's place, but a derivative of the root. 31- ektrish- ek (eka- 1) trish (30) 32- batrish- ba 33- tetrish- te (tin) 34- choutrish- chou (char) 35- pointrish- poin (panch) and so on. Now that I mention this, I also remember that Sanskrit words for number are like this, as well- 35- panchatringshati (pancha- 5, tringshati- 30)