I actually don't think so. I believe the wide spread belief about us Germans being so efficient came about only after the second world war and was later retrosp

I actually don't think so. I believe the wide spread belief about us Germans being so efficient came about only after the second world war and was later retrospectively added to Prussia and the Third-Reich. Considering that, Germany did have an obsession about rules and "officialdom" for lack of a better word, which was beneficial over all that time.