Why did Germany have such good engineers in early 1900s?

I get the impression that Germany had a disproportionately large number of outstanding engineers and scientists in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Is my impression accurate? If yes, how did Germany achieve this? What made them stand out from the other nations at the time? Think Diesel, Daimler, Benz, Haber, Bosch, Einstein, Planck, Heisenberg, von Braun.