In his new Radio 4 series, Neil MacGregor will tell the history of Germany with a series of objects chosen from his new exhibition, Germany: Memories of a Nation, which opens at the British Museum on 16 October. We’ve chosen five modern German objects that are unlikely to have made the cut.

A bottle of Club-Mate

Fizzy and highly caffeinated, this beverage brewed in the Bavarian village of Münchsteinach is the ambrosia of urbanised 21st-century Germans. Colloquially known as Hackerbrause, it enjoys a particularly cult status in Berlin’s burgeoninghacking and digital startup scene, and played a crucial part in ensuring that Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA surveillance were met with more energised outrage in Germany than anywhere else.

A copy of Landlust magazine

Demographics show that Germans are increasingly deserting the countryside and heading for the cities. Yet they can’t stop fantasising about forests and freshly cut hay: Landlust, a rustic lifestyle bimonthly launched in 2005, sells over a million copies, more than the news weekly Der Spiegel. It could be the ultimate expression of a modern German obsession with Entschleunigung (slowing): the desire to take our stressful, work-focused lifestyles down a notch.

A Heckler & Koch MP7A1 assault rifle

Modern Germany is cautious about military interventions, having taken a stance against the war in Iraq in 2002 and air strikes in Libya in 2011. But it is also the world’s third-largest arms exporter. Engineered and manufactured by a family-run business in Baden-Württemberg, Heckler & Koch’s submachine guns are a classic product of Germany’s export-focused Mittelstand (small and medium sized companies). Campaigners estimate they kill an average of 114 people a year. Osama bin Laden was probably shot with an upgraded version of their MP7A1 assault rifle.

A Germany wing-mirror sock

For many Germans, the national colours are still more likely to cause discomfort rather than pride – unless there’s an international football tournament taking place somewhere in the world. Ever since the 2006 World Cup, ritualised displays of “party patriotism” have become an unshakable habit. Wing-mirror covers in black, red and gold are particularly popular: they are both more discreetly patriotic and considerably more aerodynamic than a large flag.

The Alkadur doner kebab robot

Testimony to changing culinary habits, the influence of German-Turkish multiculturalism and the enduring appeal of German precision engineering, Alkadur RobotSystem is a rotating grill that shaves off its own slabs of kebab meat. The machine gained cult status when its inventor, Duran Kabakyer, made a grammatical boob on a talkshow by getting his articles mixed up and describing his creation as der Gerät (the unit) as opposed to das Gerät (the device).A popular rap song ponders whether the tireless, ever-efficient Alkadur will end up putting the entire nation out of work.