It’s not a German thing. It’s a European thing. Lots of Europeans have made huge contributions to technology working in US companies, mostly in the US because that’s where the money is.
He found it when he was investigating a customer complaint about corrupted log file downloads.
There is still in-depth high-value engineering happening, even if you don't work for the flashy silicon valley VC unicorns.
In fact, such a basic support request would probably have been closed as "could not reproduce" in a highly competitive environment.