I wouldn't go as far as to say that without germans we wouldn't have computers today. What he is probably referencing is the Zuse Z3, which can be considered one of the first computers.

The main argument against it being the first is that it's a mechanical design rather than electronic and that turing completeness was only achieved on it much later using a trick which the designer had not intended. Interestingly, ENIAC, which is considered the first computer by many, uses a decimal design. The Z3 on the other hand was already using binary.

I took this info from the german wikipedia article on the Z3. I'm not sure if the english article goes into similar detail on those points.