[iso1631]

German boardgames became popular in the late 90s in the UK (although even before then several spiel de jarhes games were in mainstream shops like Toys R Us -- Hare and Tortoise and Scotland Yard come to mind)

Earlier in the 90s the games that were mainly for sale were games like Britania, History of the World, etc. Axis and Allies was always around too.

The German games brought in shorter games though, which didn't take an entire afternoon to play.