In the movie, being set in 1889, Carl von Linde offers Rudolf Diesel a position as the leader in the "Linde'sche Eisfabrik" in Germany. However in real life Diesel already was a leader in the Linde factory since 1881, in Paris.
In the movie the Diesel factory went bankrupt in 1898. In real life it was running until 1911.
When asking Heinrich von Buz to join the patent case Lucien calls him "Bismarck of the automobile industry" to which he replied "Bismarck is dead". Otto von Bismarck died on 30th July 1898. The process however was running from 1897 and ended on 21st April 1898.
Diesel said at the party that Nicolaus Otto and Eugen Langen invented the four stroke engine 20 years ago. The scene is set in 1893 but the mentioned motor was finished and first used in 1876, which would be 17 years ago.
Heinrich von Buz called his company "constructors of steam engines". However as a leader of the Engine Factory Augsburg, which later became "MAN", he should know that even at the time the scene is set, his factory also produced bridges and engine roads.
At one moment the doctor quotes the line "What you own you don't need and what you need you don't own", to what Dieses says that it was said by Goethe. However this quote is originally latin from the Roman lawbooks at the time of Cicero.