berühmte Deutschen (Famous Germans)
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Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967)- Staatsmann und Politiker / statesman, politician, and the first chancellor of post-war Germany from the town of Bonn, who was the man given the responsibility for Germany’s economic recovery after World War Two
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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer during the Barock period (early 1700’s) and wrote musical works for the church
Albert Ballin (1857-1918)- Erfinder / inventor of first luxury cruise and the founder of the Hapag-Lloyd enterprises, which helped assist millions of emigrants with their passage to America
Ernst Barlach (1870-1938)- Bildhauer / sculptor, who was an important representative of the expressionistic period of the 1930’s
Boris Becker (1967- )- Tennisspieler / former world No. 1 professional tennis player. His Grand Slam singles titles included three Wimbledons, two Australian Opens and one US Open
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer, who was born in Bonn, was famous for writing symphonies, and continued to write after becoming tone deaf at the age of 29
Emil von Behring (1854-1917)- Chemiker und Mediziner / chemist and doctor who discovered vaccine against diptheria and tetanus
Karl Benz (1844-1929)- Erfinder und Techniker / inventor and technician, who along with Gottlieb Daimler, invented the first car
Wolf Biermann (1936- )- Schriftsteller in Ostberlin / former East German writer in East Berlin and is a singer-songwriter today
Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)- Staatsmann und Politiker / statesman and politician; he was the chancellor who founded „das deutsche Reich" in 1871, with Prussia as the leading state, Berlin as the leading city, and Hohenzollern as the ruling family (Kaiser Wilhelm)
Heinrich Böll (1917-1985)- Schriftsteller / one of Germany’s foremost writers, who was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1967 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972
Robert Bosch (1861-1942)- Elektriker / electrical technologian, whose company today produces electrical parts for cars
Eric Braeden (1941- )- Schauspieler / actor, who is an Emmy Award-winning German film and TV actor and is best known for his role as Victor Newman on the soap opera The Young and the Restless
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer of a famous lullabye
Willy Brandt (1913-1992)- Staatsmann und Politiker / statesman and politician, who was the leader of the Social Democratic Party 1964-1987 and Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany 1969-1974
Werner von Braun (1912-1977)- Raketeningenieur und Konstrukteur / rocket engineer and designer, who was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany and in the US
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)- Dichter, Dramatiker, Regisseur und Philosoph / poet, dramatist, director, and philosopher, whose most famous work was The Three-Penny Opera
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)- Musiker und Komponist / Austrian musician and composer
Karl Georg Büchner (1813-1837)- Schriftsteller, Naturwissenschaftler, und Revolutionär / dramatist, scientist, and revolutionary
Robert Bunsen (1811-1899)- Chemiker / chemist who invented the Bunsen burner
Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908)- Maler, Dichter, und Zeichner / painter, poet, and cartoonist, whose works are full of jokes and humor; one of his most famous stories is Max und Moritz
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John Calvin (1509-1564)- Theologe und Pfarrer / theologian and pastor
Charlemagne (742-814)- Staatsmann, Politiker, und Feldherr / statesman, politician, and general, who was the founder of the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation, who made the Franks the strongest Germanic tribe, and who converted many of his conquerors to Christianity; also known as Karl der Große
Nikolaus Copernikus (1473-1543)- Astronom / astronomer, who established his own system of the world and set up the early stages of astronomy
Lucas Cranach der ältere (1472-1553)- Kunstler / artist
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Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900)- Techniker / engineer and maschine builder, who built the first motor and helped create the first automobile
Adolf Dassler (1900-1978)- Schuster, Erfinder und Unternehmer / a German cobbler, inventor and entrepreneur who founded the German sportswear company Adidas
Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913)- Techniker / engineer & inventor of diesel engine
Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)- Sängerin und Schauspielerin / German-American actress and singer, who was known as “Lily Marlene” during WWII and remained popular throughout her long career
Alfred Döblin (1878-1957)- Schriftsteller / novelist and doctor, best known for his novel Berlin Alexanderplatz. He is considered one of the most important figures of German literary modernism
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)- Maler / greatest painter and etcher of the Renaissance period from Nürnberg, whose famous woodcarvings and etchings were betende Hände, Ritter, Tod und Teufel, and die apokalyptischen Reiter
Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990)- Schriftsteller / Swiss writer, whose most famous works are called Besuch der alten Dame and die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi
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Friedrich Ebert (1871-1925)- Staatsmann und Politiker / statesman and politician, who was the first President of the Weimar Republic, the government in Germany after World War One
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)- Physiker / physicist, who won the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his Theory of Relativity and immigrated to the US
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)- Philosoph / philospher and socialist, who wrote Das Kapital along with Karl Marx
Max Ernst (1891-1976)- Maler und Bildhauer / painter and sculptor, who was one of the most important representatives of surrealism
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Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736)- Physiker / physicist who made changes to the thermometer, and a measuring scale was named after him
Werner Fassbinder (1946-1982)- Filmdirektor / film director in post-war Germany, who directed the Marriage of Maria Braun and Berlin Alexanderplatz
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814)- Philosoph / philosopher who took Immanuel Kant’s philosophy (ethics and idealism) further and mixed it with religious and scientific overtones
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2012)- Sänger / one of the greatest baritone and opera singers of the 20th century
Anne Frank (1929-1945)- Schriftsteller / author of The Diary of a Young Girl, in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)- Psycholog / psychoanalyist and doctor from Vienna, who said every dream can be related to the subconscious mind
Friedrich II (1712-1786)- König von Preußen / King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty, Elector of Brandenburg, and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, whose nickname was „der alte Fritz"
Gert Fröbe (1913-1988)- Schauspieler / actor, who made more than 100 films and whose most famous film was Goldfinger, of the James Bond series
Friedrich Fröbel (1782-1852)- Pädagoge / educator and founder of the first Kindergarten in 1837
Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954)- Komponist und Dirigent / composer and director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for many years
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Karl Friedrich Gauß (1777-1855)- Mathematiker, Physiker, und Astronom / Mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, who has a magnetic unit of measure named after him
Hans-Dietrich Genscher (1927-2016)- Politiker / politician of the FDP (Free Democratic Party), who served from 1974 to 1992 as foreign minister and vice-chancellor and was very instrumental in "diplomatically deconstructing the Iron Curtain"
Walter Gerlach (1889-1979)- Physiker / physicist who co-discovered spin quantization in a magnetic field, the Stern-Gerlach effect
Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714-1787)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)- Wissenschaftler, Dichter, Staatsmann, und Schriftsteller / scientist, poet, statesman, and writer; he is considered the greatest German writer
Steffi Graf (1969- )- Tennisspieler / a former German tennis player, who was ranked world No. 1 during her career. Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles.
Günther Grass (1927-2015)- Romanschriftsteller / postwar novelist and author of The Tin Drum
Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872)- Schriftsteller und Dichter / writer and poet, who was Austria’s greatest dramatist from Vienna and whose most famous work is called das golden Vlies
Jakob Grimm (1785-1863)- Sprachforscher / linguist and researcher, one of two brothers, who collected fairy tales and published them into books; also wrote dictionaries and grammar books
Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)- Sprachforscher / linguist, who was one of two brothers who collected fairy tales (Es war einmal … / Once upon a time…/) and published them in books; also wrote dictionaries and grammar books
Johann Gutenberg (circa 1397-1468)- Erfinder / inventor of moveable-type for the printing press from the city of Mainz
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Otto Hahn (1879-1968)- Chemiker / chemist who split uranium nucleus and led to the development of the atomic bomb
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)- Musiker und Komponist / a German-born musician and composer, who lived most of his life in England, and whose most famous work appears every year at Christmas time: Hallelujah Chor, which is part of the opera Der Messias
Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946)- Dramatist und Romanschriftsteller / dramatist and novelist, who is regarded among the most important promoters of literary naturalism and who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1912
Josef Haydn (1732-1809)- Musiker und Kompinist / Austrian musician and composer, whose musical works dealt with instrumental music and chamber music
Friedrich Hebbel (1813-1863)- Dichter / dramtic writer and poet
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)- Philosoph / Philosopher, who was a major figure in German idealism
Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)- Dichter / poet, who wrote many poems and ballads and whose most famous one was die Lorelei
Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976)- Physiker / a theoretical physicist, one of the key pioneers of quantrum mechanics, worked with nuclear physics, and won the Nobel Prize in 1932
Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894)- Mathematiker, Physiologer, und Mediziner / mathematician, physiologist, and doctor; made significant contributions to several varied areas of modern science
Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841)- Pädagoge und Philosoph / educator and philosopher who stressed the study of literature and history, not just Latin and math
Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel (1738-1822)- Astronom und Komponist / German-born British astronomer and composer. In 1781, he was the first to discover Uranus
Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894)- Physiker / physicist, who discovered electromagnetic waves, which were named after him and whose discovery led to the development of the modern radio
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)- Dichter und Schriftsteller / poet and writer
Theodor Heuss (1884-1963)- Politiker / politician, who was the first Federal President (Bundespräsident) of postwar Germany
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)- Musiker und Komponist / famous German-American musician and composer
Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934)- Staatsmann, Politiker und Feldherr / statesman, politician, and general in World War I; President of Germany during the Weimar Republic
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)- Politiker / politician, who was the founder of „das dritte Reich" and Führer from 1933 to 1945
Andreas Hofer (1767-1810)- Feldherr in Innsbruck, österreich / general from Austria, who helped save the city of Innsbruck during Napolean’s time
Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929)- Dichter und Schriftsteller / Austrian poet and author, whose greatest work was Tor and Tod (Death and the fool); who along with the composer Richard Strauß and the actor and director Max Reinhardt, helped start the Salzburger Sommerfestspiele
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859)- Erforscher und Geograph / founder of modern geography and a naturalist researcher, who had 900 plants, animals, mountains, and rivers named after him
Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835)- Pädagog, Philosoph und Staatsmann / educator, philosopher, and statesman, and founder of Humboldt University of Berlin
Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer, whose most famous opera was Hänsel und Gretel
Jan Hus (1372-1415)- Priester und Philosoph / priest and philosopher
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Hugo Junkers (1859-1935)- Flugzeugskonstrukteur / airplane builder, who was a pioneer in the German aviation field, built his innovative airplane, and built the first plane to cross the Atlantic Ocean from east to west
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Franz Kafka (1883-1924)- Schriftsteller / writer
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)- Philosoph / philosopher, who wrote Critique of Pure Reason and whose ideas dealt with knowledge and wisdom being attained through experience
Heidi Klum (1973- )- Modell / model, TV host, businesswoman, fashion designer, and occasional actress
Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989)- Musiker und Komponist / world famous musician, composer, and conductor from Salzburg, Austria, who directed the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for many years
- Karl der Große (742-814)
- Staatsmann, Politiker, und Feldherr / statesman, politician, and general, who was the founder of the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation, who made the Franks the strongest Germanic tribe, and who converted many of his conquerors to Christianity; also known as Charlemagne
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)- Mathematiker und Astronom / mathematician and astronomer during the Middle Ages, who established the laws of planetary motion
Klaus Kinski (1926-1991)- Schauspieler und Regisseur / actor and film director
Hildegard Knef (1925-2002)- Schauspielerin, Schriftstellerin, und Sängerin / actress, writer, and singer, who was popular in both Germany and in the United States
Robert Koch (1843-1910)- Bakteriologe / bacteriologist, who discovered the causes of tuberculosis and cholera and won the Nobel Prize in 1905
Helmut Kohl (1930-2017)- Politiker / politician, who is known as the "Chancellor of Unity" for his leadership during the fall of the Berlin Wall, for the peaceful unification of Germany, for the longest-serving head of government, and for serving as the Federal Chancellor for more than 16 years from 1982 to 1998
Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)- Maler und Bildhauer / painter and sculptor, who is considered one of Germany’s most important early 20th-century artists. She captured the hardships suffered by the working class in drawings, paintings, and prints. View examples of her artwork.
- Nikolaus Kopernikus (1473-1543)
- Astronom / astronomer, who established his own system of the world and set up the early stages of astronomy
Bruno Kreisky (1911-1990)- Kanzler und Politiker / chancellor and politician from Österreich, who brought his country back into an important position in European culture
Alfred Krupp (1812-1887)- Herrscher der Kruppfamilie / leader of the Krupp family, who was the founder of a munitions company from the city of Essen, which makes steel products today (Big Bertha)
- Friedrich Carl Krupp (1787-1826)
- berühmte Kruppfamilie aus Essen; Stahl- und Waffenwerke / famous Krupp family from the city of Essen, who manufactured steel products and munitions
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Fritz Lang (1890-1976)- Regisseur / German-Austrian filmmaker, screen writer, producer, and actor
Wilhelm Leibl (1844-1900)- Maler / painter
Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr von Leibniz (1646-1716)- Philosoph / philosopher, Politiker / politician, und Forscher / researcher
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781)- Schriftsteller / writer, critic, and dramatist, whose middle class tragedies left a great impact on the literature of the 18th century, such as Nathan der Weise
Max Liebermann (1847-1935)- Maler und Grafiker / painter and print maker
Justus von Liebig (1803-1873)- Chemiker / chemist who built the first modern laboratory in Germany
Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896)- Flugpionier / pioneer in the field of aviation and made the first gliding flight in 1891 and was known as "Germany’s Wright Brothers"
Franz von Liszt (1811-1886)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer
Frederick Loewe (1901-1988)- Komponist / Berlin-born composer of famous Lerner and Loewe musicals, including Camelot and My Fair Lady
Heinrich Lübke (1894-1972)- Politiker / politician and former Federal President of postwar Germany
Erich Ludendorff (1865-1937)- Heerführer / leader and general of the German army in World War One from 1916 to 1918
Ludwig II (1845-1886)- König / king of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. He is sometimes called the Mad King and der Märchenkönig, the Fairy Tale King.
Martin Luther (1483-1546)- Theologe und Sprachforscher / theologian and philologist, who was responsible for starting a new religion and his translation of the Bible became the first accepted German language
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Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)- Österreischer Komposer und Dirigent / Austrian composer and conductor
Thomas Mann (1875-1955)- Schriftsteller und Dichter / novelist, short-story writer, and poet, whose novels often had several levels of meaning
Karl Marx (1818—1883)- Sozialist und Philosoph / philosopher and founder of Marxism, who proposed the theory of dialectical materialism and wrote Das Kapital
Maximilian der 1. (1756-1825)- König / king of Bavaria, from the Wittelsbach family, who made Munich a cultural center; his son was Ludwig der 1., whose marriage started Oktoberfest
Karl May (1842-1912)- Schriftsteller / writer, who was the best selling writer of all time and who wrote mainly wild west books set in the American West, similar books set in the Orient and Middle East, and books set in his native Germany
Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560)- Theologe, Professor, Philosoph / a theologian, teacher, philosopher, who was a German reformer, a collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, an intellectual leader of the Luthern Reformation, and an influential designer of educational systems
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)- österreichischer Biologe / Austrian biologist
Felix Mendelssohn-Batholdy (1809-1847)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer, who wrote overtures to Shakespeare’s works, oratories, and chamber music
Angela Merkel (1954- )- Politikerin und Kanzlerin Deutschlands / German politician and a former research scientist, who has been the Chancellor of Germany since 2005 and the leader of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000
Klemens Lothar Wenzel von Metternich (1773-1859)- Staatsmann und Politiker / statesman and politician, who was the chancellor of Austria during Napolean’s reign over Europe and made deals with him to keep Austria’s independence
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825-1898)- Dichter / Swiss poet and writer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)- Musiker und Komponist / Austrian musician and composer from the city of Salzburg, who wrote the opera Zauberflöte; played the piano at age 3; played the organ and violin at age 7; composed musical works at age 10
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Thomas Nast (1840-1902)- Zeichner / artist and drawer, who was considered the "father of American political cartoonists" took many photographs during the Civil war; emigrated from Germany to New York in 1846
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche(1844-1900)- Philosoph / philosopher of "pessimism"
Amalie Emmy Noether(1882-1935)- Mathemathiker / mathematician best known for her contributions to algebra and theoretical physicals. Many consider her the most important woman in the history of mathematics.
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Georg Simon Ohm (1787-1854)- Physiker / physicist who worked in the field of electrical resistance, and a law was named after him
Otto der 1. Oder der Große (912-973)- Kaiser / emperor during Germanic days of the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation
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Paracelsus (1493-1541)- Mediziner / a Swiss German physician, botanist, alchemist, who founded the discipline of toxicology
Franz Daniel Pastorius (1651-1719)- Gründer von Deutschestadt / leader of the first German immigrants who settled in Germantown (Philadelphia) on October 6, 1683; his protests ended slavery in other German religious colonies
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827)- Pädagoge und Erzieher / a Swiss educator, who stressed that the individual talents of each student were more important than the learning about a lot of subjects in school
Max Planck (1858-1947)- Physiker / physicist and creator of the quantrum theory in physics
Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951)- Konstrukteur / designer of the car bearing his name and the Volkswagen "Beetle"
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Max Reinhardt (1873-1943)- Regisseur / film director who directed the American film A Midsummer Night's Dream of William Shakespeare's play.
Manfred von Richthofen (1882-1918)- Flugzeugführer / fighter pilot during World War One with the German Imperial Army Air Service, who was better known as the "Red Baron," who is considered the top ace of the war, and who is officially credited with 80 air combat victories
Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003)- Filmregisseurin des Filmes „Triumph des Willens" / film director of the movie Triumph of the Will
Karl Ritter (1779-1859)- Geograph / geographer who along with Alexander von Humboldt is considered one of the founders of modern geography
John Augustus Roebling (1806-1869)- Bauingenieur und Brückenbauer / German-American civil engineer and bridge-builder who designed and built wire rope suspension bridges, in particular the Brooklyn Bridge.
Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel (1891-1944)- Feldherr und Militärtheoretiker / a German general and military theorist. Popularly known as the Desert Fox, he served as field marshal in the Wehrmacht (Defense Force) of Nazi Germany during World War II
Wilhelm Konrad von Röntgen (1845-1923)- Physiker / physicist who discovered X-rays
Rudolf der erste von Hapsburg (1218-1291)- König / this Hapsburg king was the first ruler of the kingdom of Austria, which ruled from the 1200’s to 1918 over the Austro-Hungarian empire
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Prinz Eugen von Savoyen (1663-1736)- Feldherr / prince and general during the Hapsburg rule of Austria; defeated the Turks to protect Vienna from being overrun
Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805)- Dichter, Dramatiker, und Schriftsteller / poet, dramatist, and writer, who is regarded as one of Germany’s great literary figures
Oskar Schindler (1908-1974)- Industrieller / ethnic German idustrialist, spy, and member of the Nazi party, who is credited with saving the lives of 12,000 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories
August Wilhelm von Schlegel (1767-1845)- Schriftsteller / writer
Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829)- Schriftsteller / author and philosopher of the Romantic period
Max Schmeling (1905-2005)- Boxer / German athlete, who was the first boxer to defeat Joe Louis
Helmut Schmidt (1918-2015)- Politiker und Kanzler / a Social Democratic politician, who served as Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982 and negotiated treaties with East Germany
Romy Schneider (1938-1982)- Schauspielerin / German actress, whose career was marked by tremendous success and personal tragedies
Sophie Scholl (1921-1943)- Politiker / political activist, who was one of the members of the Nazi resistance group called the White Rose
Arthur Schopenauer (1788-1860)- Philosoph / philosopher, who was known as the "philosopher of pessimism;" and whose main work is called die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (World as Will and Representation)
Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961)- Physiker / Nobel Prize-winning Austrian physicist who developed a number of fundamental results in the field of quantum theory
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer, who wrote chamber music and symphonies and whose most famous works are Ständchen and Unvollendete Symphonie
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer, who set to music the verses of many German lyric poets and also composed chamber music, symphonies and pieces for piano
Carl Schurz (1829-1906)- Staatsmann und Militärsoffizier / a German immigrant, who became a military officer, fought in the Civil War, and became a statesman in New York
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)- Arzt, Komponist, und Mensch / physcian, composer, and humanitarian, who was an educated man in the fields of theology, philosophy, music, and medicine; a humanitarian who built hospitals and fought disease in Africa
Werner von Siemens (1816-1892)- Physiker, Elektroingenieur, und Großindustrieller / physicist, electro-engineer, and industrialist, who started a large electro-technology company and who was the inventor of the dynamo in 1866
Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (1907-1944)- Armeeoffizier, Oberst / army officer, colonel, who was one of the leading figures of the failed July 20 plot of 1944 to kill Adolf Hitler and seize power in Germany
Charles Steinmetz (1865-1923)- Mathemathiker und Elektrotechniker / German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer, who fostered the development of alternating current that made possible the expansion of electrical power industry in the US
Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730-1794)- Soldat und Offizier / Prussian general who came to America to help train American soldiers at Valley Forge and became Inspector General of the Continental Army under General Washington
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)- Komponist / major composer of the 20th century, who is known for his work in electronic music
Johann Strauß I (1804-1849)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer from Vienna who was famous for his waltzes. His most famous piece is the Radetzky March
Johann Strauß II (1825-1899)- Musiker und Komponist / Austrian musician and composer, who is known for the Vienna waltz
Levi Strauss (1829-1902)- Einwanderer und Unternehmer / German-Jewish immigrant to the United States and entrepreneur, who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans in San Francisco, California
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer, who was known for his operas, his songs, his tone poems, and other instrumental works; he was also a prominent conductor throughout Germany and Austria
Gustav Stresemann (1878-1929)- Staatsmann und Politiker / statesman and politician, who was the chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic until 1929
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Maria Theresa (1717-1780)- Königin von österreich / Habsburg queen of Austria during Prussia’s rise to power and married into the French royal family
Georg Johannes von Trapp (1880-1947)- Kriegsmarineoffizier / Austro-Hungarian navy officer, whose naval exploits during World War One earned him numerous decorations, later married Maria Kutschera, who trained his children to sing, and later emigrated to the US instead of serving in the German navy in 1938 (Baron von Trapp and the Sound of Music)
Maria von Trapp (1905-1987)- Nonne, Stiefmutter, und Sängerin / nun, stepmother from Salzburg, Austria, singer, and matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers, who was the inspiration for the musical film The Sound of Music
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Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973)- Politiker / East German leader who ordered the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961
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Richard Wagner (1813-1883)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer, who was the first to write both the music and lyrics to his works (Ring of the Nibelungen and other German legends and sagas), and who was patronized and who was supported by King Ludwig of Bavaria
Wolfgang Wagner (1919-2010)- Dirigent and Festspielleiter / conductor and festival director of the Bayreuth Festival in Bayreuth, Bavaria, who was also the grandson of Richard Wagner
Kurt Waldheim (1918-2007)- Politiker und Diplomat / Austrian politician and diplomat, who was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations (1972-1981), the ninth President of Austria (1986-1992)
Albrecht von Wallenstein (1583-1634)- Feldherr / mercenary general during the Thirty Years War
Felix Wankel (1902-1988)- mechanischer Ingenieur / mechanical engineer, who designed the internal combustion engine
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)- Musiker und Komponist / musician and composer, who was famous for chamber music and operas
Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984)- Schwimmer und Schauspieler / Austrian-American gold-medal Olympic swimmer (3 in 1924 and 2 in 1928) and portrayed "Tarzan" in films of the 1930s and 1940s.
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1912-2007)- Physiker und Philosoph / physicist and philosopher, who was a member of the team which performed nuclear research in Germany during World War Two, under Werner Heisenberg’s leadership
Richard von Weizäcker (1920-2015)- Politiker / politician, who was the first president of a reunited Germany and played a major role in helping the country face up to its Nazi past
Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005)- Schriftsteller / Austrian writer and Jewish Holocaust survivor, who became famous after World War Two for his work as a Nazi hunter
Billy Wilder (1904-1984)- Filmemacher / an Austrian-born American filmmaker whose career spanned more than fifty years and sixty films including The Apartment, Double Indemnity, and Some Like It Hot
- Kaiser Wilhelm (1815-1898)
- Staatsmann und Politiker / statesman and politician; he was the chancellor who founded „das deutsche Reich" in 1871, with Prussia as the leading state, Berlin as the leading city, and Hohenzollern as the ruling family (Otto von Bismarck)
Katarina Witt (1965- )- Eiskunstläuferin / former figure skater from East Germany who won two Olympic gold medals (1984, 1988), was World Champion (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988), and was European Champion (1983-88)
Hugo Wolf (1860-1906)- Musiker und Komponist / Austrian musician and composer, who put to music many poems from famous German and foreign poets
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)- Psychologe / psychogist, who is considered one of the founding fathers of modern psychology
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Karl Zeiss (1816-1888)- Konstrukteur / designer of the microscope, telescope, and photo lenses
Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin (1838-1917)- Erfinder und Bauer des ersten Luftschiffes / inventor and builder of the first airship
Konrad Zuse (1910-1995)- Ingenieur und Computerbahnbrecher / engineer and computer pioneer, whose greatest achievement was the world’s first functional program-controlled Turing-complete computer
Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531)- protestantischer Reformist / protestant reformer from Switzerland, who translated the Bible during the Reformation into a Swiss-German version known as the Zürich Bible
For Educational Puposes Only. Photos via Wikimedia Commons.