Henry I the Fowler (876-936), Duke of Saxony, King of Germany (generally considered to be the first king of the medieval German state)
Otto I the Great (912-973), Duke of Saxony, King of Germany, King of Italy, and arguably the first Holy Roman Emperor
Henry IV (1050-1106), King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa (1122-1190), King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor
George I (1660-1727), Prince-Elector of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, King of Great Britain and King of Ireland (1714-1727)
Frederick II the Great (1712-1786), King of Prussia (1740-1786), Prince-Elector of Brandenburg, and enlightened monarch
Leopold I of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1790-1865), first King of the Belgians (1831-1865)
William I (1797-1888), King of Prussia (1861-1888) and first German Emperor (1871-1888)
Otto of Greece (1815-1867), King of Bavaria, and first modern king of Greece (1833-1862)
Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, (1819-1861), Queen Victoria's husband & consort
Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1839-1914), first King of the Romanians (1881-1914)
Alexander of Battenberg (1857-1893), first Prince (Kniaz) of modern Bulgaria
Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1861-1948), Prince of Bulgaria (1887-1908), first King (or Tsar) of the Bulgarians (1908-1918)
Philosophers
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), philosopher, political economist, and co-founder of communism
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
Karl Marx (1818-1883), philosopher, sociologist, and co-founder of communism
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Scientists & Inventors
Anton de Bary (1831-1888), surgeon, botanist, microbiologist, founder of plant pathology and modern mycology
Karl Benz (1844-1929), engineer, inventor of the gasoline-powered automobile, and founder of Mercedes-Benz
Wernher von Braun (1912-1977), space engineer and rocket scientist
Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900), inventor, engineer and founder of Daimler Motors
Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913), inventor of the Diesel engine
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) physicist, known for the theory of relativity
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), mathematician (has been called the "greatest mathematician since antiquity")
Johann Gutenberg, (c. 1400-1468), inventor of the printing press in Europe
Otto Hahn, (1879-1968) chemist (Nobel laureate), pioneer of radioactivity and radiochemistry, and "the father of nuclear chemistry"
Werner Karl Heisenberg (1901-1976), physicist (Nobel laureate), one of the founders of quantum mechanics
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1894), physicist
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), naturalist and explorer, early biogeographist
Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi (1804-1851), one of the greatest algorists and mathematicians of all time
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), astronomer
Robert Koch (1843-1910), physician (Nobel laureate), co-founder of bacteriology,isolator of anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera
Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716), physicist, mathematician and philosopher
Wilhelm Maybach (1846-1929), car-engine and automobile constructor
Nikolaus Otto, (1832-1891) inventor of the internal-combustion engine, coinventor of the Otto cycle
Max Planck, (1858-1947) physicist, founder of quantum theory
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845-1923), physicist
Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786), chemist, discoverer of oxygen and chlorine
Matthias Jakob Schleiden (1804-1881), botanist and co-founder of cell theory
Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890), archaeologist, excavator of Troy, Mycenae and Tiryns
Theodor Schwann (1810-1882), physiologist, and co-founder of cell theory
William Stern (1871-1938), psychologist, philosopher, inventor of the concept of the intelligence quotient (IQ)
Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902), doctor, anthropologist, biologist and pathologist ("father of pathology")
Karl Weierstrass (1815-1897), mathematician ("father of modern analysis")
Wilhelm Wundt, (1832-1920), physiologist, psychologist, founder of experimental psychology and cognitive psychology
Ferdinand von Zeppelin, (1838-1917), inventor of the Zeppelin
Writers
Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908), poet and satirist
Günter Grass (born 1927), author, Nobel Prize in Literature 1999
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832), author, poet, dramatist, scientist, painter
Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859), famous collectors of fairy tales
Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), essayist and Romantic poet
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803), essayist, philosopher and poet
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), author
Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843), Classical and Romantic poet
Novalis (1772-1801), Romantic poet and novelist
Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), poet, playwright, philosopher, and historian
August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845), Romantic poet, critic and translator
Composers
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, (1714-1788)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Max Bruch (1838-1920)
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847)
Carl Orff, (1895-1982)
Johann Pachelbel, (1653-1706)
Robert Schumann, (1810-1856)
Richard Strauss, (1864-1949)
Georg Philipp Telemann, (1681-1767)
Richard Wagner, (1813-1883)
Carl Maria von Weber, (1786-1826)
Painters
Lucas Cranach the Elder, (1472-1553) and the Younger, (1515-1586), Renaissance painters
Albrecht Dürer, (1471-1528), Renaissance painter
Caspar David Friedrich, (1774-1840), Romantic painter
Hans Holbein the Elder, (c.1465-1524) and the Younger, (c.1497-1543), Renaissance painters
Sportspersons
Boris Becker (born 1967), tennis player, six-time Grand Slam singles champion, Olympic gold medalist, and the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles title at Wimbledon.
Steffi Graf (born 1969), tennis player, winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second among male and female players only to Margaret Smith Court's 24.
Michael Schumacher (born 1969), former Formula One driver, seven-time world champion and statistically the greatest F1 driver ever.
Other famous Germans
Hildegard von Bingen, (1098-1179), abbess, artist, author, counselor, dramatist, linguist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, poet, political consultant, prophet, visionary, and a composer of music (precursor of the opera).
Prince Otto von Bismarck, (1815-1898), Prussian statesman, Imperial Chancellor and engineer of the Unification of Germany.
Hugo Boss, fashion designer.
Marlene Dietrich, (1901-1992), actress
Diane Kruger, (born 1976), model and actress
Claudia Schiffer, (born 1970), actress and supermodel
Eupedia Top > Germany Guide Top > Famous Germans