Famous people from Germany

Monarchs (by chronological order)

• 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)
• 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

Sports

• 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 (1885-1948), fashion designer.

• Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992), actress
• Diane Kruger (born 1976), model and actress
• Claudia Schiffer (born 1970), actress and supermodel