100 Notable alumni of
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
Updated:
The Friedrich Schiller University of Jena is 196th in the world, 69th in Europe, and 11th in Germany by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Karl Marx
- Occupations
- sociologisthistorianwritereconomistphilosopher
- Biography
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Karl Marx was a German philosopher, social and political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet The Communist Manifesto (written with Friedrich Engels), and his three-volume Das Kapital (1867–1894), a critique of classical political economy which employs his theory of historical materialism in an analysis of capitalism, in the culmination of his life's work. Marx's ideas and their subsequent development, collectively known as Marxism, have had enormous influence.
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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Occupations
- philosopher of lawwriterphilosophy historianuniversity teacherlogician
- Biography
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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher and a major figure in the tradition of German idealism. His influence on Western philosophy extends across a wide range of topics—from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy, to the philosophy of art and religion.
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- Studied in 1663-1663
- Occupations
- mathematiciandiplomaticianengineermusic theoristphilosopher of law
- Biography
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist, and diplomat who is credited, alongside Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to many other branches of mathematics, such as binary arithmetic and statistics. Leibniz has been called the "last universal genius" due to his vast expertise across fields, which became a rarity after his lifetime with the coming of the Industrial Revolution and the spread of specialized labour. He is a prominent figure in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathematics. He wrote works on philosophy, theology, ethics, politics, law, history, philology, games, music, and other studies. Leibniz also made major contributions to physics and technology, and anticipated notions that surfaced much later in probability theory, biology, medicine, geology, psychology, linguistics and computer science.
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Sahra Wagenknecht
- Occupations
- economistnon-fiction writeropinion journalisteditorpolitician
- Biography
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Sahra Wagenknecht is a German politician. She was a member of the Bundestag from 2009 to 2025, where she represented The Left until 2023. From 2015 to 2019, she served as that party's parliamentary co-chair. With a small team of allies, Wagenknecht left the party on 23 October 2023 to found her own Eurosceptic, populist party, Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, which unsuccessfully contested the 2025 federal election, narrowly failing the 5% threshold. Since 2025, she no longer holds any public office.
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Friedrich Schiller
- Occupations
- philosopherhistorianaestheticianlibrettistmilitary physician
- Biography
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Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered to be one of Germany's most important classical playwrights.
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Alexander von Humboldt
- Occupations
- oceanographervolcanologistnaturalisteconomistworld traveler
- Biography
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Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, while his advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement pioneered modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Humboldt and Carl Ritter are both regarded as the founders of modern geography as they established it as an independent scientific discipline.
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Johann Gottlieb Fichte
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopherwriter
- Biography
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Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant.
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Novalis
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- 1790-1794 studied legal science
- Occupations
- poetwriterliterary theoristphilosopherlyricist
- Biography
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Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, pen name Novalis, was a German aristocrat and polymath, who was a poet, novelist, philosopher and mystic. He is regarded as an influential figure of Jena Romanticism.
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Friedrich Hölderlin
- Occupations
- philosopherlibrettistHofmeisterwritertranslator
- Biography
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Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was a German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticism. Particularly due to his early association with and philosophical influence on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, he was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism.
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Hans Christian Ørsted
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teacherpharmacistengineerinventor
- Biography
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Hans Christian Ørsted, sometimes transliterated as Oersted, was a Danish chemist and physicist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields. This phenomenon is known as Oersted's law. He also discovered aluminium, a chemical element.
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Friedrich Fröbel
- Occupations
- association football playerteacherwriternon-fiction writerpedagogue
- Biography
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Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froebel was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique needs and capabilities. He created the concept of the kindergarten and coined the word, which soon entered the English language as well. He also developed the educational toys known as Froebel gifts.
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Gottlob Frege
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- Studied in 1869-1871
- Occupations
- university teacheranalytic philosopherlogicianmathematicianphilosopher of language
- Biography
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Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic philosophy, concentrating on the philosophy of language, logic, and mathematics. Though he was largely ignored during his lifetime, Giuseppe Peano (1858–1932), Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), and, to some extent, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) introduced his work to later generations of philosophers. Frege is widely considered to be one of the greatest logicians since Aristotle, and one of the most profound philosophers of mathematics ever.
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Kurt Tucholsky
- Occupations
- journalistpoet lawyeropinion journalistplaywrightcritic
- Biography
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Kurt Tucholsky was a German journalist, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel.
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Gerhart Hauptmann
- Occupations
- playwrightautobiographernovelistlyricistpoet
- Biography
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Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into his work as well. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.
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Johann Joachim Winckelmann
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- 1741-1742 studied medicine
- Occupations
- in-home tutorwriterart historianlibrarianhistorian
- Biography
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Johann Joachim Winckelmann was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology", Winckelmann was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the history of art. Many consider him the father of the discipline of art history. He was one of the first to separate Greek art into periods and time classifications.
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Max Scheler
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopheraxiologistanthropologistsociologist
- Biography
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Max Ferdinand Scheler was a German philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. Considered in his lifetime one of the most prominent German philosophers, Scheler developed the philosophical method of Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology.
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Gunther von Hagens
- Occupations
- inventorsculptoruniversity teacheranatomist
- Biography
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Gunther von Hagens is a German anatomist, businessman, and lecturer. He developed the technique for preserving biological tissue specimens called plastination. Von Hagens has organized numerous Body Worlds public exhibitions and occasional live demonstrations of his and his colleagues' work, and has traveled worldwide to promote its educational value. The sourcing of biological specimens for and the commercial background of his exhibits has been controversial.
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Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- Studied in 1865-1868
- Occupations
- travelerzoologistmarine biologistbiologistanthropologist
- Biography
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Nicholas or Nicholai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay was a Russian explorer and scientist. He worked as an ethnologist, anthropologist and biologist. He became famous as one of the earliest scientists to settle among and study indigenous people of New Guinea "who had never seen a European".
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Matthias Jacob Schleiden
- Occupations
- botanistbotanical collectorbiologistuniversity teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Matthias Jakob Schleiden was a German botanist and co-founder of cell theory, along with Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow. He published some poems and non-scientific work under the pseudonym Ernst.
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Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner
- Occupations
- university teacherchemistpharmacist
- Biography
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Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner was a German chemist who is known best for work that was suggestive of the periodic law for the chemical elements, and for inventing the first lighter, which was known as the Döbereiner's lamp. He became a professor of chemistry and pharmacy for the University of Jena.
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Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge
- Occupations
- university teacherchemist
- Biography
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Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was a German analytical chemist. Runge identified the mydriatic (pupil dilating) effects of belladonna (deadly nightshade) extract, identified caffeine, and discovered the first coal tar dye (aniline blue).
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Christian Wolff
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- Studied in 1699
- Occupations
- mathematicianjuristphilosopheruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Christian Wolff was a German philosopher. Wolff is characterized as one of the most eminent German philosophers between Leibniz and Kant. His life work spanned almost every scholarly subject of his time, displayed and unfolded according to his demonstrative-deductive, mathematical method, which some deem the peak of Enlightenment rationality in Germany.
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Carl Zeiss
- Occupations
- engineerphysicistentrepreneurphotographer
- Biography
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Carl Zeiss was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Zeiss. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted practical and theoretical opticians and glass makers to reshape most aspects of optical instrument production. His collaboration with Ernst Abbe revolutionized optical theory and practical design of microscopes. Their quest to extend these advances brought Otto Schott into the enterprises to revolutionize optical glass manufacture. The firm of Carl Zeiss grew to one of the largest and most respected optical firms in the world.
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Christa Wolf
- Occupations
- writercriticscience fiction writerauthorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Christa Wolf was a German novelist and essayist. She is considered one of the most important writers to emerge from the former East Germany.
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Gottfried Benn
- Occupations
- authorpoetnovelistessayistphysician writer
- Biography
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Gottfried Benn was a German poet, essayist, and physician. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1951.
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Johann Friedrich Herbart
- Occupations
- university teacherteacherphilosopherpedagoguepsychologist
- Biography
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Johann Friedrich Herbart was a German philosopher, psychologist and founder of pedagogy as an academic discipline.
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Axel Oxenstierna
- Occupations
- land ownermilitary personneldiplomatpolitician
- Biography
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Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna was a Swedish statesman and Count of Södermöre. He became a member of the Swedish Privy Council in 1609 and served as Lord High Chancellor of Sweden from 1612 until his death. He was a confidant of King Gustavus Adolphus and then Queen Christina, for whom he was at first regent.
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Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
- Occupations
- curatorphysiologistbiologistuniversity teacheranthropologist
- Biography
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Johann Friedrich Blumenbach was a German physician, naturalist, physiologist, and anthropologist. He is considered to be a main founder of zoology and anthropology as comparative, scientific disciplines. He has been called the "founder of racial classifications".
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Friedrich Carl von Savigny
- Occupations
- juristwriterlegal historianuniversity teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Friedrich Carl von Savigny was a German jurist and historian.
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Gazi Yaşargil
- Occupations
- scientistuniversity teachersurgeonneurosurgeonphysician
- Biography
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Mahmut Gazi Yaşargil was a Turkish-Swiss medical scientist and neurosurgeon. He collaborated with Raymond M. P. Donaghy M.D at the University of Vermont in developing microneurosurgery. Yaşargil treated epilepsy and brain tumours with instruments of his own design. From 1953 until his retirement in 1993, he was first resident, chief resident and then professor and chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Zurich and the Zurich University Hospital. In 1999, he was honored as "Neurosurgery’s Man of the Century 1950–1999" at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting. He was a founding member of Eurasian Academy.
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Jack Barsky
- Occupations
- writersleeper agent
- Biography
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Jack Philip Barsky is an author, former CIO at a Fortune 500 energy firm and former operative of the KGB who spied on the United States from 1978 to 1988. Exposed after the Cold War had ended, Barsky became a resource for U.S. counterintelligence agencies, and held executive technology roles at major U.S. corporations. He was not charged with any crime and was allowed to remain in the United States. His autobiography, Deep Undercover, was published in 2017, and he frequently speaks on his experiences and as an expert on espionage.
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Ernst Moritz Arndt
- Occupations
- politicianuniversity teacherwriterhistorianpoet
- Biography
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Ernst Moritz Arndt was a German nationalist historian, writer and poet. Early in his life, he fought for the abolition of serfdom, later against Napoleonic dominance over Germany. Arndt had to flee to Sweden for some time due to his anti-French positions. He is one of the main founders of German nationalism during the Napoleonic wars and the 19th century movement for German unification. After the Carlsbad Decrees, the forces of the restoration counted him as a demagogue.
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Hartmut Rosa
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- Graduated with habilitation in sociology and political science
- Occupations
- philosophereditorsociologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Hartmut Rosa is a German sociologist and political scientist who is best known for his theory of resonance and temporal sociology of social acceleration.
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August von Kotzebue
- Occupations
- autobiographerpoetlawyerwriterplaywright
- Biography
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August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue was a German playwright, who had also worked as a Russian diplomat.
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Ernst Abbe
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- Studied in 1857-1859
- Occupations
- astronomeruniversity teacherphysiciststatisticianlens designer
- Biography
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Ernst Karl Abbe HonFRMS, was a German businessman, optical engineer, physicist, and social reformer. Together with Otto Schott and Carl Zeiss, he developed numerous optical instruments. He was also a co-owner of Carl Zeiss AG, a German manufacturer of scientific microscopes, astronomical telescopes, planetariums, and other advanced optical systems.
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Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- In 1745 studied Protestant theology
- Occupations
- writerplaywrightlinguistpoetin-home tutor
- Biography
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Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock was a German poet. His best known works are the epic poem Der Messias ("The Messiah") and the poem Die Auferstehung ("The Resurrection"), with the latter set to music in the finale of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2. One of his major contributions to German literature was to open it up to exploration outside of French models.
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Thomas Röhler
- Occupations
- athletics competitorjavelin thrower
- Biography
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Thomas Röhler is a German track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. He is the 2016 Olympic Champion and 2018 European Champion. His personal best of 93.90 m for the event ranks him third on the overall list.
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Samuel von Pufendorf
- Occupations
- economistjuristwriteruniversity teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Samuel von Pufendorf was a German jurist, political philosopher, economist and historian. He was born Samuel Pufendorf and ennobled in 1694; he was made a baron by Charles XI of Sweden a few months before his death at age 62. Among his achievements are his commentaries and revisions of the natural law theories of Thomas Hobbes and Hugo Grotius.
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Matthias Claudius
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- Studied theology
- Occupations
- writerpoetjournalistpoet lawyer
- Biography
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Matthias Claudius was a German poet and journalist, otherwise known by the pen name of "Asmus".
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Andrey Osterman
- Occupations
- diplomatpolitician
- Biography
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Count Andrey Ivanovich Ostermann was a German-born Russian statesman who came to prominence under Tsar Peter I of Russia (r. 1682–1725) and served until the accession of the Tsesarevna Elizabeth in 1741. He based his foreign policy on the Austrian alliance. General Admiral (1740; dismissed 1741).
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Georg Heym
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- Studied in 1910
- Occupations
- poet lawyernovelistwriterplaywrightpoet
- Biography
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Georg Theodor Franz Artur Heym was a German writer. He is particularly known for his poetry, representative of early Expressionism.
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Wiebke Muhsal
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Wiebke Muhsal is a German politician with the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Since 2014, she is a member of the Landtag of Thuringia and deputy chairman of the AfD caucus. She is also her party's critic on family and education policy and is a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Youth and Sports.
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Friedrich Hund
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicistnon-fiction writernuclear physicistchemist
- Biography
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Friedrich Hermann Hund was a German physicist from Karlsruhe known for his work on atoms and molecules. He is known for the Hund's rules to predict the electron configuration of chemical elements. His work on Hund's cases and molecular orbital theory furthered the understanding of molecular structure.
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George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, ruled as Prince of Calenberg from 1635. He was a member of the House of Welf, a prominent German noble family. George was part of a cadet branch of the family known as the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg, which held territories in what is now Lower Saxony in Germany.
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Georg Ernst Stahl
- Occupations
- university teachersurgeonphilosopherchemistphysician
- Biography
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Georg Ernst Stahl was a German chemist, physician and philosopher. He was a supporter of vitalism, and until the late 18th century his works on phlogiston were accepted as an explanation for chemical processes.
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Ján Kollár
- Occupations
- linguistpoetfolkloristslavistphilosopher
- Biography
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Ján Kollár was a Slovak writer (mainly poet), archaeologist, scientist, Lutheran pastor, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.
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Roland Matthes
- Occupations
- swimmersurgeon
- Biography
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Roland Matthes was a German swimmer and the most successful backstroke swimmer of all time. Between April 1967 and August 1974 he won all backstroke competitions he entered. He won four European championships and three world championships in a row, and swam 19 world and 28 European records in various backstroke, butterfly and medley events. He was trained by Marlies Grohe.
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Hans Berger
- Occupations
- scientistuniversity teacherpsychiatristneurologistinventor
- Biography
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Hans Berger was a German psychiatrist. He is best known as the inventor of electroencephalography (EEG) in 1924, which is a method used for recording the electrical activity of the brain, commonly described in terms of brainwaves, and as the discoverer of the alpha wave rhythm which is a type of brainwave. Alpha waves have been eponymously referred to as the "Berger wave."
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Manfred Stolpe
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- 1955-1959 graduated with Staatsexamen in legal science
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Manfred Stolpe was a German canonist, theologian and politician who served as Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs of Germany from 2002 until 2005. Before, he was Ministerpräsident of the state Brandenburg from 1990 until 2002. Stolpe was, after the state elections following German reunification, the only Social Democratic Minister-President of a state of former East Germany. Stolpe is considered to be the architect of modern Brandenburg and left office with a 74% approval rating. He is credited with forging a new identity for the state, among other things, popularizing the Brandenburglied, though controversy surrounding several failed projects and his work for the Stasi came up during his tenure. To date, Brandenburg has only had Social Democratic Minister-Presidents.
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Arvid Harnack
- Occupations
- economistjuristresistance fighter
- Biography
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Arvid Harnack was a German jurist, Marxist economist, Communist, and German resistance fighter in Nazi Germany. Harnack came from an intellectual family and was originally a humanist. He was strongly influenced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe but progressively moved to a Marxist-Socialist outlook after a visit to the Soviet Union and the Nazis' appearance. After starting an undercover discussion group based at the Berlin Abendgymnasium, he met Harro Schulze-Boysen, who ran a similar faction. Like numerous groups in other parts of the world, the undercover political factions led by Harnack and Schulze-Boysen later developed into an espionage network that supplied military and economic intelligence to the Soviet Union. The group was later called the Red Orchestra (Rote Kapelle) by the Abwehr. He and his American-born wife, Mildred Fish, were executed by the Nazi regime in 1942 and 1943, respectively.
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Friedrich Joseph Haass
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
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Dr. Friedrich Joseph Haass was the "holy doctor of Moscow". Born in Bad Münstereifel, as a member of Moscow's governmental prison committee, he spent 25 years until the end of his life to humanize the penal system. During the last nine years before his death, he spent all of his assets to run a hospital for homeless people. He died in Moscow. Twenty thousand people attended his funeral at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery, which was paid for by the state as he had no more money.
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Georg Wilhelm Richmann
- Occupations
- physicistinventor
- Biography
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Georg Wilhelm Richmann was a Russian physicist of Baltic German origin who did pioneering work on electricity, atmospheric electricity, and calorimetry. He died by electrocution in St. Petersburg when struck by apparent ball lightning produced by an experiment attempting to ground the electrical discharge from a storm.
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Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch
- Occupations
- biologistphilosopheruniversity teacherzoologist
- Biography
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Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch was a German biologist and philosopher from Bad Kreuznach. He is most noted for his early experimental work in embryology and for his neo-vitalist philosophy of entelechy. He has also been credited with performing the first artificial 'cloning' of an animal in the 1880s, although this claim is dependent on how one defines cloning.
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Karl Korsch
- Occupations
- essayistuniversity teacherpoliticianphilosopherjurist
- Biography
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Karl Korsch was a German Marxist theoretician and political philosopher. He is recognized as one of the "dissidents" that challenged the Marxism of the Second International of Karl Kautsky, Georgi Plekhanov and Lenin. Along with György Lukács, Korsch is considered to be one of the major figures responsible for laying the groundwork for Western Marxism in the 1920s.
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Bruno Beger
- Occupations
- racial theoristexploreranthropologist
- Biography
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Bruno Beger was a German racial anthropologist, ethnologist, and explorer who worked for the Ahnenerbe. In that role he participated in Ernst Schäfer's 1938–1939 expedition to Tibet, helped the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS, RuSHA) identify Jews, and later helped select human subjects to be killed to create an anatomical study collection of Jewish skulls.
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Karl Christian Friedrich Krause
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopherwriter
- Biography
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Karl Christian Friedrich Krause was a German philosopher whose doctrines became known as Krausism. Krausism, when considered in its totality as a complete, stand-alone philosophical system, had only a small following in Germany, France, and Belgium, in contradistinction to certain other philosophical systems (such as Hegelianism) that had a much larger following in Europe at that time. However, Krausism became very popular and influential in Restoration Spain not as a complete, comprehensive philosophical system per se, but as a broad cultural movement. In Spain, Krausism was known as "Krausismo", and Krausists were known as "Krausistas". Outside of Spain, the Spanish Krausist cultural movement was referred to as Spanish Krausism.
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Walter Eucken
- Occupations
- resistance fightereconomist
- Biography
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Walter Eucken was a German economist of the Freiburg school and father of ordoliberalism. Ordoliberalism was based on the concept of social market economy balancing free markets with regulatory oversight. The Walter Eucken Institut was founded four years after his death and his ideas influenced West Germany’s economic policy.
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Pavel Jozef Šafárik
- Occupations
- university teacherjournalistethnographerlinguistpedagogue
- Biography
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Pavel Jozef Šafárik was a Slovak philologist, poet, literary historian, historian and ethnographer. He was one of the first scientific Slavists.
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Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach
- Occupations
- juristwriteruniversity teacherphilosopherjudge
- Biography
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Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach was a German legal scholar. His major achievement was a reform of the Bavarian penal code which led to the abolition of torture and became a model for several other countries. He is also well known for his research on Kaspar Hauser, who died the same year as Feuerbach.
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Alfred Brehm
- Occupations
- biologistnaturalistpainterzoologistscientific collector
- Biography
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Alfred Edmund Brehm was a German zoologist and writer. His multi-volume book Brehms Tierleben, which he co-authored with Eduard Pechuël-Loesche, Wilhelm Haacke, and Richard Schmidtlein, became a household word for popular zoological literature. He was the first director of the Zoological Garden of Hamburg.
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Johann Wilhelm Ritter
- Occupations
- university teacherchemistphysicist
- Biography
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Johann Wilhelm Ritter was a German chemist, physicist and philosopher. He is associated with the German Romanticism. He is also known for discovering the ultraviolet part of the electromagnetic spectrum. He is also credited for the first achieved sustained electrolysis of water and the discovery of electroplating.
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Wilhelm Windelband
- Occupations
- historianphilosopheruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Wilhelm Windelband was a German philosopher of the Baden School.
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Lorenz von Stein
- Occupations
- economistlawyersociologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Lorenz von Stein was a German economist, sociologist, and public administration scholar from Eckernförde. As an advisor to Meiji period Japan, his liberal political views influenced the wording of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan as well as major constitutional thinkers such as Rudolf von Gneist.
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Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Ernst II was the last reigning duke of Saxe-Altenburg and a German general active during World War I.
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Heinrich Friedrich Weber
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- Studied in 1865
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Heinrich Friedrich Weber was a physicist born in the town of Magdala, near Weimar.
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Herbert Kroemer
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Herbert Kroemer was a German–American solid-state physicist who, along with Zhores Alferov, received the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics "for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics." He was Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research into transistors was a stepping stone to the later development of mobile phone technologies.
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Alexander Svanidze
- Occupations
- politicianwriterhistoriantranslatorofficial
- Biography
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Alexander Semyonovich "Alyosha" Svanidze was a Georgian Old Bolshevik, politician and historian. He was a personal friend of Joseph Stalin and a brother of Stalin's first wife Kato. Nevertheless, he was arrested during the Great Purge in 1937 and he was shot in prison in 1941.
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Paul Friedrich I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
- Occupations
- sovereign
- Biography
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Paul Friedrich ruled as Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1837 to 1842.
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Paul Langerhans
- Occupations
- biologistpathologistphysiologist
- Biography
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Paul Langerhans was a German pathologist, physiologist and biologist, credited with the discovery of the cells that secrete insulin, named after him as the islets of Langerhans.
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Christine Lieberknecht
- Occupations
- politicianpastor
- Biography
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Christine Lieberknecht is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). From 2009 to 2014, she served as the Minister President of Thuringia. Lieberknecht was the first woman to become head of government in Thuringia and only the second woman to govern a German state.
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Hans Carl von Carlowitz
- Occupations
- forestereconomistnaturalistofficialessayist
- Biography
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Hans Carl von Carlowitz or Hannß Carl von Carlowitz, was a Saxon tax accountant and mining administrator. His book Sylvicultura oeconomica, oder haußwirthliche Nachricht und Naturmäßige Anweisung zur wilden Baum-Zucht (1713) was the first comprehensive treatise about forestry. He approached forestry from the fears of a shortage of wood needed for the mining industry. He coined the term Nachhaltigkeit, now translated as "sustainable" while referring to the use of forests and is considered to be the father of sustainable yield forestry.
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Ingo Schulze
- Occupations
- dramaturgenovelistwriterjournalistplaywright
- Biography
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Ingo Schulze is a German writer born in Dresden in former East Germany. He studied classical philology at the University of Jena for five years, and, until German reunification, was an assistant director (dramatic arts advisor) at the State Theatre in Altenburg 45 km south of Leipzig for two years. After sleeping through the events of the night of 9 November 1989, Schulze started a newspaper with friends. He was encouraged to write. Schulze spent six months in St Petersburg which became the basis for his debut collection of short stories 33 Moments of Happiness (1995).
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Bernard of Saxe-Weimar
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
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Bernard of Saxe-Weimar was a duke of Saxe-Weimar and a politically active Protestant general during the Thirty Years' War (1618–48). Known as one of the most capable field commanders of the conflict, he secured several notable victories against the forces of the Austrian Habsburgs, which strengthened both his reputation and the strategic position of the Protestant armies.
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Adolf Bastian
- Occupations
- exploreruniversity teacherwriteranthropologistpsychologist
- Biography
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Adolf Philipp Wilhelm Bastian was a 19th-century polymath remembered best for his contributions to the development of ethnography and the development of anthropology as a discipline. His theory of the Elementargedanke resulted in Carl Jung's development of the theory of archetypes. His ideas influenced the "father of American anthropology" Franz Boas and comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell.
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Heinrich Graetz
- Occupations
- university teachertheologianhistorianphilologistrabbi
- Biography
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Heinrich Graetz was a German exegete and one of the first modern historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective.
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Carl Duisberg
- Occupations
- industrialistchemistengineer
- Biography
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Friedrich Carl Duisberg was a German chemist, industrialist and co-founder of I.G. Farben.
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Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicianchief physician
- Biography
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Christoph Wilhelm Friedrich Hufeland was a German physician, naturopath and writer. Considered one of the most eminent practical physicians of his time in Germany, he authored numerous works displaying extensive reading and a cultivated critical faculty.
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Hermann Samuel Reimarus
- Occupations
- writerphilosopheruniversity teachertheologian
- Biography
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Hermann Samuel Reimarus, was a German philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment who is remembered for his Deism, the doctrine that human reason can arrive at a knowledge of God and ethics from a study of nature and our own internal reality, thus eliminating the need for religions based on revelation. He denied the supernatural origin of Christianity, and was the first influential critic to investigate the historical Jesus. According to Reimarus, Jesus was a mortal Jewish prophet, and the apostles founded Christianity as a religion separate from Jesus’ own ministry.
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Grigore Antipa
- Occupations
- biologistscientific collectorichthyologistzoologist
- Biography
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Grigore Antipa was a Romanian naturalist, zoologist, ichthyologist, ecologist, oceanologist, Darwinist biologist who studied the fauna of the Danube Delta and the Black Sea. Between 1892 and 1944 he was the director of the Bucharest Natural History Museum, which now bears his name. He is also considered to be the first person to modernize the diorama by emphasizing the three-dimensional aspect and first to use dioramas in a museum setting. He is the scientist who reorganized the Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History in the new building that today bears his name, designed by the architect Grigore Cerchez, built in 1906 and inaugurated by Carol I of Romania in 1908. He was elected as member of the Romanian Academy in 1910 and was also a member of several foreign academies. Grigore Antipa founded a school of hydrobiology and ichthyology in Romania.
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Francis Daniel Pastorius
- Occupations
- writerpoet lawyerabolitionistpolitician
- Biography
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Francis Daniel Pastorius was a German-born educator, lawyer, poet, and public official. He was the founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania, now part of Philadelphia, the first permanent German-American settlement and the gateway for subsequent emigrants from Germany.
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Otto Schott
- Occupations
- chemistglassmakerinventor
- Biography
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Friedrich Otto Schott was a German chemist, glass technologist, and the inventor of borosilicate glass. Schott systematically investigated the relationship between the chemical composition of the glass and its properties. In this way, he solved fundamental problems in glass properties, identifying compositions with optical properties that approach the theoretical limit. Schott's findings were a major advance in the optics for microscopy and optical astronomy. His work has been described as "a watershed in the history of glass composition".
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Wilhelm Heinrich Solf
- Occupations
- orientalistpoliticiandiplomatjuristphysician
- Biography
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Wilhelm Heinrich Solf was a German scholar, diplomat, jurist and statesman.
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Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt
- Occupations
- psychiatristuniversity teacherpathologistneuroscientistjudge
- Biography
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Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt was a German neurologist and neuropathologist. Although he is typically credited as the physician to first describe the Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, this has been disputed. He was born in Harburg an der Elbe and died in Munich.
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Jürgen Fuchs
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- In 1971 studied social psychology
- Occupations
- writerplaywrightpoetpsychologist
- Biography
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Jürgen Fuchs was an East German writer and dissident.
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Eduard Strasburger
- Occupations
- university teacherplant cell biologistbotanist
- Biography
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Eduard Adolf Strasburger was a Polish-German professor and one of the most famous botanists of the 19th century. He discovered mitosis in plants.
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Heinrich von Gagern
- Occupations
- military personnelpolitician
- Biography
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Heinrich Wilhelm August Freiherr von Gagern was a statesman who argued for the unification of Germany.
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Franz Ernst Neumann
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- 1818-1822 studied natural science and mathematics
- Occupations
- military volunteeruniversity teachercrystallographermathematicianmineralogist
- Biography
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Franz Ernst Neumann was a German mineralogist and physicist. He devised the first formulas to calculate inductance. He also formulated Neumann's law for molecular heat. In electromagnetism, he is credited for introducing the magnetic vector potential.
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Georg Ebers
- Occupations
- writerorientalistuniversity teacheregyptologist
- Biography
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Georg Moritz Ebers was a German Egyptologist and novelist. He is best known for his purchase of the Ebers Papyrus, one of the oldest Egyptian medical documents in the world.
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Johann Karl August Musäus
- Occupations
- literary criticcollector of fairy taleswriterchildren's writerpoet
- Biography
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Johann Karl August Musäus was a German author. He was one of the first collectors of German folk stories, most celebrated for his Volksmärchen der Deutschen (1782–1787), a collection of German fairy tales retold as satires.
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Karl Leonhard Reinhold
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Karl Leonhard Reinhold was an Austrian philosopher who helped to popularise the work of Immanuel Kant in the late 18th century. His "elementary philosophy" (Elementarphilosophie) also influenced German idealism, notably Johann Gottlieb Fichte, as a critical system grounded in a fundamental first principle.
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Christian Hirte
- Enrolled in the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- 1995-2001 studied jurisprudence
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Christian Hirte is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as member of the German Bundestag since 2008. From 2020 to 2022, he has been the chairman of the CDU in Thuringia and co-deputy Chairman since then.
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Hanns Seidel
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Franz Wendelin "Hanns" Seidel was a German politician who served as Minister-President of Bavaria from 1957 to 1960. He was a member, and from 1955 to 1961 chairman, of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU).
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Wilhelm Roux
- Occupations
- biologistuniversity teacheranatomistzoologist
- Biography
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Wilhelm Roux was a German zoologist and pioneer of experimental embryology.
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Arnold Ruge
- Occupations
- autobiographerwritertranslatorphilosopherpolitician
- Biography
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Arnold Ruge was a German philosopher and political writer. He was the older brother of Ludwig Ruge.
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Karl Gutzkow
- Occupations
- literary criticnovelistwriterjournalistplaywright
- Biography
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Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow was a German writer and dramatist who promoted political and social reformism. He studied philosophy and theology with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Schleiermacher, and his early works, like the novel Maha-Guru, Geschichte eines Gottes (1833), were satirical. His 1835 novel Wally, die Zweiflerin led to his imprisonment and suppression, marking the start of the Young Germany movement. His plays, especially Uriel Acosta (1847, based on Uriel da Costa), influenced German and Yiddish theater.
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Levon Shant
- Occupations
- public figureteacherwriter
- Biography
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Levon Shant was an Armenian playwright, novelist, poet and founder of the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society.
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Jost Winteler
- Occupations
- linguist
- Biography
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Jost Winteler was a Swiss professor of Greek and history at the Kantonsschule Aarau (today called the Old Cantonal School Aarau), a linguist, a "noted" philologist, an ornithologist, a journalist, and a published poet. He served as both a mentor and father figure to a teenage Albert Einstein, who boarded at his home from October 1895 to October 1896, while he attended his final year of secondary school.
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Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
- Occupations
- aristocrat
- Biography
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Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, was a duke of Saxe-Altenburg. He was the first son of Georg, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Marie Luise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In 1853, he succeeded his father as Duke of Saxe-Altenburg. He was of a retiring disposition and he took little active part in running the country. After a reign that lasted 55 years, he died without a living direct male heir; because of this, he was succeeded by his nephew, Ernst.
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Andreas Libavius
- Occupations
- university teacherchemistphysician
- Biography
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Andreas Libavius was a German writer.
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Christoph Cellarius
- Occupations
- pedagogueclassical scholarorientalistuniversity teacherphilologist
- Biography
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Christoph Cellarius (22 November 1638 – 4 June 1707) was a German classical scholar from Schmalkalden who held positions in Weimar and Halle. Although the Ancient-Medieval-Modern division of history was used earlier by Italian Renaissance scholars Leonardo Bruni and Flavio Biondo, Cellarius' Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, and New Period (1685) helped popularize it. After him, this tripartite division became standard.
