100 Notable alumni of
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
Updated:
The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg is 204th in the world, 72nd in Europe, and 12th in Germany by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 1 individual affiliated with the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg won Nobel Prizes in Physics.
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George Frideric Handel
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- Studied in 1702-1703
- Occupations
- opera composercomposerimpresarioorganistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti.
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Edmund Husserl
- Occupations
- mathematicianphilosopheruniversity teacherphenomenologist
- Biography
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Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of phenomenology.
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Oswald Spengler
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in philosophy
- Occupations
- writerhistorianphilosophermathematiciansociologist
- Biography
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Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler was a German polymath whose areas of interest included history, philosophy, mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best known for his two-volume work The Decline of the West (Der Untergang des Abendlandes), published in 1918 and 1922, covering human history. Spengler's model of history postulates that human cultures and civilizations are akin to biological entities, each with a limited, predictable, and deterministic lifespan. He predicted that Western civilization would enter the period of pre‑death emergency around the year 2000, which would lead to 200 years of Caesarism (extra-constitutional omnipotence of the executive branch of government) before Western civilization's final collapse.
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Georg Cantor
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- In 1869 graduated with habilitation
- Occupations
- university teachermathematicianphilosopher
- Biography
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Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor was a mathematician who played a pivotal role in the creation of set theory, which has become a fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor established the importance of one-to-one correspondence between the members of two sets, defined infinite and well-ordered sets, and proved that the real numbers are more numerous than the natural numbers. Cantor's method of proof of this theorem implies the existence of an infinity of infinities. He defined the cardinal and ordinal numbers and their arithmetic. Cantor's work is of great philosophical interest, a fact he was well aware of.
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Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk
- Occupations
- military personnelpoliticiandiplomatjuristeconomist
- Biography
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Johann Ludwig "Lutz" Graf Schwerin von Krosigk was a German senior government official who served as the minister of finance of Germany from 1932 to 1945 and de facto chancellor of Germany during May 1945.
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Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- 1751-1752 graduated with master's degree
- Occupations
- dramaturgeart historiantheologianlibrarianlyricist
- Biography
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Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature. He is widely considered by theatre historians to be the first dramaturg in his role at Abel Seyler's Hamburg National Theatre.
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Johann Friedrich Struensee
- Occupations
- politicianphysician
- Biography
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Lensgreve Johann Friedrich Struensee was a German-Danish physician, philosopher and statesman. He became royal physician to the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark-Norway and a minister in the Danish government. He rose in power to a position of de facto regent of the country, and he tried to carry out widespread reforms. His affair with Queen Caroline Matilda ("Caroline Mathilde") caused a scandal, especially after the birth of a daughter, Princess Louise Augusta, and was the catalyst for the intrigues and power play that caused his downfall and dramatic death.
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Hans-Dietrich Genscher
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- In 1946 studied general economics and jurisprudence
- Occupations
- military personnellawyerinterior ministernon-fiction writeruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Hans-Dietrich Genscher was a German statesman and a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), who served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 1969 to 1974, and as Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and Vice Chancellor of Germany from 1974 to 1992 (except for a two-week break in 1982, after the FDP had left the Third Schmidt cabinet), making him the longest-serving occupant of either post and the only person to have held one of these positions under two different Chancellors of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1991 he was chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
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Nitobe Inazō
- Occupations
- university teacherdiplomatpedagoguelinguistagronomist
- Biography
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Nitobe Inazō was a Japanese agronomist, diplomat, political scientist, politician, and writer. He studied at Sapporo Agricultural College under the influence of its first president William S. Clark and later went to the United States to study agricultural policy. After returning to Japan, he served as a professor at Sapporo Agricultural College, Kyoto Imperial University, and Tokyo Imperial University, and the deputy secretary general of the League of Nations. He also devoted himself to women's education, helping to found the Tsuda Eigaku Juku and serving as the first president of Tokyo Woman's Christian University and president of the Tokyo Women's College of Economics. He was also a strong advocate for Japanese colonialism, and described Korean people as "primitive".
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Johann Joachim Winckelmann
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- 1738-1740 studied theology
- 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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Paul Tillich
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- Studied in 1912
- Occupations
- university teachertheologianphilosopher
- Biography
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Paul Johannes Tillich was a German and American Christian existentialist philosopher, religious socialist, and Lutheran theologian who was one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century. Tillich taught at German universities before immigrating to the United States in 1933, where he taught at Union Theological Seminary, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago.
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Joseph von Eichendorff
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- 1805-1806 studied jurisprudence
- Occupations
- poet lawyerplaywrightwritertranslatornovelist
- Biography
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Joseph Karl Benedikt Freiherr von Eichendorff was a German poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, and anthologist. Eichendorff was one of the major writers and critics of Romanticism. Ever since their publication and up to the present day, some of his works have been very popular in German-speaking Europe.
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Friedrich Schleiermacher
- Occupations
- pedagoguewritertranslatoruniversity teachertheologian
- Biography
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Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher was a German Reformed theologian, pastor, philosopher, and biblical scholar known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant Christianity. He also became influential in the evolution of higher criticism, and his work forms part of the foundation of the modern field of hermeneutics. Because of his profound effect on subsequent Christian thought, he is often called the "Father of Modern Liberal Theology" and is considered an early leader in liberal Christianity. The neo-orthodoxy movement of the twentieth century, typically (though not without challenge) seen to be spearheaded by Karl Barth, was in many ways an attempt to challenge his influence. As a philosopher he was a leader of German Romanticism.
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Hermann Ebbinghaus
- Occupations
- university teacherpedagoguepsychologist
- Biography
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Hermann Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory. Ebbinghaus discovered the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was the first person to describe the learning curve. He was the father of the neo-Kantian philosopher Julius Ebbinghaus.
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George Müller
- Occupations
- missionary
- Biography
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George Müller was a Christian evangelist and the director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England. He was one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren movement. Later during the split, his group was called the Open Brethren.
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Ľudovít Štúr
- Occupations
- writerhistorianphilologistphilosopheractivist
- Biography
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Ľudovít Štúr, also known as Ľudovít Velislav Štúr, was a Slovak revolutionary, politician, and writer. As a leader of the Slovak national revival in the 19th century and the codifier of standard Slovak, he is lauded as one of the most important figures in Slovak history.
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Rudolf Clausius
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- In 1847 graduated with Doctor
- Occupations
- mathematiciantheoretical physicistphysicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius was a German physicist and mathematician and is considered one of the central founding fathers of the science of thermodynamics. By his restatement of Sadi Carnot's principle known as the Carnot cycle, he gave the theory of heat a truer and sounder basis. His most important paper, "On the Moving Force of Heat", published in 1850, first stated the basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics. In 1865 he introduced the concept of entropy. In 1870 he introduced the virial theorem, which applied to heat.
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Mikael Agricola
- Occupations
- linguistpoetBible translatortranslatortheologian
- Biography
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Mikael Agricola was a Finnish Lutheran clergyman who became the de facto founder of literary Finnish and a prominent proponent of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden, including Finland, which was a Swedish territory at the time. He is often called the "father of literary Finnish".
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Sven Hedin
- Occupations
- naturalistgeopolitical analystscientific explorernon-fiction writerbotanical collector
- Biography
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Sven Anders Hedin, KNO1kl RVO, was a Swedish geographer, topographer, explorer, photographer, travel writer and illustrator of his own works. During four expeditions to Central Asia, he made the Transhimalaya known in the West and located sources of the Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej Rivers. He also mapped lake Lop Nur, and the remains of cities, grave sites and the Great Wall of China in the deserts of the Tarim Basin. In his book Från pol till pol (From Pole to Pole), Hedin describes a journey through Asia and Europe between the late 1880s and the early 1900s. While traveling, Hedin visited Turkey, the Caucasus, Tehran, Iraq, lands of the Kyrgyz people and the Russian Far East, India, China and Japan. The posthumous publication of his Central Asia Atlas marked the conclusion of his life's work.
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Anton Wilhelm Amo
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopherwriter
- Biography
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Anton Wilhelm Amo or Anthony William Amo was a Nzema philosopher from Axim, Dutch Gold Coast then within what was broadly considered the region of Guinea (region) (the area is now in Ghana). Amo was a professor at the universities of Halle and Jena in Germany after studying there. He was brought to Germany by the Dutch West India Company in 1707 and was presented as a gift to Dukes Augustus William and Ludwig Rudolf of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, being treated as a member of the family by their father Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. In 2020, Oxford University Press published a translation (into English) of his Latin works from the early 1730s.
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Carl Ritter
- Occupations
- geographerexplorerbotanistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Carl Ritter was a German geographer. Along with Alexander von Humboldt, he is considered one of the founders of modern geography, as they established it as an independent scientific discipline. From 1825 until his death, he occupied the first chair in geography at the University of Berlin.
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Clemens Brentano
- Occupations
- playwrightpoetcollector of fairy taleswriterfairy tales writer
- Biography
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Clemens Wenzeslaus Brentano was a German poet and novelist, and a major figure of German Romanticism. He was the uncle, via his brother Christian, of Franz and Lujo Brentano.
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August Ferdinand Möbius
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- Studied in 1814-1815
- Occupations
- university teachermathematicianastronomer
- Biography
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August Ferdinand Möbius was a German mathematician and theoretical astronomer.
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Paul Gerhardt
- Occupations
- theologianhymnwriterwriterLutheran pastorpoet
- Biography
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Paulus or Paul Gerhardt was a German theologian, Lutheran pastor and hymnodist, considered Germany's greatest hymn writer. His songs and hymns were published in contemporary hymnals such as Praxis pietatis melica, and are still part pf modern hymnals. Hymn stanzas by him feature prominently in Bach's Passions and the Christmas Oratorio.
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Ludwig Tieck
- Occupations
- novelistwriterpublisherEnglish–German translatortranslator
- Biography
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Johann Ludwig Tieck was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
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Gustav Ludwig Hertz
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Gustav Ludwig Hertz was a German experimental physicist who shared the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics with James Franck "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom".
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Horst Schumann
- Occupations
- military physician
- Biography
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Horst Schumann was an SS-Sturmbannführer (major) and medical doctor who conducted sterilization and castration experiments at Auschwitz and was particularly interested in the mass sterilization of Jews by means of X-rays. Hors d'atteinte, a book by Frédéric Couderc, published in France by Les Escales and Pocket, reveals the extent of Schumann's crimes and his life as a fugitive in Africa.
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Robert Michels
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosophersociologist
- Biography
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Robert Michels was a German-born Italian sociologist who contributed to elite theory by describing the political behavior of intellectual elites. He belonged to the Italian school of elitism. He is known best for his book Political Parties, published in 1911, which contains a description of the "iron law of oligarchy".
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Nicolaus Zinzendorf
- Occupations
- theologianwriterProtestant reformerreformertranslator
- Biography
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Nikolaus Ludwig, Reichsgraf von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf was a German religious and social reformer, bishop of the Moravian Church, founder of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, Christian mission pioneer and a major figure of 18th-century Protestantism.
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Peter Simon Pallas
- Occupations
- scientific collectorgeographerentomologistbotanistarachnologist
- Biography
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Peter Simon Pallas FRS FRSE was a Prussian zoologist, botanist, ethnographer, explorer, geographer, geologist, natural historian, and taxonomist. He studied natural sciences at various universities in early modern Germany and worked primarily in the Russian Empire between 1767 and 1810.
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Wilhelm Eduard Weber
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- Studied in 1822-1826
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopherphysicist
- Biography
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Wilhelm Eduard Weber was a German physicist and, together with Carl Friedrich Gauss, inventor of the first electromagnetic telegraph.
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Alfred Kerr
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- In 1894 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- librettistopinion journalistjournalistpoetliterary critic
- Biography
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Alfred Kerr was an influential German theatre critic and essayist of Jewish descent, nicknamed the Kulturpapst ("Culture Pope").
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Heinrich Hoffmann
- Occupations
- psychiatristwriterillustratorchildren's writerpoet
- Biography
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Heinrich Hoffmann was a German psychiatrist, who also wrote some short works including Der Struwwelpeter, an illustrated book portraying children misbehaving.
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Siegbert Tarrasch
- Occupations
- writerchess theoreticianchess playerphysician
- Biography
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Siegbert Tarrasch was a German chess player, considered to have been among the strongest players and most influential theoreticians of the late 19th and early 20th century.
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Ludwig Achim von Arnim
- Occupations
- poet lawyerpoetwriternovelistjournalist
- Biography
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Carl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim, better known as Achim von Arnim, was a German poet, novelist, and together with Clemens Brentano and Joseph von Eichendorff, a leading figure of German Romanticism.
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Hermann Staudinger
- Occupations
- university teacherorganic chemistpolymer chemistengineerchemist
- Biography
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Hermann Staudinger was a German organic chemist who demonstrated the existence of macromolecules, which he characterized as polymers. For this work he received the 1953 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
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Frederick Muhlenberg
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg was an American minister and politician who was the first speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1789 to 1791 and again from 1793 to 1795. Muhlenberg served as the first dean of the United States House of Representatives as well. A member of the Federalist Party, he was delegate to the Pennsylvania state constitutional convention and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and a Lutheran pastor by profession, Muhlenberg was born in Trappe, Pennsylvania. His home, known as the Speaker's House, is now a museum and is currently undergoing restoration to restore its appearance during Muhlenberg's occupancy.
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Ernst Zermelo
- Occupations
- university teachermathematicianphilosopher
- Biography
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Ernst Friedrich Ferdinand Zermelo was a German logician and mathematician, whose work has major implications for the foundations of mathematics. He is known for his role in developing Zermelo–Fraenkel axiomatic set theory and his proof of the well-ordering theorem. Furthermore, his 1929 work on ranking chess players is the first description of a model for pairwise comparison that continues to have a profound impact on various applied fields utilizing this method.
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Albert Anker
- Occupations
- painterexlibristdraftspersonwatercoloristillustrator
- Biography
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Albert Anker was a Swiss painter and illustrator who has been called the "national painter" of Switzerland because of his enduringly popular depictions of 19th-century Swiss rural life.
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Ernst Heinrich Weber
- Occupations
- anatomistphysicistphysiologiststatisticianphysician
- Biography
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Ernst Heinrich Weber was a German physician who is considered one of the founders of experimental psychology.
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Hermann Cohen
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Hermann Cohen was a German philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century".
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Karamba Diaby
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- 1986-1996 graduated with Doctor of Natural Sciences in chemistry
- Occupations
- politicianchemist
- Biography
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Karamba Diaby is a Senegalese-born German chemist and politician of the Social Democratic Party who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the 2013 elections to 2025 elections.
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Dorothea Christiane Erxleben
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
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Dorothea Christiane Erxleben was a German medical doctor who became the first female doctor of medicine in Germany.
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Paul Luther
- Occupations
- university teacherchemistphysician
- Biography
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Paul Luther was a German physician, medical chemist, and alchemist. He was the third son of the German Protestant Reformer Martin Luther and was successively physician to John Frederick II, Duke of Saxony; Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg; Augustus, Elector of Saxony and his successor Christian I, Elector of Saxony. He taught alchemy to Anne of Denmark.
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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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Ernst Kummer
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- Studied in 1828-1831
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Ernst Eduard Kummer was a German mathematician. Skilled in applied mathematics, Kummer trained German army officers in ballistics; afterwards, he taught for 10 years in a gymnasium, the German equivalent of high school, where he inspired the mathematical career of Leopold Kronecker.
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Andrej Sládkovič
- Occupations
- criticwriterparsonLutheran pastorplaywright
- Biography
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Andrej Sládkovič was a Slovak poet, critic, publicist, translator and Lutheran priest.
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Carl Loewe
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- Studied in 1817
- Occupations
- singercantorconductorcomposerorganist
- Biography
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Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe, usually called Carl Loewe (sometimes seen as Karl Loewe), was a German composer, tenor singer and conductor from the late Classical and early Romantic periods. In his lifetime, his songs ("Balladen") were well enough known for some to call him the "Schubert of North Germany", and Hugo Wolf came to admire his work. He is less known today, but his ballads and songs, which number over 400, are occasionally performed.
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Friedrich Mohs
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicistcrystallographermineralogistmining engineer
- Biography
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Carl Friedrich Christian Mohs was a German chemist and mineralogist. He was the creator of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. Mohs also introduced a classification of the crystal forms in crystal systems independently of Christian Samuel Weiss.
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Sarah Kirsch
- Occupations
- translatorchildren's writerpoetwriter
- Biography
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Sarah Kirsch was a German poet.
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Matthias Bel
- Occupations
- poetwritertheologianteacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Matthias Bel or Matthias Bél was a Lutheran pastor and polymath from the Kingdom of Hungary. Bel was active in the fields of pedagogy, philosophy, philology, history, and theoretical theology; he was the founder of Hungarian geographic science and a pioneer of descriptive ethnography and economy. A leading figure in pietism. He is also known as the Great Ornament of Hungary (Magnum decus Hungariae).
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Carl Gotthard Langhans
- Occupations
- architectgeneral contractor
- Biography
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Carl Gotthard Langhans was a Prussian master builder and royal architect. His churches, palaces, grand houses, interiors, city gates and theatres in Silesia, Berlin, Potsdam and elsewhere belong to the earliest examples of Neoclassical architecture in Germany. His best-known work is the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, national symbol of today’s Germany and German reunification in 1989/90.
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Gustav Hermann Nachtigal
- Occupations
- writerexplorerbotanical collectorbotanist
- Biography
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Gustav Nachtigal was a German military surgeon and explorer of Central and West Africa. He is also known as the German Empire's consul-general for Tunisia and Commissioner for West Africa. His mission as commissioner resulted in Togoland and Kamerun becoming the first colonies of a German colonial empire.
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August Hermann Francke
- Occupations
- university teachertheologianpedagogue
- Biography
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August Hermann Francke was a German Lutheran clergyman, theologian, philanthropist, and Biblical scholar. His evangelistic fervour and pietism got him expelled as lecturer from the universities of Dresden and Leipzig and as deacon from Erfurt. In 1691 he found his calling at the University of Halle, where he turned towards the education of underprivileged children; he founded an orphan asylum, a Latin school, a German school (or burgher school), a Gynaeceum, the first Protestant higher girls school, and a seminary for training teachers. Francke's schools provided a prototype, which greatly influenced later German education.
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Vydūnas
- Occupations
- writerpoetphilosopheruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Wilhelm Storost, artistic name Vilius Storostas-Vydūnas, mostly known as Vydūnas, was a Prussian-Lithuanian teacher, poet, humanist, philosopher and Lithuanian writer, a leader of the Prussian Lithuanian national movement in Lithuania Minor, and one of leaders of the theosophical movement in East Prussia.
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Georg Joachim Rheticus
- Occupations
- astrologerastronomeruniversity teachermathematiciancartographer
- Biography
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Georg Joachim de Porris, also known as Rheticus, was a mathematician, astronomer, cartographer, navigational-instrument maker, medical practitioner, and teacher. He is perhaps best known for his trigonometric tables and as Nicolaus Copernicus's sole pupil. He facilitated the publication of his master's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres).
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Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths
- Occupations
- teachergeographernon-fiction writergymnastpedagogue
- Biography
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Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths, also called Guts Muth or Gutsmuths, was a teacher and educator in Germany, and is especially known for his role in the development of physical education. He is thought of as the "grandfather of gymnastics" – the "father" being Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. GutsMuths introduced systematic physical exercise into the school curriculum, and he developed the basic principles of artistic gymnastics. GutsMuths is also considered by many to be the father of modern pole vaulting, as he described the jumping standards, the distance of the approach, recommendations on hand grip, and the principles of pole jumping.
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Friedrich Schorlemmer
- Occupations
- Protestant theologiantheologianopinion journalistpolitician
- Biography
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Friedrich Schorlemmer was a German Protestant theologian. He was a prominent member of the civil rights movement in the German Democratic Republic, leading to the Peaceful Revolution. Remaining active in politics and society after German reunification in 1990, he was engaged in the Wittenberg town council and several organisations as an activist for peace and nature preservation, and as a critical voice.
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Johann Reinhold Forster
- Occupations
- ichthyologistnaturalisttravelerornithologistbryologist
- Biography
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Johann Reinhold Forster was a German Reformed pastor and naturalist. Born in Dirschau, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (now Tczew, Poland), he attended school in Dirschau and Marienwerder before being admitted at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin in 1745. Skilled in classical and biblical languages, he studied theology at the University of Halle. In 1753, he became a parson at a parish just south of Danzig. He married his cousin Justina Elisabeth Nicolai in 1754, and they had seven children; the oldest child was George Forster, also known as Georg.
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Lutz Seiler
- Occupations
- writerpoetnovelistshort story writer
- Biography
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Lutz Seiler is a German poet and novelist. Considered one of the most important German poets living today, he is the author of numerous books of poetry, prose, and essays, and gained national attention for his debut novel Kruso. In 2023 he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize, the most prestigious award for German literature. He has served as the literary director and custodian of the Peter Huchel Museum since 1997.
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Friedrich Wieck
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- In 1804 studied theology
- Occupations
- music criticpianistmusicologistcomposermusic educator
- Biography
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Johann Gottlob Friedrich Wieck was a noted German piano teacher, voice teacher, owner of a piano store, and author of essays and music reviews. He is remembered as the teacher of his daughter, Clara, a child prodigy who was undertaking international concert tours by age eleven and who later married her father's pupil Robert Schumann, in defiance of her father's extreme objections. As Clara Schumann, she became one of the most famous pianists of her time. Another of Wieck's daughters, Marie Wieck, also had a career in music, although not nearly so illustrious as Clara's. Other pupils included Hans von Bülow.
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Friedrich Georg Jünger
- Occupations
- translatorpoet lawyerphilosopherwriter
- Biography
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Friedrich "Fritz" Georg Jünger was a German writer and lawyer. He wrote poetry, cultural criticism and novels. He was the younger brother of Ernst Jünger.
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Arthur Ruppin
- Occupations
- pedagogueeconomistdemographersociologistzionist
- Biography
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Arthur Ruppin was a German Zionist and one of the founders of the city of Tel Aviv. Appointed director of Berlin's Bureau for Jewish Statistics (Büro für Statistik der Juden) in 1904, he moved to Palestine in 1907, and from 1908 was the director of the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organization in Jaffa, organizing Zionist immigration to Palestine. In 1926, Ruppin joined the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and founded the Department for the Sociology of the Jews. Described posthumously as the "founder of German-Jewish demography" and "father of Israeli sociology", his best-known sociological work was The Jews in the Modern World (1934). He was also a proponent of pseudoscientific race theory.
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Bernhard von Gudden
- Occupations
- psychiatristuniversity teacheranatomistneurologist
- Biography
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Johann Bernhard Aloys von Gudden was a German neuroanatomist and psychiatrist born in Kleve.
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Philip Schaff
- Occupations
- theologianchurch historianhistorianuniversity teachertranslator
- Biography
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Philip Schaff was a Swiss-born, German-educated Protestant theologian and ecclesiastical historian, who spent most of his adult life living and teaching in the United States.
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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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Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt
- Occupations
- military personneljurist
- Biography
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Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt was a Swedish general, best known for his participation in the Great Northern War.
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Johannes Popitz
- Occupations
- economistjuristresistance fighterpolitician
- Biography
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Hermann Eduard Johannes Popitz was a Prussian lawyer, finance minister and a member of the German Resistance against the government of Nazi Germany. He was the father of Heinrich Popitz, an important German sociologist.
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Johann Christoph Adelung
- Occupations
- linguistwritertranslatorlexicographerlibrarian
- Biography
-
Johann Christoph Adelung was a German grammarian and philologist.
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Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch
- Occupations
- bankerpoliticianwriterjuristeconomist
- Biography
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Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, also Hermann Schulze, was a German politician and economist. He was responsible for the organizing of the world's first credit unions. He was also co-founder of the German Progress Party.
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Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn
- Occupations
- geologistbotanistbotanical collectorscientific collectorvolcanologist
- Biography
-
Friedrich Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn was a German-born Dutch botanist and geologist. His father, Friedrich Junghuhn was a barber and a surgeon. His mother was Christine Marie Schiele. Junghuhn studied medicine in Halle and in Berlin from 1827 to 1831, meanwhile publishing a seminal paper on mushrooms in Linnaea. Ein Journal für Botanik.
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Adolf Stoecker
- Occupations
- theologianwriterpolitician
- Biography
-
Adolf Stoecker was a German court chaplain to Kaiser Wilhelm I, a politician and a Lutheran theologian who founded the Christian Social Party to lure members away from the Social Democratic Party.
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Erich von Tschermak
- Occupations
- biologistfarmergeneticistprofessorbotanist
- Biography
-
Erich Tschermak, Edler von Seysenegg was an Austrian agronomist who developed several new disease-resistant crops, including wheat-rye and oat hybrids. He was a son of the Moravia-born mineralogist Gustav Tschermak von Seysenegg. His maternal grandfather was the botanist, Eduard Fenzl, who taught Gregor Mendel botany during his student days in Vienna.
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Joachim Heinrich Campe
- Occupations
- theologianpublisherchildren's writerlinguistphilosopher
- Biography
-
Joachim Heinrich Campe was a German writer, linguist, educator and publisher. He was a major representative of philanthropinism and the German Enlightenment.
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Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber
- Occupations
- lichenologistuniversity teachernaturalistbotanical collectorbotanist
- Biography
-
Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber, often styled J.C.D. von Schreber, was a German naturalist.
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Immanuel Bekker
- Occupations
- literary criticlinguistclassical philologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
August Immanuel Bekker was a German philologist and critic.
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Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder
- Occupations
- writerjuristpoet lawyerart historian
- Biography
-
Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder was a German jurist and writer. With Ludwig Tieck and the Schlegel brothers, he co-founded German Romanticism.
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George Spalatin
- Occupations
- historiantheologianjurist
- Biography
-
Georg Spalatin ( German: [ˈʃpaːlatiːn]) was the pseudonym taken by Georg Burkhardt ( German: [ˈɡeːɔʁk ˈbʊʁkhaʁt]; 17 January 1484 – 16 January 1545), a German humanist, theologian, reformer, secretary of the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise, as well as an important figure in the history of the Reformation.
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Johann Christian Reil
- Occupations
- military physicianuniversity teacheranatomistpsychiatristphysiologist
- Biography
-
Johann Christian Reil was a German physician, physiologist, anatomist, and psychiatrist. He coined the term psychiatry – Psychiatrie in German – in 1808.
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Dimitri Uznadze
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopherpsychologist
- Biography
-
Dimitri Uznadze was a Georgian psychologist and professor of psychology, co-founder of the Tbilisi State University (TSU) and of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (GAS).
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Ferenc Dávid
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- Studied in 1551
- Occupations
- theologian
- Biography
-
Ferenc Dávid was a preacher and theologian from Transylvania, the founder of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, and the leading figure of the Nontrinitarian Christian movements during the Protestant Reformation. He disputed the mainstream Christian doctrine of the Trinity, believing God to be one and indivisible.
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Arnold Ruge
- Occupations
- autobiographerwritertranslatorphilosopherpolitician
- Biography
-
Arnold Ruge was a German philosopher and political writer. He was the older brother of Ludwig Ruge.
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Karl Adolph von Basedow
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
-
Carl Adolph von Basedow was a German physician most famous for reporting the symptoms of what could later be dubbed Graves-Basedow disease, now technically known as exophthalmic goiter.
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Albrecht Ritschl
- Occupations
- university teachertheologianphilosopher
- Biography
-
Albrecht Benjamin Ritschl was a German Protestant theologian.
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Caspar Friedrich Wolff
- Occupations
- botanistmilitary physicianuniversity teacheranatomistphysiologist
- Biography
-
Caspar Friedrich Wolff was a German physiologist and embryologist who is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern embryology.
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Hermann Burmeister
- Occupations
- marine biologistbotanical collectorscientific collectoruniversity teacherwriter
- Biography
-
Karl Hermann Konrad Burmeister was a German Argentine zoologist, entomologist, herpetologist, botanist, and coleopterologist. He served as a professor at the University of Halle, headed the museum there and published the Handbuch der Entomologie (1832–1855) before moving to Argentina where he worked until his death.
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Paul Georg von Möllendorff
- Occupations
- diplomatlinguist
- Biography
-
Paul Georg von Möllendorff was a German linguist and diplomat. Möllendorff is mostly known for his service as an adviser to the Korean king Gojong in the late nineteenth century and for his contributions to Sinology. In English-language publications, Möllendorff is often credited with having designed a system for romanizing the Manchu language, which was in fact the creation of his compatriot Hans Conon von der Gabelentz.
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Carl Neumann
- Years
- 1832-1925 (aged 93)
- Enrolled in the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- 1856-1858 graduated with habilitation
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Carl Gottfried Neumann was a German mathematical physicist and professor at several German universities. His work focused on applications of potential theory to physics and mathematics. He contributed to the mathematical formalization of electrodynamics and analytical mechanics. Neumann boundary conditions and the Neumann series are named after him.
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Gáspár Károlyi
- Occupations
- theologianBible translatortranslator
- Biography
-
Gáspár Károlyi, or in Protestant usage, Károli was a Hungarian Calvinist pastor. He was a major figure in the Reformed Church in Hungary. He edited the Vizsoly Bible.
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Hermann Haken
- Occupations
- authortheoretical physicistphysicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Hermann Haken was a German physicist and professor emeritus in theoretical physics at the University of Stuttgart. He is known as the founder of synergetics and one of the "fathers" of quantum-mechanical laser theory. He is a cousin of the mathematician Wolfgang Haken, who proved the Four color theorem. He was a nephew of Werner Haken, a doctoral student of Max Planck.
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Kuno Fischer
- Occupations
- writerliterary historianphilosopheruniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Ernst Kuno Berthold Fischer was a German philosopher, a historian of philosophy and a critic.
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Pierre Belon
- Occupations
- zoologistichthyologisthistoriandiplomatwriter
- Biography
-
Pierre Belon was a French traveller, naturalist, writer and diplomat. Like many others of the Renaissance period, he studied and wrote on a range of topics including ichthyology, ornithology, botany, comparative anatomy, architecture and Egyptology. He is sometimes known as Pierre Belon du Mans, or, in the Latin in which his works appeared, as Petrus Bellonius Cenomanus. The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (known for Pavlov's dogs) called him the "prophet of comparative anatomy".
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Jacob Christian Schäffer
- Occupations
- botanistmycologisttheologianlepidopteristornithologist
- Biography
-
Jacob Christian Schäffer, alternatively Jakob, was a German dean, professor of theology, botanist, mycologist, entomologist, ornithologist, and inventor. He was a theologian and teacher at Ratisbon. His work in natural sciences includes writing comprehensive and illustrated volumes on plants, fungi, birds, and insects, proposing new classification systems, and maintaining a museum of curiosities. Schäffer also experimented with electricity, colours, optics, and manufactured prisms and lenses, and invented an early washing machine and other practical devices. In the paper industry, he conducted experiments and published findings on alternate sources for paper production. He made studies of minute organisms without access to advanced microscopes and wrote a book on Daphnia.
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Elke Erb
- Occupations
- translatorwriter
- Biography
-
Elke Erb was a German author-poet based in Berlin. She also worked as a literary editor and translator.
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Gerald Götting
- Occupations
- political scientistwriterpolitician
- Biography
-
Gerald Götting was a German politician and chairman of the East German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1966 until 1989. He served as President of the People's Chamber (Volkskammer) from 1969 to 1976 and deputy chairman of the State Council of East Germany from 1960 to 1989.
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Karl Möbius
- Occupations
- biologistuniversity teacherzoological collectorbotanistecologist
- Biography
-
Karl August Möbius was a German zoologist who was a pioneer in the field of marine ecology, founder of the Hamburg zoo and aquarium, the zoological institute at Kiel, and served as an influential director of the Natural History Museum in Berlin. He introduced the idea of a separation of research collections from the public natural history museum.
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James Rowland Angell
- Occupations
- psychologistphilosopher
- Biography
-
James Rowland Angell was an American psychologist and educator who served as the 16th President of Yale University between 1921 and 1937. His father, James Burrill Angell (1829–1916), was president of the University of Vermont from 1866 to 1871 and then the University of Michigan from 1871 to 1909.
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Barthold Heinrich Brockes
- Occupations
- librettistwritertranslatorpoet lawyerpoet
- Biography
-
Barthold Heinrich Brockes was a German poet.
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Johannes Agricola
- Occupations
- Protestant reformeruniversity teachertheologianwriterphilosopher
- Biography
-
Johann or Johannes Agricola was a German Protestant Reformer during the Protestant Reformation. He was a follower and friend of Martin Luther, who became his antagonist in the matter of the binding obligation of the law on Christians.
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Karl Rosenkranz
- Occupations
- university teacherProtestant theologianwriterphilosopherliterary historian
- Biography
-
Johann Karl Friedrich Rosenkranz was a German philosopher and pedagogue.
