100 Notable alumni of
University of Bonn
Updated:
The University of Bonn is 65th in the world, 23rd in Europe, and 6th in Germany by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the University of Bonn sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 2 individuals affiliated with the University of Bonn won Nobel Prizes in Physics and Economics.
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Karl Marx
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- Studied in 1835-1836
- Occupations
- poetphilosopherjournalistrevolutionaryauthor
- Biography
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Karl Marx was a German-born philosopher, political theorist, political economist, historian, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His best-known works are the 1848 pamphlet The Communist Manifesto (with Friedrich Engels) and his three-volume Das Kapital (1867–1894); the latter employs his critical approach of historical materialism in an analysis of capitalism, in the culmination of his intellectual endeavours. Marx's ideas and their subsequent development, collectively known as Marxism, have had enormous influence on modern intellectual, economic and political history.
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Friedrich Nietzsche
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- Studied in 1864-1865
- Occupations
- philosophermusic criticpoetcomposerpedagogue
- Biography
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Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. In 1869 at the age of 24, he became the youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. In 1879 he resigned due to health problems that plagued him most of his life, after which he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889 at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897, and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes.
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Wilhelm II
- Occupations
- authorpainterstatespersonrulerart collector
- Biography
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Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as the Hohenzollern dynasty's 300-year rule of Prussia.
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Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- Occupations
- conductormusicianorganistsingerpainter
- Biography
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Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband of Queen Victoria. As such, he was consort of the British monarch from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his death in 1861. Victoria granted him the title Prince Consort in 1857.
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Konrad Adenauer
- Occupations
- judgeChancellor of Germanyart collectorlawyerassessor
- Biography
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Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a newly founded Christian-democratic party, which became the dominant force in the country under his leadership.
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Frederick III, German Emperor
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Frederick III, or Friedrich III, was German Emperor and King of Prussia for 99 days between March and his death in June 1888, during the Year of the Three Emperors.
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Jürgen Habermas
- Occupations
- philosophersociologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Jürgen Habermas is a German philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere.
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Heinrich Heine
- Occupations
- essayistpoet lawyerwriterpublicistjournalist
- Biography
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Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder (art songs) by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert.
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Christian Lindner
- Occupations
- writerpoliticianpodcaster
- Biography
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Christian Wolfgang Lindner is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who was the Federal Minister of Finance from 2021 until his dismissal in 2024 during the 2024 German government crisis. Serving since 2013, Lindner is the longest-serving party-leader of the FDP and a Member of the Bundestag (MdB) for North-Rhine-Westphalia since 2017, previously holding a seat from 2009 until 2012.
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Luigi Pirandello
- Occupations
- screenwriterplaywrightpoetdirectorwriter
- Biography
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Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art". Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello's tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd.
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Christian IX of Denmark
- Occupations
- monarchmilitary officer
- Biography
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Christian IX was King of Denmark from 15 November 1863 until his death in 1906. From 1863 to 1864, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg.
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Friedrich Merz
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- Studied jurisprudence
- Occupations
- politicianlawyerGerichtsassessorlobbyistjurist
- Biography
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Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz is a German politician who has served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since January 2022 and led the CDU/CSU (Union) parliamentary group as well as being Leader of the Opposition in the Bundestag since February 2022. In September 2024, he became the Union's candidate for Chancellor of Germany ahead of the 2025 federal election.
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Wilhelm, German Crown Prince
- Occupations
- politicianmilitary officer
- Biography
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Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, Crown Prince of Prussia was the eldest child of the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II, and his consort Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, and thus a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, and distant cousin to many British royals, such as Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III. As Emperor Wilhelm's heir, he was the last Crown Prince of the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia, until the abolition of the monarchy.
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Armin Laschet
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Armin Laschet is a German politician who served as Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 27 June 2017 to 26 October 2021. He served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 22 January 2021 to 31 January 2022. He was elected to the German Bundestag following the 2021 German federal election.
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Max Ernst
- Occupations
- architectural draftspersonengraverdesignercollagistphotographer
- Biography
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Max Ernst was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic training, but his experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces to create images—and grattage, an analogous technique in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. Ernst is noted for his unconventional drawing methods as well as for creating novels and pamphlets using the method of collages. He served as a soldier for four years during World War I, and this experience left him shocked, traumatised and critical of the modern world. During World War II he was designated an "undesirable foreigner" while living in France.
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Ferdinand von Schirach
- Occupations
- short story writerwriternovelistlawyer
- Biography
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Ferdinand Benedikt von Schirach is a German lawyer and writer. He published his first short stories at the age of forty-five. Shortly thereafter he became one of Germany's most successful authors. His books, which have been translated into more than 35 languages, have sold millions of copies worldwide and have made him "an internationally celebrated star of German literature."
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Guido Westerwelle
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- In 1987 graduated with Staatsexamen in legal science
- Occupations
- writerpoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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Guido Westerwelle was a German politician who served as foreign minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice-Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011, being the first openly gay person to hold any of these positions. He also led the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) from 2001 until he stepped down in 2011. A lawyer by profession, he was a member of the Bundestag from 1996 to 2013.
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Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- Occupations
- composermilitary officeraristocratpaintermilitary commander
- Biography
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Ernest II was Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 29 January 1844 to his death in 1893. He was born in Coburg to Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. His father became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (as Ernest I) in 1826 through an exchange of territories.
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Robert Schuman
- Occupations
- politiciandiplomatlawyer
- Biography
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Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Robert Schuman was a Luxembourg-born French statesman. Schuman was a Christian democratic (Popular Republican Movement) political thinker and activist. Twice Prime Minister of France, a reformist Minister of Finance and a Foreign Minister, he was instrumental in building postwar European and trans-Atlantic institutions and was one of the founders of the European Communities, the Council of Europe and NATO. The 1964–1965 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour. In 2021, Schuman was declared venerable by Pope Francis in recognition of his acting on Christian principles.
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Andrea Nahles
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Andrea Maria Nahles is a former German politician who has been the director of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) since 2022.
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Karlheinz Stockhausen
- Occupations
- musicianmusic theoristmusic educatorcomposeruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundbreaking work in electronic music, having been called the "father of electronic music", for introducing controlled chance (aleatory techniques) into serial composition, and for musical spatialization.
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Hans-Georg Maaßen
- Occupations
- juristuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Hans-Georg Maaßen is a German civil servant and lawyer. From 1 August 2012 to 8 November 2018, he served as the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic security agency and one of three agencies in the German Intelligence Community. Maaßen is one of the founders and, since January 2023 also president, of the Values Union, a German registered association, converted in 2024 to a political party, that consists mostly of more conservative members of the Christian Democratic Union.
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Roger Willemsen
- Occupations
- man of lettersliterary scholarnews presenterjournalisttelevision presenter
- Biography
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Roger Willemsen was a German author, essayist and TV presenter.
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Franz Boas
- Occupations
- art historiangeographeranthropologistphilosopherlinguist
- Biography
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Franz Uri Boas was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical particularism and cultural relativism.
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Harald Lesch
- Occupations
- astronomeruniversity teacherwriterphysicistastrophysicist
- Biography
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Harald Lesch is a German physicist, astronomer, natural philosopher, author, television presenter, professor of physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and professor of natural philosophy at the Munich University of Philosophy.
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Theodor Schwann
- Occupations
- physiologistphysicianbotanistuniversity teacherbiologist
- Biography
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Theodor Schwann was a German physician and physiologist. His most significant contribution to biology is considered to be the extension of cell theory to animals. Other contributions include the discovery of Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system, the discovery and study of pepsin, the discovery of the organic nature of yeast, and the invention of the term "metabolism".
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Bernd Lucke
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticianeconomistphilosopher
- Biography
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Bernd Lucke is a German economist, professor, author and former politician. He co-founded the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in 2013 and served as the party's federal chairman until July 2015, when he was displaced and left the party soon after. He had been elected a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the AfD in 2014 and served the five-year full term as a member of various other new parties, similar to some other former AfD MEPs.
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Guðni Jóhannesson
- Occupations
- university teachertranslatorhistorianpolitician
- Biography
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Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson is an Icelandic historian and politician who served as the sixth president of Iceland from 2016 to 2024.
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Justus von Liebig
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- Studied in 1819
- Occupations
- inventoragronomistuniversity teacherwriterchemist
- Biography
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Justus Freiherr von Liebig was a German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biological chemistry; he is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry. As a professor at the University of Giessen, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded as one of the most outstanding chemistry teachers of all time. He has been described as the "father of the fertilizer industry" for his emphasis on nitrogen and minerals as essential plant nutrients, and his popularization of the law of the minimum, which states that plant growth is limited by the scarcest nutrient resource, rather than the total amount of resources available. He also developed a manufacturing process for beef extracts, and with his consent a company, called Liebig Extract of Meat Company, was founded to exploit the concept; it later introduced the Oxo brand beef bouillon cube. He popularized an earlier invention for condensing vapors, which came to be known as the Liebig condenser.
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Thilo Sarrazin
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- 1967-1973 graduated with Doctor of Political Science in general economics
- Occupations
- politicianbankereconomistnon-fiction writeressayist
- Biography
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Thilo Sarrazin is a German politician and former member of the SPD, writer, senator of finance for the State of Berlin from January 2002 until April 2009, former member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank until 2010.
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Heinrich Brüning
- Occupations
- university teachertrade unionisteconomistpolitician
- Biography
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Heinrich Aloysius Maria Elisabeth Brüning was a German Centre Party politician and academic, who served as the chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic from 1930 to 1932.
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Norbert Röttgen
- Occupations
- politicianjuristlawyer
- Biography
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Norbert Alois Röttgen is a German lawyer and politician who served as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2009 to 2012. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he placed third in the January 2021 CDU leadership election, then second in the December 2021 leadership election. From 2014 to 2021, he chaired the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee.
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Hendrik Streeck
- Occupations
- crime fiction writerpoliticianphysiciannon-fiction writeruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Hendrik Streeck is a German researcher of human immunodeficiency virus, epidemiologist and clinical trialist. He is professor of virology and the director of the Institute of Virology and HIV Research at the University Bonn.
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Jürgen Todenhöfer
- Occupations
- politicianpoet lawyerwriteropinion journalistjurist
- Biography
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Jürgen Todenhöfer is a German author, journalist, politician, and executive.
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Hermann Ebbinghaus
- Occupations
- psychologistuniversity teacherpedagogue
- 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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Heinrich Lübke
- Occupations
- engineerpolitician
- Biography
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Karl Heinrich Lübke was a German politician, who served as president of West Germany from 1959 to 1969.
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Peter Scholze
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Peter Scholze is a German mathematician known for his work in arithmetic geometry. He has been a professor at the University of Bonn since 2012 and director at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics since 2018. He has been called one of the leading mathematicians in the world. He won the Fields Medal in 2018, which is regarded as the highest professional honor in mathematics.
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Ulrich Wickert
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- 1961-1968 studied legal science and political science
- Occupations
- television presenternews presenteruniversity teacherwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Ulrich Wickert is a German journalist. He is one of the best-known broadcasters in Germany.
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Max Bruch
- Occupations
- composerteacherconductor
- Biography
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Max Bruch was a German Romantic composer, violinist, teacher, and conductor who wrote more than 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire.
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James Robertson Justice
- Occupations
- ice hockey playerornithologistfilm actorcharacter actorjournalist
- Biography
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James Robertson Justice was a British actor. He often portrayed pompous authority figures in comedies, including each of the seven films in the Doctor series. He also co-starred with Gregory Peck in several adventure movies, notably The Guns of Navarone. Born in south-east London to a Scottish father, he became prominent in Scottish public life, helping to launch Scottish Television (STV) and serving as Rector of the University of Edinburgh (1957–60 and 1963–66).
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Jacob Burckhardt
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- 1841-1841 studied study of history and art history
- Occupations
- art historiandraftspersonphilosopherphilologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. His best known work is The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860). He is known as one of the major progenitors of cultural history. Sigfried Giedion described Burckhardt's achievement in the following terms: "The great discoverer of the age of the Renaissance, he first showed how a period should be treated in its entirety, with regard not only for its painting, sculpture and architecture, but for the social institutions of its daily life as well."
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August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben
- Occupations
- musicologistrevolutionarypoetcuratorethnomusicologist
- Biography
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August Heinrich Hoffmann was a German poet. He is best known for writing "Das Lied der Deutschen", whose third stanza is now the national anthem of Germany, and a number of popular children's songs, considered part of the Young Germany movement.
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Margie Kinsky
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Maria Grazia Alice Eleonora Kinsky-Mockridge, commonly known as Margie Kinsky, is an Italian actress and cabaret artist who works in Germany.
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Karl Weierstraß
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- 1834-1838 studied cameralism and jurisprudence
- Occupations
- university teachermathematicianphysicistteacher
- Biography
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Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass was a German mathematician often cited as the "father of modern analysis". Despite leaving university without a degree, he studied mathematics and trained as a school teacher, eventually teaching mathematics, physics, botany and gymnastics. He later received an honorary doctorate and became professor of mathematics in Berlin.
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Ernst Albrecht
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Ernst Carl Julius Albrecht was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union and a former high-ranking European civil servant. He was one of the first European civil servants appointed in 1958 and served as Director-General of the Directorate-General for Competition from 1967 to 1970. He served as Minister President of the state of Lower Saxony from 1976 to 1990. He was the father of the politician Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission.
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Gottfried Benn
- Occupations
- physician writerphysicianauthorpoetnovelist
- 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 Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet was a German mathematician. In number theory, he proved special cases of Fermat's last theorem and created analytic number theory. In analysis, he advanced the theory of Fourier series and was one of the first to give the modern formal definition of a function. In mathematical physics, he studied potential theory, boundary-value problems, and heat diffusion, and hydrodynamics.
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Rudolf Scharping
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Rudolf Albert Scharping is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
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Aby Warburg
- Occupations
- university teacherart historian
- Biography
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Aby Moritz Warburg was a German art historian and cultural theorist who founded the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (Warburg Library for Cultural Studies), a private library, which was later moved to the Warburg Institute, London. At the heart of his research was the legacy of the classical world, and the transmission of classical representation, in the most varied areas of Western culture through to the Renaissance.
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Rainer Woelki
- Occupations
- philosopherCatholic priestCatholic bishopnon-fiction writer
- Biography
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Rainer Maria Woelki is a German Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He has been Archbishop of Cologne since his installation on 20 September 2014 following his election by the Cathedral Chapter to succeed Joachim Meisner in that position. He previously served as Archbishop of Berlin.
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Clemens Brentano
- Occupations
- collector of fairy taleswriterplaywrightpoet
- 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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Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
- Occupations
- stereochemistchemistphysicistprofessoruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff Jr. was a Dutch physical chemist. A highly influential theoretical chemist of his time, van 't Hoff was the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His pioneering work helped found the modern theory of chemical affinity, chemical equilibrium, chemical kinetics, and chemical thermodynamics. In his 1874 pamphlet, Van 't Hoff formulated the theory of the tetrahedral carbon atom and laid the foundations of stereochemistry. In 1875, he predicted the correct structures of allenes and cumulenes as well as their axial chirality. He is also widely considered one of the founders of physical chemistry as the discipline is known today.
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Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia
- Occupations
- soldiermilitary personnelHerrenmeister
- Biography
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Prince Wilhelm Eitel Friedrich Christian Karl of Prussia was the second son of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany by his first wife, Princess Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. He was born and died in Potsdam, Germany.
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Marco Buschmann
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- Studied jurisprudence
- Occupations
- politicianjuristlawyer
- Biography
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Marco Buschmann is a German lawyer and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as Federal Minister of Justice in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's cabinet from 2021 to November 2024. He has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2009 to 2013 and again since 2017.
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Sebastian Thrun
- Occupations
- university teacherartificial intelligence researchercomputer scientistroboticist
- Biography
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Sebastian Thrun is a German-American entrepreneur, educator, and computer scientist. He is chief executive officer of Kitty Hawk Corporation, and chairman and co-founder of Udacity. Before that, he was a Google vice president and Fellow, a Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, and before that at Carnegie Mellon University. At Google, he co-founded Google X along with Yoky Matsuoka and Anthony Levandowski and Google's self-driving car team with Anthony Levandowski. He is also an adjunct professor at Stanford University and at Georgia Tech.
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Wolfgang Köhler
- Occupations
- psychologistuniversity teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Wolfgang Köhler was a German psychologist and phenomenologist who, like Max Wertheimer and Kurt Koffka, contributed to the creation of Gestalt psychology.
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Alexander Graf Lambsdorff
- Occupations
- politicianhistoriandiplomat
- Biography
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Alexander Sebastian Léonce von der Wenge Graf Lambsdorff, commonly known as Alexander Graf Lambsdorff is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP), part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, who has been serving as the German ambassador to Russia since 2023.
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Carl Schurz
- Occupations
- politicianwriterrevolutionaryeditormilitary officer
- Biography
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Carl Schurz was a German-American revolutionary and an American statesman, journalist, and reformer. He migrated to the United States after the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and became a prominent member of the new Republican Party. After serving as a Union general in the American Civil War, he helped found the short-lived Liberal Republican Party and became a prominent advocate of civil service reform. Schurz represented Missouri in the United States Senate and was the 13th United States Secretary of the Interior.
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Felix Klein
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- Graduated with Doctor
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticianpublishermathematicianhistorian of mathematics
- Biography
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Felix Christian Klein was a German mathematician and mathematics educator, known for his work in group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and the associations between geometry and group theory. His 1872 Erlangen program classified geometries by their basic symmetry groups and was an influential synthesis of much of the mathematics of the time.
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G. Stanley Hall
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterphilosopherpsychologist
- Biography
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Granville Stanley Hall was an American psychologist and educator who earned the first doctorate in psychology awarded in the United States of America at Harvard College in the nineteenth century. His interests focused on human life span development and evolutionary theory. Hall was the first president of the American Psychological Association and the first president of Clark University. A 2002 survey by Review of General Psychology ranked Hall as the 72nd most cited psychologist of the 20th century, in a tie with Lewis Terman.
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Leah Goldberg
- Years
- 1911-1970 (aged 59)
- Occupations
- children's writerliterary editoropinion journalistliterary theoristwriter
- Biography
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Leah Goldberg or Lea Goldberg was a prolific Hebrew-language poet, author, playwright, literary translator, illustrater and painter, and comparative literary researcher.
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Thomas Kemmerich
- Occupations
- business consultantpoliticianjurist
- Biography
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Thomas Karl Leonard Kemmerich is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as the Minister-President of Thuringia from 5 February to 4 March 2020. With a tenure of only 28 days (3 days if his time as acting officeholder is excluded), he has been both the shortest-serving Minister-President of Thuringia and the shortest-serving head of a state government in the Federal Republic of Germany (as of 2024).
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Norbert Walter-Borjans
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Norbert Walter-Borjans is a German economist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as co-leader of the SPD (alongside Saskia Esken) from 2019 to 2021. He served as State Minister of Finance of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2010 until 2017.
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Shary Reeves
- Occupations
- association football playertelevision presenteractor
- Biography
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Shary Cheyenne Reeves is a German actress, television presenter and former professional football player.
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Wilhelm Marx
- Occupations
- politicianjudge
- Biography
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Wilhelm Marx was a German judge, politician and member of the Catholic Centre Party. During the Weimar Republic he was the chancellor of Germany twice, from 1923 to 1925 and from 1926 to 1928, and served briefly as the minister president of Prussia in 1925. With a total of 3 years and 73 days, he was the longest-serving chancellor during the Weimar Republic.
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Markus Gabriel
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopher
- Biography
-
Markus Gabriel is a German philosopher and author at the University of Bonn. In addition to his more specialized work, he has also written popular books about philosophical issues.
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Klaus Kinkel
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Klaus Kinkel was a German statesman, civil servant, diplomat and lawyer who served as the minister of Foreign affairs (1992–1998) and the vice chancellor of Germany (1993–1998) in the government of Helmut Kohl.
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Navid Kermani
- Occupations
- writerorientalistopinion journalist
- Biography
-
Navid Kermani is a German writer and orientalist. He is the author of several novels as well as books and essays on Islam, the Middle East and Christian-Muslim dialogue. He has won numerous prizes for his literary and academic work, including the Peace Prize of the German Publishers' Association on 18 June 2015.
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Axel Honneth
- Occupations
- philosophersociologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Axel Honneth is a German philosopher who is the Professor for Social Philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt and the Jack B. Weinstein Professor of the Humanities in the department of philosophy at Columbia University. He was also director of the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute for Social Research) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany between 2001 and 2018.
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Otto Graf Lambsdorff
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Otto Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von der Wenge Graf Lambsdorff, known as Otto Graf Lambsdorff, was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). He was the German Federal Minister of Economics from 1977 to 1984, when he resigned due to corruption allegations.
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Maryna Viazovska
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- In 2013 graduated with doctor rerum naturalium
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Maryna Sergiivna Viazovska is a Ukrainian mathematician known for her work in sphere packing. She is a full professor and Chair of Number Theory at the Institute of Mathematics of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. She was awarded the Fields Medal in 2022.
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Romano Guardini
- Occupations
- university teacherCatholic priesttheologianwriterphilosopher
- Biography
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Romano Guardini was an Italian, naturalized German Catholic priest, philosopher and theologian.
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Frederik Pleitgen
- Occupations
- film directorjournalistactor
- Biography
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Frederik Pleitgen is a German journalist and correspondent for CNN International.
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Margarethe Schreinemakers
- Occupations
- journalisttelevision presenter
- Biography
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Margarethe Schreinemakers is a German television presenter, talk show host and journalist.
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Emil Fischer
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teacherbiochemist
- Biography
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Hermann Emil Louis Fischer FRS FRSE FCS was a German chemist and 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He discovered the Fischer esterification. He also developed the Fischer projection, a symbolic way of drawing asymmetric carbon atoms. He also hypothesized lock and key mechanism of enzyme action. He never used his first given name, and was known throughout his life simply as Emil Fischer.
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Leopold Kronecker
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- Studied in 1843
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Leopold Kronecker was a German mathematician who worked on number theory, abstract algebra and logic, and criticized Georg Cantor's work on set theory. Heinrich Weber quoted Kronecker as having said, "Die ganzen Zahlen hat der liebe Gott gemacht, alles andere ist Menschenwerk" ("God made the integers, all else is the work of man"). Kronecker was a student and life-long friend of Ernst Kummer.
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Nikolaus Blome
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- 1985-1989 studied history
- Occupations
- journalistwriter
- Biography
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Nikolaus Blome is a German journalist.
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Daniel Lindemann
- Occupations
- film actor
- Biography
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Daniel Jakob Lindemann is a German who lives and performs in South Korea as a television personality and marketing manager. He was a cast member in the talk show Non-Summit.
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Moses Hess
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- 1837-1839 studied philosophy
- Occupations
- philosopherpoliticianwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Moses Hess (21 January 1812 – 6 April 1875) was a German-Jewish philosopher, early communist and Zionist thinker. His theories led to disagreements with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. He is considered a pioneer of Labor Zionism.
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Ju Gau-jeng
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Ju Gau-jeng was a Taiwanese politician who served in the Legislative Yuan from 1987 to 1999. He was known for his combative personality, and helped found two political parties.
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Bernd Stelter
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- Studied general economics
- Occupations
- presenteractortelevision presenterwritercomedian
- Biography
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Bernd Stelter is a German comedian, a writer and a television presenter.
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Harald zur Hausen
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicianvirologistoncologist
- Biography
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Harald zur Hausen NAS EASA APS was a German virologist. He carried out research on cervical cancer and discovered the role of papilloma viruses in cervical cancer, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008. He was chairman of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) in Heidelberg.
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Annette Schavan
- Occupations
- politiciantheologian
- Biography
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Annette Schavan is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). She was the Federal Minister of Education and Research in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2005 to 2013, when she resigned following the revocation of her doctorate due to plagiarism. From 2014 until 2018 she served as the German Ambassador to the Holy See. From April 2018, she also briefly served as first German Ambassador to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
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Reinhard Genzel
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- In 1975 studied physics
- Occupations
- university teacherastrophysicistastronomerscientist
- Biography
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Reinhard Genzel ForMemRS is a German astrophysicist, co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, a professor at LMU and an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy", which he shared with Andrea Ghez and Roger Penrose. In a 2021 interview given to Federal University of Pará in Brazil, Genzel recalls his journey as a physicist; the influence of his father, Ludwig Genzel; his experiences working with Charles H. Townes; and more.
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Alfred Weber
- Occupations
- university teachereconomistpedagoguesociologist
- Biography
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Carl David Alfred Weber was a German economist, geographer, sociologist, philosopher, and theoretician of culture whose work was influential in the development of modern economic geography. His other work focused on the sociology of knowledge and the role of intellectuals in society. In particular, he introduced the concept of free-floating intelligentsia (Freischwebende Intelligenz).
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Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
- Occupations
- politicianwriterpoetdiplomat
- Biography
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Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, PC, was an English statesman, Conservative politician and poet who used the pseudonym Owen Meredith. During his tenure as Viceroy of India between 1876 and 1880, Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. He served as British Ambassador to France from 1887 to 1891.
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Adolph Kolping
- Occupations
- Catholic priesttheologiansocial activist
- Biography
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Adolph Kolping was a German Catholic priest and the founder of the Kolping Association. He led the movement for providing and promoting social support for workers in industrialized cities while also working to promote the dignities of workers in accordance with the social magisterium of the faith. He was called Gesellenvater (the Journeymen's Father).
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Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia
- Occupations
- career soldiermilitary officer
- Biography
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Prince Friedrich Karl Nikolaus of Prussia was the son of Prince Charles of Prussia (1801–1883) and his wife, Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1808–1877). Prince Friedrich Karl was a grandson of King Frederick William III of Prussia and a nephew of Frederick William IV and William I.
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Friedrich II, Grand Duke of Baden
- Occupations
- monarch
- Biography
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Frederick II was the last sovereign Grand Duke of Baden, reigning from 1907 until the abolition of the German monarchies in 1918. The Weimar-era state of Baden originated from the area of the Grand Duchy of Baden.
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Barbara Hendricks
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- 1970-1976 graduated with Staatsexamen in social science and history
- Occupations
- historianpolitician
- Biography
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Barbara Anne Hendricks is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013 until 2018.
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Tom Enders
- Occupations
- entrepreneurbusiness executive
- Biography
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Thomas Enders is a German business executive who served as the chief executive of Airbus (formerly EADS, Airbus Group) from 2012 until 2019. Since 2019, Thomas has been the president of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).
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Ulrich Kelber
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- 1987-1993 graduated with Diplom in computer science
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Ulrich Wolfgang Kelber is a German former politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information since 7 January 2019. From 2000 to 2019, he was the member of the Bundestag for Bonn.
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Karekin II
- Occupations
- bishop
- Biography
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Catholicos Garegin II is the Catholicos of All Armenians, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, since 1999. In 2013 he was unanimously elected the Oriental Orthodox head of the World Council of Churches for the next eight years.
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Jens Weidmann
- Occupations
- economistbankerpoliticianchairperson
- Biography
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Jens Weidmann is a German economist who served as president of the Deutsche Bundesbank between 2011 and 2021. He also served as chairman of the Board of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
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Wolfgang Ischinger
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- 1966-1972 studied legal science
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticianjuristdiplomat
- Biography
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Wolfgang Friedrich Ischinger is a German diplomat who served as chairman of the Munich Security Conference from 2008 to 2022.
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Paul Heyse
- Occupations
- playwrightdraftspersonpoetwritertranslator
- Biography
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Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse was a German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the Tunnel über der Spree in Berlin and Die Krokodile in Munich, he wrote novels, poetry, 177 short stories, and about sixty dramas. The sum of Heyse's many and varied productions made him a dominant figure among German men of letters. He was awarded the 1910 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories." Wirsen, one of the Nobel judges, said that "Germany has not had a greater literary genius since Goethe." Heyse is the fifth oldest laureate in literature, after Alice Munro, Jaroslav Seifert, Theodor Mommsen and Doris Lessing.
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Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein was a German prince who became a member of the British royal family through his marriage to Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, the fifth child and third daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
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Gerhard Schröder
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Gerhard Schröder was a West German politician and member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. He served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 1953 to 1961, as Foreign Minister from 1961 to 1966, and as Minister of Defence from 1966 until 1969. In the 1969 election he ran for President of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) but was outpolled by Gustav Heinemann.
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Georg I of Saxony
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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George was king of Saxony and member of the House of Wettin.
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Tom Buhrow
- Enrolled in the University of Bonn
- In 1984 graduated with magister degree in legal science and history
- Occupations
- intendantnews presentertelevision presenterediting staff
- Biography
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Tom Buhrow is a German journalist who has been serving as intendant of the WDR since 2013. He also served as Chair of the ARD from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021 and from 4 August to 31 December 2022.
