100 Notable alumni of
University of Leipzig
Updated:
The University of Leipzig is 63rd in the world, 22nd in Europe, and 5th in Germany by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the University of Leipzig 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 Leipzig won Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry.
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Angela Merkel
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- 1973-1978 graduated with Diplom in physics
- Occupations
- politicianphysicist
- Biography
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Angela Dorothea Merkel is a retired German politician and chemist who served as chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union from 2000 to 2018. Merkel was the first female chancellor of Germany. During her chancellorship, Merkel was frequently referred to as the de facto leader of the European Union (EU) and the most powerful woman in the world. Beginning in 2016, she was often described as the leader of the free world.
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Friedrich Nietzsche
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- Studied in 1865-1879
- Occupations
- writercomposerclassical scholarmusic criticphilosopher
- Biography
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Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; 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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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- 1765-1768 studied jurisprudence
- Occupations
- writerjuristpolymaththeatre managercomposer
- Biography
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Johann Wolfgang Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath and writer, who is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a profound and wide-ranging influence on Western literary, political, and philosophical thought from the late 18th century to the present day. Goethe was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treatises on botany, anatomy, and color.
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Richard Wagner
- Occupations
- theatrical directordiaristmusic criticpoetpianist
- Biography
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung).
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Werner Heisenberg
- Occupations
- theoretical physicist
- Biography
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Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a major breakthrough paper. In the subsequent series of papers with Max Born and Pascual Jordan, during the same year, his matrix formulation of quantum mechanics was substantially elaborated. He is known for the uncertainty principle, which he published in 1927. Heisenberg was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the creation of quantum mechanics".
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- 1661-1666 studied law and philosophy
- Occupations
- policy advisorbiologistphilosopherwritergeologist
- Biography
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who invented calculus in addition to many other branches of mathematics and statistics. Leibniz has been called the "last universal genius" due to his knowledge and skills in different fields and because such people became less common during the Industrial Revolution and spread of specialized labor after his lifetime. He is a prominent figure in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathematics. He wrote works on philosophy, theology, ethics, politics, law, history, philology, games, music, and other studies. Leibniz also made major contributions to physics and technology, and anticipated notions that surfaced much later in probability theory, biology, medicine, geology, psychology, linguistics and computer science. In addition, he contributed to the field of library science by devising a cataloguing system whilst working at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, that would have served as a guide for many of Europe's largest libraries. Leibniz's contributions to a wide range of subjects were scattered in various learned journals, in tens of thousands of letters and in unpublished manuscripts. He wrote in several languages, primarily in Latin, French and German.
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Émile Durkheim
- Occupations
- philosophersociologistprofessoranthropologisthistorian of religion
- Biography
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David Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, along with both Karl Marx and Max Weber.
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Robert Schumann
- Occupations
- pianistcomposermusic teacherwritermusic critic
- Biography
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Robert Schumann was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. His teacher, Friedrich Wieck, a German pianist, had assured him that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing.
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Tycho Brahe
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- Studied in 1562-1565
- Occupations
- astronomerastrologerwriterpoetalchemist
- Biography
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Tycho Brahe, generally called Tycho for short, was a Danish astronomer of the Renaissance, known for his comprehensive and unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations. He was known during his lifetime as an astronomer, astrologer, and alchemist. He was the last major astronomer before the invention of the telescope.
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Edward Teller
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- In 1930 graduated with doctorate
- Occupations
- university teachernon-fiction writertheoretical physicistphysicistinventor
- Biography
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Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb" and one of the creators of the Teller–Ulam design. Teller was known for his scientific ability and his difficult interpersonal relations and volatile personality.
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Ferdinand de Saussure
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- 1876-1880 graduated with doctorate
- Occupations
- linguist
- Biography
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Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the founders of 20th-century linguistics and one of two major founders (together with Charles Sanders Peirce) of semiotics, or semiology, as Saussure called it.
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Michelle Bachelet
- Occupations
- surgeonpoliticianpediatricianinternational forum participantepidemiologist
- Biography
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Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Chilean politician who served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018 to 2022. She previously served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and from 2014 to 2018 for the Socialist Party of Chile. She is the first woman to hold the Chilean presidency. After leaving the presidency in 2010 and before becoming eligible for re-election, she was appointed as the first executive director of the newly established United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In December 2013, Bachelet was re-elected with over 62% of the vote, surpassing the 54% she received in 2006. She was the first President of Chile to be re-elected since 1932. Bachelet, a physician who has studied military strategy at the university level, previously served as the Health Minister and Defense Minister under her predecessor, Ricardo Lagos. She is a separated mother of three and identifies as an agnostic. In addition to her native Spanish, she speaks English fluently and has some proficiency in German, French, and Portuguese.
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Erich Kästner
- Occupations
- children's writerwritercabaret performerjournalistplaywright
- Biography
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Emil Erich Kästner was a German writer, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children's books including Emil and the Detectives. He received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1960 for his autobiography Als ich ein kleiner Junge war. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in six separate years.
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Edmund Husserl
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- In 1878 studied mathematics and physics
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosophermathematician
- 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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Ernst Jünger
- Occupations
- science fiction writerwriterdiaristentomologistphilosopher
- Biography
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Ernst Jünger was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir Storm of Steel.
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Gustav Stresemann
- Occupations
- statespersondiplomatpolitician
- Biography
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Gustav Ernst Stresemann was a German statesman who served as chancellor of Germany from August to November 1923, and as foreign minister from 1923 to 1929. His most notable achievement was the reconciliation between Germany and France, for which he and French Prime Minister Aristide Briand received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926. During a period of political instability and fragile, short-lived governments, Stresemann was the most influential politician in most of the Weimar Republic's existence.
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Hjalmar Schacht
- Occupations
- bankerpoliticianeconomist
- Biography
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Hjalmar Schacht was a German economist, banker, centre-right politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic. He was a fierce critic of his country's post-World War I reparations obligations. He was also central in helping create the group of German industrialists and landowners that pushed Hindenburg to appoint the first NSDAP-led government.
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Klaus Fuchs
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- 1930-1931 studied mathematics
- Occupations
- university teachertheoretical physicistphysicistatomic spypolitician
- Biography
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Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who supplied information from the American, British and Canadian Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and shortly after World War II. While at the Los Alamos Laboratory, Fuchs was responsible for many significant theoretical calculations relating to the first nuclear weapons and, later, early models of the hydrogen bomb. After his conviction in 1950, he served nine years in prison in the United Kingdom, then migrated to East Germany where he resumed his career as a physicist and scientific leader.
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Luz Long
- Occupations
- athletics competitorlawyer
- Biography
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Carl Ludwig "Luz" Long was a German Olympic long jumper, notable for winning the silver medal in the event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and for his association with Jesse Owens, who went on to win the gold medal for the long jump. Luz Long won the German long jump championship six times in 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938, and 1939.
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Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- In 1746 studied theology
- Occupations
- writercriticjournalistlyricistlibrarian
- 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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Paul Ehrlich
- Occupations
- university teacherpharmacologistbiologistchemistphysician
- Biography
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Paul Ehrlich was a Nobel Prize-winning German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy. Among his foremost achievements were finding a cure for syphilis in 1909 and inventing the precursor technique to Gram staining bacteria. The methods he developed for staining tissue made it possible to distinguish between different types of blood cells, which led to the ability to diagnose numerous blood diseases.
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Johann Gottlieb Fichte
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterphilosopher
- Biography
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Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant. Recently, philosophers and scholars have begun to appreciate Fichte as an important philosopher in his own right due to his original insights into the nature of self-consciousness or self-awareness. Fichte was also the originator of thesis–antithesis–synthesis, an idea that is often erroneously attributed to Hegel. Like Descartes and Kant before him, Fichte was motivated by the problem of subjectivity and consciousness. Fichte also wrote works of political philosophy; he has a reputation as one of the fathers of German nationalism.
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Novalis
- Occupations
- literary theoristwriterpoetengineerlyricist
- Biography
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Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, pen name Novalis ( German pronunciation: [noˈvaːlɪs]), was a German aristocrat and polymath, who was a poet, novelist, philosopher and mystic. He is regarded as an influential figure of Jena Romanticism.
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Karl Liebknecht
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- In 1890 studied legal science and cameralism
- Occupations
- lawyerpoliticianrevolutionaryeditor
- Biography
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Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht was a German socialist and anti-militarist. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) beginning in 1900, he was one of its deputies in the Reichstag from 1912 to 1916, where he represented the left-revolutionary wing of the party. In 1916 he was expelled from the SPD's parliamentary group for his opposition to the political truce between all parties in the Reichstag while the war lasted. He twice spent time in prison, first for writing an anti-militarism pamphlet in 1907 and then for his role in a 1916 antiwar demonstration. He was released from the second under a general amnesty three weeks before the end of the First World War.
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Ferdinand I of Romania
- Occupations
- monarch
- Biography
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Ferdinand I, nicknamed Întregitorul ("the Unifier"), was King of Romania from 1914 until his death in 1927. Ferdinand was the second son of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern, and Infanta Antónia of Portugal, daughter of Ferdinand II of Portugal and Maria II of Portugal. His family was part of the Catholic branch of the Prussian royal family Hohenzollern.
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Katrin Göring-Eckardt
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- 1984-1988 studied Protestant theology
- Occupations
- theologianpoliticianenvironmentalist
- Biography
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Katrin Dagmar Göring-Eckardt is a German politician of the German Green Party (officially known as Alliance 90/The Greens). Starting her political activity in the now-former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in the late 1980s, she has been a member of the German Bundestag since 1998. She became co-chair of her party caucus in the Bundestag (2002–2005) and the Greens' Vice President of the Bundestag on 18 October 2005, a position that she held until 2013 and would later reprise in 2021. In the November 2012 primary election, the Green Party chose her and Jürgen Trittin as the top two candidates for the Greens for the 2013 German federal election. She also stood as joint top candidate for the Greens in the 2017 German federal election, alongside Cem Özdemir.
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Bronisław Malinowski
- Occupations
- ethnologistuniversity teacherethnographeranthropologistphotographer
- Biography
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Bronisław Kasper Malinowski was a Polish-British anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthropology.
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Ferdinand Sauerbruch
- Occupations
- university teachersurgeon
- Biography
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Ernst Ferdinand Sauerbruch was a German surgeon. His major work was on the use of negative-pressure chambers for surgery.
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Martin Buber
- Occupations
- translatorphilosopherwriterzionistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Martin Buber was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I–Thou relationship and the I–It relationship. Born in Vienna, Buber came from a family of observant Jews, but broke with Jewish custom to pursue secular studies in philosophy. He produced writings about Zionism and worked with various bodies within the Zionist movement extensively over a nearly 50-year period spanning his time in Europe and the Near East. In 1923, Buber wrote his famous essay on existence, Ich und Du (later translated into English as I and Thou), and in 1925, he began translating the Hebrew Bible into the German language reflecting the patterns of the Hebrew language.
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Georg Philipp Telemann
- Occupations
- chapelmasterclassical composerorganist
- Biography
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Georg Philipp Telemann was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. He is one of the most prolific composers in history, at least in terms of surviving oeuvre. Telemann was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the leading German composers of the time, and he was compared favourably both to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach, who made Telemann the godfather and namesake of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, and to George Frideric Handel, whom Telemann also knew personally.
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Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterphilosopher
- Biography
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Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, later (after 1812) von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him between Johann Gottlieb Fichte, his mentor in his early years, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, his one-time university roommate, early friend, and later rival. Interpreting Schelling's philosophy is regarded as difficult because of its evolving nature.
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Hans-Dietrich Genscher
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- Studied in 1949
- Occupations
- assessoruniversity teachernon-fiction writerinterior ministerlawyer
- 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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Thomas Müntzer
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- Studied in 1506
- Occupations
- theologianrevolutionaryProtestant reformerpriestlyricist
- Biography
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Thomas Müntzer was a German preacher and theologian of the early Reformation whose opposition to both Martin Luther and the Roman Catholic Church led to his open defiance of late-feudal authority in central Germany. Müntzer was foremost amongst those reformers who took issue with Luther's compromises with feudal authority. He was a leader of the German peasant and plebeian uprising of 1525 commonly known as the German Peasants' War.
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Juli Zeh
- Occupations
- juristscience fiction writerwriteressayist
- Biography
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Juli Zeh is a German writer and former judge. She is known for novels such as The Method (2009), Unterleuten (2016) and About People (2021).
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Marc Bloch
- Occupations
- university teachermedievalistFrench Resistance fighterprofessorlecturer
- Biography
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Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch was a French historian. He was a founding member of the Annales School of French social history. Bloch specialised in medieval history and published widely on Medieval France over the course of his career. As an academic, he worked at the University of Strasbourg (1920 to 1936), the University of Paris (1936 to 1939), and the University of Montpellier (1941 to 1944).
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Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
- Occupations
- composer
- Biography
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Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period composer and musician, the fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach.
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Günter Schabowski
- Occupations
- politicianjournalist
- Biography
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Günter Schabowski was an East German politician who served as an official of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands abbreviated SED), the ruling party during most of the existence of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Schabowski gained worldwide fame in November 1989 when he improvised a slightly mistaken answer to a press conference question about the future of the Berlin Wall. That raised popular expectations much more rapidly than the government planned and so massive crowds gathered the same night at the Wall, which forced its opening after 28 years. Soon afterward, the entire inner German border was opened.
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Maybrit Illner
- Occupations
- television presenter
- Biography
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Maybrit Illner is a German journalist and television presenter.
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Prince Maximilian of Baden
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Maximilian, Margrave of Baden, also known as Max von Baden, was a German prince, general, and politician. He was heir presumptive to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Baden, and in October and November 1918 briefly served as the last chancellor of the German Empire and minister-president of Prussia. He sued for peace on Germany's behalf at the end of World War I based on U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points and took steps towards transforming the government into a parliamentary system. As the German Revolution of 1918–1919 spread, he handed over the office of chancellor to SPD Chairman Friedrich Ebert and unilaterally proclaimed the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II. Both events took place on 9 November 1918, marking the beginning of the Weimar Republic.
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Raila A Odinga
- Occupations
- international forum participantpoliticianuniversity teacherbusinessperson
- Biography
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Raila Amolo Odinga is a Kenyan politician who was the prime minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Langata Constituency from 1992 to 2013 and has been the Leader of Opposition in Kenya since 2013. He is the leader of Azimio la Umoja–One Kenya Coalition Party.
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Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay
- Occupations
- ethnographeranthropologisttravelerbiologistmarine biologist
- Biography
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Nicholai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay was a Russian explorer. He worked as an ethnologist, anthropologist and biologist who became famous as one of the earliest scientists to settle among and study indigenous people of New Guinea "who had never seen a European".
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Sándor Márai
- Occupations
- translatorscreenwriterpoetjournalistopinion journalist
- Biography
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Sándor Márai was a Hungarian writer, poet, and journalist.
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Friedrich Max Müller
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- Studied in 1843
- Occupations
- linguistorientalistreligious studies scholaruniversity teacherlibrarian
- Biography
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Friedrich Max Müller was a British philologist and Orientalist of German origin. He was one of the founders of the Western academic disciplines of Indian studies and religious studies. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology. The Sacred Books of the East, a 50-volume set of English translations, was prepared under his direction. He also promoted the idea of a Turanian family of languages.
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Jean Paul
- Occupations
- novelistpoetwriterlibrettist
- Biography
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Jean Paul was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories.
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Leopold von Ranke
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- 1814-1818 studied theology and philology
- Occupations
- academichistorianwriteruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Leopold von Ranke was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of historical documents. Building on the methods of the Göttingen School of History, he was the first to establish a historical seminar. Ranke set the standards for much of later historical writing, introducing such ideas as reliance on primary sources (empiricism), an emphasis on narrative history and especially international politics (Außenpolitik). He was ennobled in 1865, with the addition of a "von" to his name.
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Mikhail Prishvin
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- In 1902 studied agronomy
- Occupations
- opinion journalistpedagoguelibrarianagronomistlocal historian
- Biography
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Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin was a Russian and Soviet novelist, prose writer and publicist. Prishvin himself defined his place in literature this way: "Rozanov is the afterword of Russian literature, and I am a free supplement. And that's all..."
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Alexander Radishchev
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- Studied in 1766-1771
- Occupations
- writernovelistpoeteconomistphilosopher
- Biography
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Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev was a Russian author and social critic who was arrested and exiled under Catherine the Great. He brought the tradition of radicalism in Russian literature to prominence with his 1790 novel Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. His depiction of socio-economic conditions in Russia resulted in his exile to Siberia until 1797. He was the grandfather of painter Alexey Bogolyubov.
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Friedrich August III of Saxony
- Occupations
- monarch
- Biography
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Frederick Augustus III was the last King of Saxony (1904–1918). Born in Dresden, Frederick Augustus was the eldest son of King George of Saxony and his wife, Maria Anna of Portugal.
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Otto von Guericke
- Occupations
- instrument makerjuristphysicistscientistpolitician
- Biography
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Otto von Guericke was a German scientist, inventor, mathematician and physicist. His pioneering scientific work, the development of experimental methods and repeatable demonstrations on the physics of the vacuum, atmospheric pressure, electrostatic repulsion, his advocacy for the reality of "action at a distance" and of "absolute space" were noteworthy contributions for the advancement of the Scientific Revolution.
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Christian Wolff
- Occupations
- juristmathematicianuniversity teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Christian Wolff was a German philosopher. Wolff is characterized as one of the most eminent German philosophers between Leibniz and Kant. His life work spanned almost every scholarly subject of his time, displayed and unfolded according to his demonstrative-deductive, mathematical method, which some deem the peak of Enlightenment rationality in Germany.
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Emil Kraepelin
- Occupations
- university teacherpsychiatrist
- Biography
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Emil Wilhelm Georg Magnus Kraepelin was a German psychiatrist. H. J. Eysenck's Encyclopedia of Psychology identifies him as the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, psychopharmacology and psychiatric genetics.
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Carl Bosch
- Occupations
- scientific collectoracademicchemistinventorengineer
- Biography
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Carl Bosch was a German chemist and engineer and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. He was a pioneer in the field of high-pressure industrial chemistry and founder of IG Farben, at one point the world's largest chemical company.
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Christa Wolf
- Occupations
- novelistliterary criticunofficial collaboratorjournalistscreenwriter
- Biography
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Christa Wolf was a German novelist and essayist. She is considered one of the most important writers to emerge from the former East Germany.
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Nicolae Iorga
- Occupations
- historiangeopolitical analystliterary historianorientalisttranslator
- Biography
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Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, Albanologist, poet and playwright. Co-founder (in 1910) of the Democratic Nationalist Party (PND), he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly (1931–32) as Prime Minister. A child prodigy, polymath and polyglot, Iorga produced an unusually large body of scholarly works, establishing his international reputation as a medievalist, Byzantinist, Latinist, Slavist, art historian and philosopher of history. Holding teaching positions at the University of Bucharest, the University of Paris and several other academic institutions, Iorga was founder of the International Congress of Byzantine Studies and the Institute of South-East European Studies (ISSEE). His activity also included the transformation of Vălenii de Munte town into a cultural and academic center.
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Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- Studied in 1803-1804
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg was a German-Danish prince and officer who was the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck from 1816 to 1825, and the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg from 1825 to 1831. Friedrich Wilhelm is the progenitor of the House of Glücksburg.
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Aline Abboud
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- 2007-2012 studied Arabic studies
- Occupations
- television presenterjournalistnews presenter
- Biography
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Aline Abboud is a German journalist and television presenter. Having studied Arab studies at Leipzig University, she worked for the German public broadcaster ZDF as an editor and reporter with a focus on foreign affairs. Since September 2021, Abboud presents Tagesthemen, a daily news magazine broadcast by ARD. She is the first woman born in the German Democratic Republic to hold this position.
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Bernhard Grzimek
- Occupations
- writertelevision presenterfilm directorphotographerveterinarian
- Biography
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Bernhard Klemens Maria Grzimek was a German zoo director, zoologist, book author, editor, and animal conservationist in postwar West Germany.
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Johann Tetzel
- Occupations
- Catholic priesttheologianpreacherreligious
- Biography
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Johann Tetzel was a German Dominican friar and preacher. He was appointed Inquisitor for Poland and Saxony, later becoming the Grand Commissioner for indulgences in Germany. Tetzel was known for granting indulgences on behalf of the Catholic Church in exchange for money. Indulgences grant a remission of temporal punishment due to sin, the guilt of which has been forgiven. This largely contributed to Martin Luther writing his Ninety-five Theses. The main usage of the indulgences sold by Tetzel was to help fund and build the new St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
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Friedrich Carl von Savigny
- Occupations
- university teacherlegal historianwriterjuristpolitician
- Biography
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Friedrich Carl von Savigny was a German jurist and historian.
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Wilhelm Ostwald
- Occupations
- inventorwriteruniversity teacherphysicistteacher
- Biography
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Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald was a Baltic German chemist and philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst, and Svante Arrhenius. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his scientific contributions to the fields of catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities.
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August Ferdinand Möbius
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- Studied in 1809-1813
- Occupations
- university teacherastronomermathematician
- Biography
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August Ferdinand Möbius was a German mathematician and theoretical astronomer.
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Cai Yuanpei
- Occupations
- politicianEsperantistphilosopherprofessor
- Biography
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Cai Yuanpei was a Chinese philosopher and politician who was an influential figure in the history of Chinese modern education. He made contributions to education reform with his own education ideology. He was the president of Peking University, and founder of the Academia Sinica. He was known for his critical evaluation of Chinese culture and synthesis of Chinese and Western thinking, including anarchism. He got involved in the New Culture, May Fourth Movements, and the feminist movement. His works involve aesthetic education, politics, education reform, etc.
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Hans von Bülow
- Occupations
- pianistconductorcomposermusic teacher
- Biography
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Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, especially Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms. Alongside Carl Tausig, Bülow was perhaps the most prominent of the early students of the Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist and conductor Franz Liszt; he gave the first public performance of Liszt's Sonata in B minor in 1857. He became acquainted with, fell in love with and eventually married Liszt's daughter Cosima, who later left him for Wagner. Noted for his interpretation of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, he was one of the earliest European musicians to tour the United States.
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Gustav Fechner
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicistwriterpsychologisttranslator
- Biography
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Gustav Theodor Fechner was a German physicist, philosopher, and experimental psychologist. A pioneer in experimental psychology and founder of psychophysics (techniques for measuring the mind), he inspired many 20th-century scientists and philosophers. He is also credited with demonstrating the non-linear relationship between psychological sensation and the physical intensity of a stimulus via the formula: S = K ln I {\displaystyle S=K\ln I}, which became known as the Weber–Fechner law.
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Edward B. Titchener
- Occupations
- university teacherpsychologistphilosopher
- Biography
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Edward Bradford Titchener was an English psychologist who studied under Wilhelm Wundt for several years. Titchener is best known for creating his version of psychology that described the structure of the mind: structuralism. After becoming a professor at Cornell University, he created the largest doctoral program at that time in the United States. His first graduate student, Margaret Floy Washburn, became the first woman to be granted a PhD in psychology (1894).
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Avetik Isahakyan
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- Studied in 1893-1895
- Occupations
- public figureprose writerpoet
- Biography
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Avetik Sahaki Isahakyan was a prominent Armenian lyric poet, writer and public activist.
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Gerald Hüther
- Occupations
- university teachernon-fiction writerneurobiologist
- Biography
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Gerald Hüther is a German neurobiologist and author of popular science books and other writings.
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Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse
- Occupations
- sovereign
- Biography
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Louis II was Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 6 April 1830 until 16 June 1848. He was the son of Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Princess Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt.
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Felix Bloch
- Occupations
- nuclear physicistuniversity teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Felix Bloch was a Swiss-American physicist and Nobel physics laureate who worked mainly in the U.S. He and Edward Mills Purcell were awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics for "their development of new ways and methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements." In 1954–1955, he served for one year as the first director-general of CERN. Felix Bloch made fundamental theoretical contributions to the understanding of ferromagnetism and electron behavior in crystal lattices. He is also considered one of the developers of nuclear magnetic resonance.
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Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
- Occupations
- pianistcomposerorganist
- Biography
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Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was a German composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was the second child and eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. Despite his acknowledged genius as an improviser and composer, his income and employment were unstable, and he died in poverty.
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Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
- Occupations
- writerin-home tutorpoetlinguistplaywright
- Biography
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Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock was a German poet. His best known works are the epic poem Der Messias ("The Messiah") and the poem Die Auferstehung ("The Resurrection"), with the latter set to text in the finale of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2. One of his major contributions to German literature was to open it up to exploration outside of French models.
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Ulrich von Hutten
- Occupations
- writerImperial Knightpoetpoliticianmonk
- Biography
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Ulrich von Hutten was a German knight, scholar, poet and satirist, who later became a follower of Martin Luther and a Protestant reformer.
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Walther Nernst
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Walther Hermann Nernst was a German physicist and physical chemist known for his work in thermodynamics, physical chemistry, electrochemistry, and solid-state physics. His formulation of the Nernst heat theorem helped pave the way for the third law of thermodynamics, for which he won the 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is also known for developing the Nernst equation in 1887.
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Siegfried Buback
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- Studied law
- Occupations
- lawyerjuristassessorjudge
- Biography
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Siegfried Buback was the Attorney General of West Germany from 1974 until his murder in 1977.
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Georgius Agricola
- Occupations
- historianchemistmetallurgistmineralogistphysician
- Biography
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Georgius Agricola was a German Humanist scholar, mineralogist and metallurgist. Born in the small town of Glauchau, in the Electorate of Saxony of the Holy Roman Empire, he was broadly educated, but took a particular interest in the mining and refining of metals. He was the first to drop the Arabic definite article al-, exclusively writing chymia and chymista in describing activity that we today would characterize as chemical or alchemical, giving chemistry its modern name. For his groundbreaking work De Natura Fossilium published in 1546, he is generally referred to as the Father of Mineralogy and the founder of geology as a scientific discipline.
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Petru Groza
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Petru Groza was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician, best known as the first Prime Minister of the Communist Party-dominated government under Soviet occupation during the early stages of the Communist regime in Romania, and later as the President of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly (nominal head of state of Romania) from 1952 until his death in 1958.
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Charles Spearman
- Occupations
- university teacherstatisticianpsychologist
- Biography
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Charles Edward Spearman, FRS was an English psychologist known for work in statistics, as a pioneer of factor analysis, and for Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. He also did seminal work on models for human intelligence, including his theory that disparate cognitive test scores reflect a single general intelligence factor and coining the term g factor.
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Ernst Chladni
- Occupations
- physicistmusicianastronomermathematiciangeologist
- Biography
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Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni was a German physicist and musician. His most important work, for which he is sometimes labeled as the father of acoustics, included research on vibrating plates and the calculation of the speed of sound for different gases. He also undertook pioneering work in the study of meteorites and is regarded by some as the father of meteoritics.
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Robert Michels
- Occupations
- university teachersociologistphilosopher
- 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.
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Georg Jellinek
- Occupations
- judgeuniversity teachersociologistjuristphilosopher
- Biography
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Georg Jellinek was a German public lawyer and was considered to be "the exponent of public law in Austria“.
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Gustav Radbruch
- Occupations
- politicianprofessorjurist
- Biography
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Gustav Radbruch was a German legal scholar and politician. He served as Minister of Justice of Germany during the early Weimar period. Radbruch is also regarded as one of the most influential legal philosophers of the 20th century.
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Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticianeconomist
- Biography
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Eugen Ritter von Böhm-Bawerk was an economist from Austria-Hungary who made important contributions to the development of the macroeconomics. He served intermittently as the Austrian Minister of Finance between 1895 and 1904. He also wrote extensive criticisms of Marxism.
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Samuel von Pufendorf
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterjuristeconomisthistorian
- Biography
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Samuel Freiherr von Pufendorf was a German jurist, political philosopher, economist and historian. He was born Samuel Pufendorf and ennobled in 1694; he was made a baron by Charles XI of Sweden a few months before his death at age 62. Among his achievements are his commentaries and revisions of the natural law theories of Thomas Hobbes and Hugo Grotius.
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Hugo Münsterberg
- Occupations
- writeruniversity teacherpsychologistphilosopher
- Biography
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Hugo Münsterberg was a German-American psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in applied psychology, extending his research and theories to industrial/organizational (I/O), legal, medical, clinical, educational and business settings. Münsterberg experienced immense turmoil with the outbreak of the First World War. Torn between his loyalty to the United States and his homeland, he often defended Germany's actions, attracting highly contrasting reactions.
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Georg Michaelis
- Occupations
- politicianlawyerjurist
- Biography
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Georg Michaelis was the chancellor of the German Empire for a few months in 1917. He was the first (and the only one of the German Empire) chancellor not of noble birth to hold the office. With an economic background in business, Michaelis' main achievement was to encourage the ruling classes to open peace talks with Russia. Contemplating that the end of the war was near, he encouraged infrastructure development to facilitate recovery at war's end through the media of Mitteleuropa. A somewhat humourless character, known for process engineering, Michaelis was faced with insurmountable problems of logistics and supply in his brief period as chancellor.
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Regiomontanus
- Occupations
- printerastronomerastrologerCatholic bishophistorian of mathematics
- Biography
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Johannes Müller von Königsberg, better known as Regiomontanus, was a mathematician, astrologer and astronomer of the German Renaissance, active in Vienna, Buda and Nuremberg. His contributions were instrumental in the development of Copernican heliocentrism in the decades following his death.
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Martin Schongauer
- Occupations
- graphic artistengraverpainter
- Biography
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Martin Schongauer, also known as Martin Schön ("Martin beautiful") or Hübsch Martin ("pretty Martin") by his contemporaries, was an Alsatian engraver and painter. He was the most important printmaker north of the Alps before Albrecht Dürer, a younger artist who collected his work. Schongauer is the first German painter to be a significant engraver, although he seems to have had the family background and training in goldsmithing which was usual for early engravers.
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Janusz Radziwiłł
- Occupations
- diplomatpoliticianmilitary leader
- Biography
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Prince Janusz Radziwiłł, also known as Janusz the Second or Janusz the Younger was a noble and magnate in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Throughout his life he occupied a number of posts in the state administration, including that of Court Chamberlain of Lithuania (from 1633), Field Hetman of Lithuania (from 1646) and Grand Hetman of Lithuania (from 1654). He was also a voivode of Vilna Voivodeship (from 1653), as well as a starost of Samogitia, Kamieniec, Kazimierz and Sejwy. He was a protector of the Protestant religion in Lithuania and sponsor of many Protestant schools and churches.
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Robin Alexander
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- Studied journalism
- Occupations
- writertelevision presenteropinion journalisttranslatorjournalist
- Biography
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Robin Alexander is a German journalist and author. He reports mainly for the Die Welt group on the German Chancellery and the CDU/CSU parties.
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Uwe Tellkamp
- Occupations
- physician writernovelistphysicianscreenwriter
- Biography
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Uwe Tellkamp is a German writer and physician. He practised medicine until 2004. Before the fall of communism, he was enlisted in the National People's Army as a tank commander and imprisoned when he refused to break up a demonstration in October 1989. Until the fall of the German Democratic Republic shortly after, he was prohibited from studying medicine.
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Wladimir Köppen
- Occupations
- Esperantistearth scientistclimatologistgeographermeteorologist
- Biography
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Wladimir Petrovich Köppen was a Russian–German geographer, meteorologist, climatologist and botanist. After studies in St. Petersburg, he spent the bulk of his life and professional career in Germany and Austria. His most notable contribution to science was the development of the Köppen climate classification system, which, with some modifications, is still commonly used. Köppen made significant contributions to several branches of science, and coined the name aerology for the science of measuring the upper air/atmosphere.
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Heinrich von Treitschke
- Enrolled in the University of Leipzig
- Studied in 1852-1853
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterhistorian of Modern Agehistorianpolitician
- Biography
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Heinrich Gotthard Freiherr von Treitschke was a German historian, political writer and National Liberal member of the Reichstag during the time of the German Empire. He was an extreme nationalist, who favored German colonialism and opposed the British Empire. He also opposed Catholics, Poles, Jews and socialists inside Germany.
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Jan Kasprowicz
- Occupations
- writerpoettranslatorprofessorplaywright
- Biography
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Jan Kasprowicz was a poet, playwright, critic and translator; a foremost representative of Young Poland.
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Adolf von Harnack
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterchurch historianhistorian of religionlibrarian
- Biography
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Carl Gustav Adolf von Harnack was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian and prominent Church historian. He produced many religious publications from 1873 to 1912 (in which he is sometimes credited as Adolf Harnack). He was ennobled (with the addition of von to his name) in 1914.
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James McKeen Cattell
- Occupations
- psychologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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James McKeen Cattell was the first professor of psychology in the United States, teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He was a long-time editor and publisher of scientific journals and publications, including Science, and served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public from 1921 to 1944.
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Uwe Johnson
- Occupations
- writertranslator
- Biography
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Uwe Johnson was a German writer, editor, and scholar.
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Friedrich Hund
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacherchemistnuclear physicistnon-fiction writer
- Biography
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Friedrich Hermann Hund was a German physicist from Karlsruhe known for his work on atoms and molecules.
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Aurel Stein
- Occupations
- archaeologistuniversity teacherexploreranthropologistart historian
- Biography
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Sir Marc Aurel Stein, KCIE, FRAS, FBA was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at Indian universities.
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Jan Baudouin de Courtenay
- Occupations
- phoneticianprofessoresperantologistlinguistslavist
- Biography
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Jan Niecisław Ignacy Baudouin de Courtenay, also Ivan Alexandrovich Baudouin de Courtenay was a Russian and Polish linguist and Slavist, best known for his theory of the phoneme and phonetic alternations.
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Felix Hausdorff
- Occupations
- writermathematiciantopologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Felix Hausdorff was a German mathematician, pseudonym Paul Mongré (à mon gré (Fr.) = "according to my taste"), who is considered to be one of the founders of modern topology and who contributed significantly to set theory, descriptive set theory, measure theory, and functional analysis.
