100 Notable alumni of
University of Munich
Updated:
The University of Munich is 33rd in the world, 12th in Europe, and 2nd in Germany by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the University of Munich sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 7 individuals affiliated with the University of Munich won Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology or Medicine.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Occupations
- directorfilm produceractorfilm directorsoldier
- Biography
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Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, filmmaker, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder known for his roles in high-profile action movies. He served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011 and was among Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and 2007.
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Benedict XVI
- Occupations
- archbishoppopeLatin Catholic priestCatholic deacontheologian
- Biography
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Pope Benedict XVI was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as pope occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. Benedict chose to be known as "Pope emeritus" upon his resignation, and he retained this title until his death in 2022.
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Max Weber
- Occupations
- economistsociologistjuristmusicologistphilosopher
- Biography
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Maximilian Karl Emil Weber was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. He was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sciences, and his ideas profoundly influence social theory and research.
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Werner Heisenberg
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied in 1920-1923
- 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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Bertolt Brecht
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- 1917-1921 studied medicine and philosophy
- Occupations
- directorliterary criticpoetscreenwriterplaywright
- Biography
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Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a playwright in Munich and moved to Berlin in 1924, where he wrote The Threepenny Opera with Kurt Weill and began a life-long collaboration with the composer Hanns Eisler. Immersed in Marxist thought during this period, he wrote didactic Lehrstücke and became a leading theoretician of epic theatre (which he later preferred to call "dialectical theatre") and the Verfremdungseffekt.
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Ian Fleming
- Occupations
- sailorprose writerwriterscreenwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British writer, best known for his postwar James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his father was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing.
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Werner Herzog
- Occupations
- voice actorcinematographerauthordocumentary filmmakerfilm editor
- Biography
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Werner Herzog is a German filmmaker, actor, opera director, and author. Regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema, his films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unusual talents in obscure fields, or individuals in conflict with nature. His style involves avoiding storyboards, emphasizing improvisation, and placing his cast and crew into real situations mirroring those in the film they are working on.
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Thomas Mann
- Occupations
- writershort story writerdiaristuniversity teachernovelist
- Biography
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Paul Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized versions of German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Arthur Schopenhauer.
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Konrad Adenauer
- Occupations
- autobiographerassessorlawyerart collectorChancellor of Germany
- 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 new founded Christian-democratic party, which became the dominant force in the country under his leadership.
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Max Planck
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied in 1874
- Occupations
- physicisttheoretical physicistuniversity teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.
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Muhammad Iqbal
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- 1907-1907 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- children's writerwriterlawyerpoetpolitician
- Biography
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Muhammad Iqbal was a South Asian Muslim philosopher, author, and politician. His poetry is considered to be among the greatest of the 20th century, and his vision of a cultural and political ideal for the Muslims of British-ruled India is widely regarded as having animated the impulse for the Pakistan Movement. He is commonly referred to by the honourific Allama (Persian: علامه, transl. "learned").
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Rainer Maria Rilke
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied in 1896
- Occupations
- writernovelistpoettranslatorplaywright
- Biography
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René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke, known as Rainer Maria Rilke ( German: [ˈʁaɪnɐ maˈʁiːa ˈʁɪlkə]), was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant writer in the German language. His work is viewed by critics and scholars as possessing undertones of mysticism, exploring themes of subjective experience and disbelief. His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry and several volumes of correspondence.
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Sophie Scholl
- Occupations
- resistance fighteruniversity student
- Biography
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Sophia Magdalena Scholl was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany.
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Wilhelm Röntgen
- Occupations
- physicistengineerresearcherprofessor
- Biography
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Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German mechanical engineer and physicist, who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or Röntgen rays, an achievement that earned him the inaugural Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. In honour of Röntgen's accomplishments, in 2004 the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) named element 111, roentgenium, a radioactive element with multiple unstable isotopes, after him. The unit of measurement roentgen was also named after him.
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Walter Benjamin
- Occupations
- translatorwriterphilosopherliterary criticliterary historian
- Biography
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Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, Jewish mysticism, and Neo-Kantianism, Benjamin made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and historical materialism. He was associated with the Frankfurt School, and also maintained formative friendships with thinkers such as playwright Bertolt Brecht and Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem. He was related to German political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt through her first marriage to Benjamin's cousin Günther Anders though the friendship between Arendt and Benjamin outlasted her marriage to Anders. Both Arendt and Anders were students of Martin Heidegger, whom Benjamin considered a nemesis.
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Joseph Campbell
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- 1928-1929 studied Sanskrit
- Occupations
- ethnologistresearcheranthropologistlecturershort story writer
- Biography
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Joseph John Campbell was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's best-known work is his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero shared by world mythologies, termed the monomyth.
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Juliane Koepcke
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- writerbiologistmammalogistzoologistlibrarian
- Biography
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Juliane Margaret Beate Koepcke, also known by her married name Juliane Diller, is a German-Peruvian mammalogist who specialises in bats. The daughter of German zoologists Maria and Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke, she became famous at the age of 17 as the sole survivor of the 1971 LANSA Flight 508 plane crash; after falling 3,000 m (10,000 ft) while strapped to her seat and suffering numerous injuries, she survived 11 days alone in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest until she was rescued by local fishermen after finding their camp.
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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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Thomas Gottschalk
- Occupations
- television producerjournalistfilm directorfilm producerscreenwriter
- Biography
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Thomas Johannes Gottschalk is a German radio and television host and entertainer. He is best known for hosting Wetten, dass..?, for many years Europe's biggest television show, which he steered to huge success in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and South Tyrol between 1987 and 2011. Until 2015, he was also the brand ambassador in television advertisements for Haribo confectionery.
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Rudolf Diesel
- Occupations
- inventorengineerEsperantistentrepreneur
- Biography
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Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel was a German inventor and mechanical engineer who is famous for having invented the Diesel engine, which burns Diesel fuel; both are named after him.
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Maximilian Schell
- Occupations
- autobiographeractordirectorfilm directorstage actor
- Biography
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Maximilian Schell was a Swiss actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1961 American film Judgment at Nuremberg, his second acting role in Hollywood. Born in Austria, his parents were involved in the arts and he grew up surrounded by performance and literature. While he was still a child, his family fled to Switzerland in 1938 when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, and they settled in Zürich. After World War II ended, Schell took up acting and directing full-time. He appeared in numerous German films, often anti-war, before moving to Hollywood.
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Heinrich Hertz
- Occupations
- physicistinventoruniversity teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was a German physicist who first conclusively proved the existence of the electromagnetic waves predicted by James Clerk Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism. The unit of frequency, cycle per second, was named the "hertz" in his honor.
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Uli Hoeneß
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- 1971-1972 studied English studies and study of history
- Occupations
- association football playermanager
- Biography
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Ulrich "Uli" Hoeneß is a German football executive and former professional player who played as a forward. He played for West Germany at one World Cup and two European Championships, winning one tournament of each competition. During his playing career, he was mainly associated with Bayern Munich, where he won three Bundesliga titles and three European Cups.
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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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Günther Jauch
- Occupations
- journalisttelevision producerradio personalitytelevision presenter
- Biography
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Günther Johannes Jauch is a German television presenter, television producer, and journalist.
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Oswald Spengler
- Occupations
- historianwritersociologistmathematicianphilosopher
- Biography
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Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler was a German polymath, whose areas of interest included history, philosophy, mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best known for his two-volume work The Decline of the West (Der Untergang des Abendlandes), published in 1918 and 1922, covering human history. Spengler's model of history postulates that human cultures and civilizations are akin to biological entities, each with a limited, predictable, and deterministic lifespan.
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Franz Josef Strauß
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Franz Josef Strauss was a German politician. He was the long-time chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) from 1961 until 1988, member of the federal cabinet in different positions between 1953 and 1969 and minister-president of the state of Bavaria from 1978 until 1988. Strauss is also credited as a co-founder of European aerospace conglomerate Airbus.
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Veronica Ferres
- Occupations
- film actor
- Biography
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Veronica Maria Cäcilia Ferres is a German actress. Her 2007 portrayal of Sara Bender in Die Frau vom Checkpoint Charlie, based on the true story of Jutta Fleck, earned her the award for Best Actress at the Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German Television Awards).
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Robert Schuman
- Occupations
- diplomatpoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Robert Schuman was a Luxembourg-born French statesman. Schuman was a Christian democrat (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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William Smith
- Occupations
- modelfilm actorfilm producerscreenwriterstunt performer
- Biography
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William Emmett Smith was an American actor. In a Hollywood career spanning more than 79 years, he appeared in almost three hundred feature films and television productions in a wide variety of character roles, often villainous or brutal, accumulating over 980 total credits, with his best known role being the menacing Anthony Falconetti in the 1970s television mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man. Smith is also known for films like Any Which Way You Can (1980), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Rumble Fish (1983), and Red Dawn (1984), as well as lead roles in several exploitation films during the 1970s and 1990s.
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Otto Hahn
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied chemistry
- Occupations
- autobiographeruniversity teacherchemistnuclear physicistnon-fiction writer
- Biography
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Otto Hahn was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and father of nuclear fission. Hahn and Lise Meitner discovered radioactive isotopes of radium, thorium, protactinium and uranium. He also discovered the phenomena of atomic recoil and nuclear isomerism, and pioneered rubidium–strontium dating. In 1938, Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission, for which Hahn received the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Nuclear fission was the basis for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.
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Ümit Özdağ
- Occupations
- authoruniversity teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Ümit Özdağ is a Turkish politician and the current leader of the Victory Party.
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Wangari Muta Maathai
- Occupations
- biologistpoliticianenvironmentalistveterinarianteacher
- Biography
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Wangarĩ Muta Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Kurt Zadek Lewin
- Occupations
- university teacherpsychologisteconomist
- Biography
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Kurt Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. During his professional career Lewin applied himself to three general topics: applied research, action research, and group communication.
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Wolfgang Pauli
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- 1918-1921 graduated with doctorate in physics
- Occupations
- theoretical physicist
- Biography
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Wolfgang Ernst Pauli was an Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his "decisive contribution through his discovery of a new law of Nature, the exclusion principle or Pauli principle". The discovery involved spin theory, which is the basis of a theory of the structure of matter.
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Ludwig III of Bavaria
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Ludwig III was the last King of Bavaria, reigning from 1913 to 1918. Initially, he served in the Bavarian military as a lieutenant and went on to hold the rank of Oberleutnant during the Austro-Prussian War. He entered politics at the age of 18 becoming a member of the Bavarian parliament and was a keen participant in politics, supporting electoral reforms. Later in life, he served as regent and de facto head of state from 1912 to 1913, ruling for his cousin, Otto. After the Bavarian parliament passed a law allowing him to do so, Ludwig deposed Otto and assumed the throne for himself. He led Bavaria during World War I. His short reign was seen as championing conservative causes and he was influenced by the Catholic encyclical Rerum novarum.
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Claudia Roth
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Claudia Benedikta Roth is a German politician (Alliance 90/The Greens). She was one of the two party chairs from 2004 to 2013 and previously served as one of the vice presidents of the Bundestag. She is currently serving as Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2021.
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Fritz Bauer
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied jurisprudence
- Occupations
- judgeprosecutor
- Biography
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Fritz Bauer was a German Jewish judge and prosecutor. He was instrumental in the post-war capture of former Holocaust planner Adolf Eichmann and played an essential role in beginning the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials.
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Fereydoun Farrokhzad
- Occupations
- composerpoetsingeractorpresenter
- Biography
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Fereydoun Farrokhzad was an Iranian showman, host, poet, actor, political activist, singer, humanitarian, and writer. He is best known for his television variety show, The Silver Carnation, which introduced and featured many artists, such as Ebi, Leila Forouhar, Shohreh, Sattar and many more.
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Roger Willemsen
- Occupations
- writerlinguisttelevision presenterjournalistnews presenter
- Biography
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Roger Willemsen was a German author, essayist and TV presenter.
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Ottfried Fischer
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied jurisprudence
- Occupations
- television actorfilm actoractorvoice actornon-fiction writer
- Biography
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Ottfried Fischer is a retired German actor and Kabarett artist best known for his role as Benno Berghammer in the popular German TV series Der Bulle von Tölz. He is a supporter of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
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Theodor Heuss
- Occupations
- journalistwriterpoliticianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Theodor Heuss was a German liberal politician who served as the first president of West Germany from 1949 to 1959. His cordial nature – something of a contrast to the stern character of chancellor Konrad Adenauer – largely contributed to the stabilization of democracy in West Germany during the Wirtschaftswunder years. Before beginning his career as a politician, Heuss had been a political journalist.
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Anton Hofreiter
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- 1991-1997 studied biology
- Occupations
- politicianbotanist
- Biography
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Anton "Toni" Hofreiter is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since the 2005 elections.
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Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople
- Occupations
- theologianclericinternational forum participantOriental Orthodox bishopenvironmentalist
- Biography
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Bartholomew is the 270th Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch, since 2 November 1991. In accordance with his title, he is regarded as the primus inter pares (first among equals) in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and as the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide.
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Max Horkheimer
- Occupations
- university teacherliterary criticsociologistpedagoguephilosopher
- Biography
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Max Horkheimer was a German philosopher and sociologist who was famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the Frankfurt School of social research. Horkheimer addressed authoritarianism, militarism, economic disruption, environmental crisis, and the poverty of mass culture using the philosophy of history as a framework. This became the foundation of critical theory. His most important works include Eclipse of Reason (1947), Between Philosophy and Social Science (1930–1938) and, in collaboration with Theodor Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947). Through the Frankfurt School, Horkheimer planned, supported and made other significant works possible.
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Max Scheler
- Occupations
- philosopheruniversity teachersociologistanthropologistaxiology
- Biography
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Max Ferdinand Scheler was a German philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. Considered in his lifetime one of the most prominent German philosophers, Scheler developed the philosophical method of Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology. Given that school's utopian ambitions of re-founding all of human knowledge, Scheler was nicknamed the "Adam of the philosophical paradise" by José Ortega y Gasset.
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Hubert Burda
- Occupations
- international forum participantpoliticianart historianpublisher
- Biography
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Hubert Burda is a German billionaire publisher. He is the owner, publisher and general partner of Hubert Burda Media, a global media company of more than 600 media products, including websites, print magazines and other brands. It operates in 20 countries, predominantly in Germany and the UK. Its brands include Focus, Bunte and Radio Times.
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Florian Munteanu
- Occupations
- boxerfilm actorathleteactor
- Biography
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Florian Munteanu, also known by his ring name Big Nasty, is a German actor and boxer. He is known for his role of the boxer Viktor Drago in Creed II (2018) and Creed III (2023), and Razor Fist in the superhero film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).
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John Piper
- Occupations
- theologianpastor
- Biography
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John Stephen Piper is an American Reformed Baptist theologian, pastor, and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Piper taught biblical studies at Bethel University for six years (1974–1980), before serving as pastor for preaching and vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church (Converge) in Minneapolis for 33 years (1980–2013).
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Georg Gänswein
- Occupations
- theologianCatholic priestuniversity teacherCatholic deaconarchbishop
- Biography
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Georg Gänswein is a German prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Prefect of the Papal Household from 2012 to 2023 and was the Personal Secretary of Pope Benedict XVI. He was a Professor of Canon Law at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross for about a decade and has been an archbishop since 2012. He is currently Honorary Canon of Freiburg Cathedral.
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Hans Scholl
- Occupations
- resistance fighterpacifist
- Biography
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Hans Fritz Scholl was, along with Alexander Schmorell, one of the two founding members of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany. The principal author of the resistance movement's literature, he was found guilty of high treason for distributing anti-Nazi material and was executed by the Nazi regime in 1943 during World War II.
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Peter Sloterdijk
- Occupations
- university teacherwritercultural studies scholarlibrettisttelevision presenter
- Biography
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Peter Sloterdijk is a German philosopher and cultural theorist. He is a professor of philosophy and media theory at the University of Art and Design Karlsruhe. He co-hosted the German television show Im Glashaus: Das Philosophische Quartett from 2002 until 2012.
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Jürgen Todenhöfer
- Occupations
- juristopinion journalistwriterpoet lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Jürgen Todenhöfer is a German author, journalist, politician, and executive.
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Roman Herzog
- Occupations
- juristpoliticianuniversity teacherjudge
- Biography
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Roman Herzog was a German politician, judge and legal scholar, who served as the president of Germany from 1994 to 1999. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he was the first president to be elected after the reunification of Germany. He previously served as a judge of the Federal Constitutional Court, and he was the President of the court 1987–1994. Before his appointment as a judge he was a professor of law. He received the 1997 Charlemagne Prize.
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Heinrich Brüning
- Occupations
- economisttrade unionistuniversity teacherpolitician
- 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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John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
- Occupations
- university teacherhistorianpedagoguewriterpolitician
- Biography
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John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli, KCVO, DL, better known as Lord Acton, was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. He is best remembered for the remark he wrote in a letter to an Anglican bishop in 1887: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
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Hans Bethe
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied in 1926-1928
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Hans Albrecht Bethe was a German-American theoretical physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics, and solid-state physics, and who won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. For most of his career, Bethe was a professor at Cornell University.
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Sandra Maischberger
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied communication studies
- Occupations
- writertelevision presentertelevision producerfilm producerjournalist
- Biography
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Sandra Maischberger is a German journalist, talk show host, and author.
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Otto Sander
- Occupations
- film actorscreenwriteractorfilm directorstage actor
- Biography
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Otto Sander was a German film, theater, and voice actor.
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Giovanni di Lorenzo
- Occupations
- television presenterjournalist
- Biography
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Giovanni di Lorenzo is a German-Italian journalist. He is editor-in-chief (since 2004) of German nationwide weekly newspaper Die Zeit and former editor-in-chief of Berlin's liberal daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel (1999–2004; has since retained the position of publisher). Additionally di Lorenzo is a prominent talk show host for the Radio Bremen show 3 nach 9 airing monthly on NDR.
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William Lane Craig
- Occupations
- university teacherChristian theologianwriterapologistphilosopher
- Biography
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William Lane Craig is an American analytic philosopher, Christian apologist, author, and Wesleyan theologian who upholds the view of Molinism and neo-Apollinarianism. He is a professor of philosophy at Houston Christian University and at the Talbot School of Theology of Biola University. Craig has updated and defended the Kalam cosmological argument for the existence of God. He has also published work where he argues in favor of the historical plausibility of the resurrection of Jesus. His study of divine aseity and Platonism culminated with his book God Over All.
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Siegfried Rauch
- Occupations
- stage actortelevision actorfilm actorsinger
- Biography
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Siegfried Rauch was a German film and television actor. In a career spanning over 60 years, he appeared in several international film productions and had leading roles in numerous German television productions.
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Prince Wilhelm of Prussia
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Prince Wilhelm Friedrich Franz Joseph Christian Olaf of Prussia was the eldest child of Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, and Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. At his birth, he was second in line to the German throne and was expected to succeed to the throne after the deaths of his grandfather, Emperor Wilhelm II, and his father, Crown Prince Wilhelm. Both, however, outlived him.
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Lion Feuchtwanger
- Occupations
- journalistplaywrighttranslatorwriter
- Biography
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Lion Feuchtwanger was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht.
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Edmund Stoiber
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- 1962-1967 graduated with Staatsexamen in legal science
- Occupations
- politicianlawyerjurist
- Biography
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Edmund Rüdiger Stoiber is a German politician who served as the 16th minister-president of the state of Bavaria between 1993 and 2007 and chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU) between 1999 and 2007. In 2002, he ran for the office of Chancellor of Germany in the federal election, and in one of the narrowest elections in German history lost against Gerhard Schröder. On 18 January 2007, he announced that he would step down as minister-president and as party chairman by 30 September, after having been under fire in his own party for weeks.
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Charlotte Link
- Occupations
- children's writerwriter
- Biography
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Charlotte Link is a German writer. She is among the most successful contemporary authors writing in German.
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Georgios Papanikolaou
- Occupations
- pathologistgynaecologistphysicianoncologist
- Biography
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Georgios Nikolaou Papanikolaou was a Greek physician, zoologist and microscopist who was a pioneer in cytopathology and early cancer detection, and inventor of the "Pap smear".
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Franz, Duke of Bavaria
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied business administration
- Occupations
- politicianentrepreneurart collector
- Biography
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Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria Herzog von Bayern, commonly known by the courtesy title Duke of Bavaria, is the head of the House of Wittelsbach, the former ruling family of the Kingdom of Bavaria. His great-grandfather King Ludwig III was the last ruling monarch of Bavaria, being deposed in 1918.
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Karl Haushofer
- Occupations
- university teachernon-fiction writerpolitical scientistmilitary officergeopolitical analyst
- Biography
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Karl Ernst Haushofer was a German general, professor, geographer, and diplomat. Haushofer's concept of Geopolitik influenced the ideological development of Adolf Hitler. Rudolf Hess was also a student of Haushofer, and during Hess and Hitler's incarceration by the Weimar Republic after the Beer Hall Putsch, Haushofer visited Landsberg Prison to teach and mentor both Hess and Hitler. Haushofer also coined the political use of the term Lebensraum, which Hitler also used to justify both crimes against peace and genocide. At the same time, however, Gen. Haushofer's half-Jewish wife and their children were categorized as Mischlinge under the Nuremberg Laws. Their son, Albrecht Haushofer, was issued a German Blood Certificate through the influence of Rudolf Hess, but was arrested in 1944 over his involvement with the July 20th plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler and overthrow the Nazi Party. During the war's last days, Albrecht Haushofer was summarily executed for his role in the German Resistance by the SS.
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Gustav Heinemann
- Occupations
- theologianpoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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Gustav Walter Heinemann was a German politician who was President of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. He served as mayor of Essen from 1946 to 1949, West German Minister of the Interior from 1949 to 1950, and Minister of Justice from 1966 to 1969.
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Alexander Dobrindt
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- 1989-1995 graduated with Diplom in sociology
- Occupations
- international forum participantpolitician
- Biography
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Alexander Dobrindt is a German politician of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU). He is the Chairman of the CSU Parliamentary Group in the German Bundestag since 2017. Between 2013 and 2017, he served as Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Previously, he was the Secretary General of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria under the leadership of party chairman Horst Seehofer from 2009.
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Ernst Bloch
- Occupations
- theologianuniversity teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Ernst Simon Bloch was a German Marxist philosopher. Bloch was influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as by apocalyptic and religious thinkers such as Thomas Müntzer, Paracelsus, and Jacob Böhme. He established friendships with György Lukács, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno. Bloch's work focuses on an optimistic teleology of the history of mankind.
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Hamed Abdel-Samad
- Occupations
- novelistautobiographerhistorianwriter
- Biography
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Hamed Abdel-Samad is a German-Egyptian author critical of Islam.
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Maike Kohl-Richter
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied national economy
- Occupations
- journalisteconomistnon-fiction writer
- Biography
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Maike Kohl-Richter is best known as the second wife of the former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl from 2008 until his death in 2017. She is controversial in Germany for her right-wing anti-immigrant views and support for Viktor Orbán, and for her public feud with Kohl's children and grandchildren. She has been accused of hijacking the Kohl legacy and "has been criticized by Kohl's own children for allegedly hero-worshipping the former chancellor and being obsessed" with him. She was criticized by German media, public figures and the Kohl family after Kohl's death.
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Karl Schwarzschild
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied in 1893-1896
- Occupations
- astrophysicistphysicistuniversity teacherastronomermathematician
- Biography
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Karl Schwarzschild was a German physicist and astronomer.
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Elke Heidenreich
- Occupations
- radio personalitytelevision presenterwritervoice actorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Elke Heidenreich is a German author, TV presenter, literary critic and journalist. She has written audio plays, a magazine column, scripts for television plays and books. Heidenreich is known as the Kabarettist who created a character, Else Stratmann. She is a literary critic in the television Literaturclub of the Schweizer Fernsehen.
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Ödön von Horváth
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied in 1921
- Occupations
- playwrightwriter
- Biography
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Edmund Josef von Horváth was an Austro-Hungarian playwright and novelist who wrote in German, and went by the nom de plume Ödön von Horváth. He was one of the most critically admired writers of his generation prior to his untimely death. He enjoyed a series of successes on the stage with socially poignant and romantic plays, including Revolte auf Côte 3018 (1927), Sladek (1929), Italienische Nacht (1930), Hin und Her (1934) and Der Jüngste Tag (1937). His novels include Der ewige Spießer (1930), Ein Kind unserer Zeit (1938) and Jugend ohne Gott (1938).
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Douglas Sirk
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriterfilm producerdirector
- Biography
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Douglas Sirk was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. However, he also directed comedies, westerns, and war films. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for Hollywood in 1937 after his Jewish wife was persecuted by the Nazis.
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Ulrich Beck
- Occupations
- university teachersociologisteconomist
- Biography
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Ulrich Beck was a German sociologist, and one of the most cited social scientists in the world during his lifetime. His work focused on questions of uncontrollability, ignorance and uncertainty in the modern age, and he coined the terms "risk society" and "second modernity" or "reflexive modernization". He also tried to overturn national perspectives that predominated in sociological investigations with a cosmopolitanism that acknowledges the interconnectedness of the modern world. He was a professor at the University of Munich and also held appointments at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH) in Paris, and at the London School of Economics.
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Duke Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria
- Occupations
- aristocrat
- Biography
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Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria was the son of the last crown prince of Bavaria, Rupprecht, and his first wife, Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria. He was the only child from that marriage that reached adulthood. His paternal grandfather was Ludwig III of Bavaria, the last king of Bavaria, who was deposed in 1918.
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Leonardo Boff
- Occupations
- Catholic priestwritertheologianphilosopher
- Biography
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Leonardo Boff, born as Genézio Darci Boff ( pronounced [ʒeˈnɛzju daʁˈsi ˈbɔf]), is a Brazilian theologian, philosopher writer, and former Catholic priest known for his active support for Latin American liberation theology. He is Professor Emeritus of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and Ecology at the Rio de Janeiro State University. In 2001, he received the Right Livelihood Award for "his inspiring insights and practical work to help people realise the links between human spirituality, social justice and environmental stewardship."
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Katharina Schulze
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- 2006-2011 graduated with Master of Arts in political science and psychology
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Katharina Elisabeth Schulze is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the State Parliament of Bavaria (Landtag) since 2013. Along with Ludwig Hartmann, she was one of the two leading candidates of her party in the 2018 Bavarian state election. Since 2019, she has been part of her party's national leadership, under co-chairs Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck.
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Otto Schily
- Occupations
- politicianenvironmentalistlawyer
- Biography
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Otto Georg Schily is a former Federal Minister of the Interior of Germany, his tenure was from 1998 to 2005, in the cabinet of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
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Hans-Jochen Vogel
- Occupations
- politicianjudge
- Biography
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Hans-Jochen Vogel was a German lawyer and a politician for the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He served as Mayor of Munich from 1960 to 1972, winning the 1972 Summer Olympics for the city and Governing Mayor of West Berlin in 1981, the only German ever to lead two cities with a million+ inhabitants. He was Federal Minister of Regional Planning, Construction and Urban Development from 1972 to 1974, and Federal Minister of Justice from 1974 to 1981. He served as leader of the SPD in the Bundestag from 1983 to 1991, and as Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 1987 to 1991. In 1993, he co-founded the organisation Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie (Against Oblivion – For Democracy). He was a member of the National Ethics Council of Germany from its beginning in 2001.
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Franz Brentano
- Occupations
- university teacherpsychologistphilosopher
- Biography
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Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano was a German philosopher and psychologist. His 1874 Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint, considered his magnum opus, is credited with having reintroduced the medieval scholastic concept of intentionality into contemporary philosophy.
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Gabriele Renate Homey
- Occupations
- philanthropistjurist
- Biography
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Inaara Aga Khan, formerly Begum Inaara Aga Khan, also previously known as Princess Inaara Aga Khan, was the second wife of the Aga Khan IV, the 49th Imam of the Nizari branch of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims; from May 1998 to March 2014, she held the title Begum Aga Khan.
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Marie Stopes
- Occupations
- writercuratorbotanistsuffragettesexologist
- Biography
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Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes was a British author, palaeobotanist and campaigner for eugenics and women's rights. She made significant contributions to plant paleontology and coal classification, and was the first female academic on the faculty of the University of Manchester. With her second husband, Humphrey Verdon Roe, Stopes founded the first birth control clinic in Britain. Stopes edited the newsletter Birth Control News, which gave explicit practical advice. Her sex manual Married Love (1918) was controversial and influential, and brought the subject of birth control into wide public discourse. Stopes publicly opposed abortion, arguing that the prevention of conception was all that was needed, though her actions in private were at odds with her public pronouncements.
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Anja Reschke
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- In 1998 graduated with Magister Artium in political science
- Occupations
- television presenterjournalistopinion journalist
- Biography
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Anja Reschke is a German journalist and television presenter.
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Alexander S. Kekulé
- Occupations
- virologistuniversity teacheractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Alexander S. Kekulé is a German physician and biochemist. Since 1999 he has held the chair for Medical Microbiology and Virology of the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg and Director of the Institute for Medical Microbiology of the Universitätsklinikum Halle (University Hospital Halle).
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Frank Wedekind
- Occupations
- stage actorplaywrightwriterscreenwriteractor
- Biography
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Benjamin Franklin Wedekind was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the development of epic theatre.
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Carl Spitzweg
- Occupations
- painterwriterpoet
- Biography
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Carl Spitzweg was a German romantic painter, especially of genre subjects. He is considered to be one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier era.
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Dora Bakoyannis
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied political science and communication
- Occupations
- politiciandiplomat
- Biography
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Theodora "Dora" Bakoyanni is a Greek politician. From 2006 to 2009 she was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, the highest position ever to have been held by a woman in the Cabinet of Greece at the time; she was also Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in 2009. Previously she was the Mayor of Athens from 2003 to 2006, the first female mayor in the city's history, and the first woman to serve as mayor of a city hosting the Olympic Games. She also served as Minister for Culture of Greece from 1992 to 1993.
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Louis Agassiz
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- In 1830 graduated with Doctor of Medicine
- Occupations
- philosopherglaciologistclimatologistpaleontologistnaturalist
- Biography
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Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history.
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Karl Carstens
- Occupations
- juristpoliticianlaw clerkdiplomat
- Biography
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Karl Carstens was a German politician. He served as the president of West Germany from 1979 to 1984.
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Margarethe von Trotta
- Occupations
- film directordirectorscreenwriterfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Margarethe von Trotta is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been referred to as a "leading force" of the New German Cinema movement. Von Trotta's extensive body of work has won awards internationally. She was married to and collaborated with director Volker Schlöndorff. Although they made a successful team, von Trotta felt she was seen as secondary to Schlöndorff. Subsequently, she established a solo career for herself and became "Germany's foremost female film director, who has offered the most sustained and successful female variant of Autorenkino in postwar German film history". Certain aspects of von Trotta's work have been compared to Ingmar Bergman's features from the 1960s and 1970s.
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Gustav Ritter von Kahr
- Occupations
- lawyerjuristpoliticianjudge
- Biography
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Gustav Ritter von Kahr was a German jurist and right-wing politician. During his career he was district president of Upper Bavaria, Bavarian minister president and, from September 1923 to February 1924, Bavarian state commissioner general with dictatorial powers. In that role he openly opposed the government of the Weimar Republic in several instances, including by ceasing to enforce the Law for the Protection of the Republic. He was also making plans with General Otto von Lossow and Bavarian police commander Hans von Seisser to topple the Reich government in Berlin. In November 1923, before they could act, Adolf Hitler instigated the Beer Hall Putsch. The three turned against Hitler and helped stop the attempted coup. After being forced to resign as state commissioner general in 1924, Kahr served as president of the Bavarian Administrative Court until 1930. Because of his actions during the Beer Hall Putsch, he was murdered during the Nazi purge known as the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934.
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Antanas Smetona
- Occupations
- writerlawyerpoliticianpedagoguejournalist
- Biography
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Antanas Smetona was a Lithuanian intellectual, journalist and politician who served as the first president of Lithuania from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1926 until the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940. Referred to as the "Leader of the Nation" during his presidency, Smetona is recognised as one of the most important Lithuanian political figures between World War I and World War II, and a prominent ideologists of Lithuanian nationalism and the movement for national revival.
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Valdas Adamkus
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied natural science
- Occupations
- engineersprinterpoliticiancivil engineer
- Biography
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Valdas Adamkus is a Lithuanian politician, diplomat and civil engineer who served as the fifth and seventh president of Lithuania from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009.
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Hermann Weyl
- Enrolled in the University of Munich
- Studied in 1905-1906
- Occupations
- physicistmathematicianuniversity teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Hermann Klaus Hugo Weyl, was a German mathematician, theoretical physicist, logician and philosopher. Although much of his working life was spent in Zürich, Switzerland, and then Princeton, New Jersey, he is associated with the University of Göttingen tradition of mathematics, represented by Carl Friedrich Gauss, David Hilbert and Hermann Minkowski.
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Lothar H. Wieler
- Occupations
- infectious disease physicianuniversity teachermicrobiologistveterinarian
- Biography
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Lothar Heinz Wieler is a German veterinarian and microbiologist who served as president of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) from 2015 to 2023. In this capacity, he advised the German Federal and State Governments on topics of public health, especially infection hazards, and on the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic.
