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Famous Germans/Austr
Famous Germans/Austrians, Swiss
Question | Answer |
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Konrad Adenauer | (1876-1967) First chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany |
Alois Alzheimer | (1864-1915) Discoverer of the brain disease named for him - Web > German Alzheimer bio |
Marie Antoinette | (1755-1793) Daughter of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph who married the French king Louis XVI - Web > M. Antoinette Bio (in English) |
Arminius | (Hermann der Cherusker) Defeated the Romans in the Battle of the Teutoburger Forest Web > Arminius bio (Wikipedia) |
Fred Astaire | (1899-1988) The famous dancer's real name was Frederick Austerlitz; his father was born in Linz, Austria. Web > Astaire - German-Hollywood Connection |
Nadja Auermann | (1970- ) German fashion model |
Melissa Auf der Maur | (1972- ) Canadian-born rock singer whose family comes from Switzerland. Web > Auf Der Maur - laut.de (Deutsch) and Auf Der Maur (English) |
Andreas Baader | (1943-1977) was a key member of the infamous Baader-Meinhof gang, a German terrorist group (Red Army Faction, RAF) in the 1970s. Web > Baader-Meinhof | Baader Biographie - DHM |
Johann Sebastian Bach | (1685-1750) German composer - Web > Bach's life (with map) |
Karl Baedeker | (1801-1859) invented the first travel guides and created the field of travel writing. Web > German Baedeker bio | Baedeker Verlagsgeschichte (German) |
Boris Becker | (1967- ) German tennis star, first German and youngest ever to win at Wimbleton (1985) - Web > German Becker bio (Rasscass) |
Ludwig van Beethoven | (1770-1827) German composer - Beethoven bio (in English) |
Peter Behrens | (1868-1940) German architect - Web > German Behrens bio (DHM) |
Karl Benz | (1844-1929) and Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) Inventors of the first motor car (1885), although the two never met! |
Otto von Bismarck | (1815-1898) German political figure (Prussia), first chancellor of the German Reich (1871) - Web > Bismarck bio (German Wikipedia) |
Heinrich Böll | (1917-1985) German author, Nobel Prize winner (1972) - Web > Heinrich Böll Foundation (Ger., Engl., Span.) |
Robert Bosch | (1861-1942) German scientist, inventor |
Johannes Brahms | (1833-1897) German composer - Web > Brahms bio (Johannesbrahms.org) |
Willy Brandt | (Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm, 1913-1992) German chancellor and mayor of Berlin - Web > Brandt bio (Brandt-Stiftung) - Willy Brandt (Wikipedia) |
Wernher von Braun | (1912-1977) German rocket scientist who helped put Americans on the moon |
Bertolt Brecht | (1898-1956) German author, dramatist, best known for his "Dreigroschenoper" ("Threepenny Opera") co-authored with composer Kurt Weill - German bio (DHM) |
Alfred Edmund Brehm | (1829-1884) was a German zoologist, explorer, and author whose Thierleben lexicon (1864-69) and animal stories for children helped popularize a more sympathetic understanding of animals and their environment. Web > German bio (MDR) |
Elias Canetti | (1905-1994) Jewish writer often claimed by the Austrians. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981. Born in Bulgaria, Canetti was educated in Vienna, wrote in German, but was a British subject when he died in Switzerland. - Web > Canetti (Nobelprize. |
Charlemagne | (Karl der Große, 742-814) The first European unifier - Web > Charlemagne | Karl der Große (German Wikipedia) |
Adolf (Adi) Dassler | (1900-1959)founder of Adidas shoe company |
Rudolf Diesel | (1858-1913) German engineer and inventor of the diesel engine |
Otto Dix | (1891-1969) German expressionist painter and graphic artist |
Ruth Dreifuss | (1940- ) Swiss political figure, first woman president of Switzerland |
Albrecht Dürer | (1471-1528) German artist |
Friedrich Dürrenmatt | (1921-1990) Swiss writer of crime stories, dramas, and other German literature (Der Besuch der alten Dame) |
Rudi Dutschke | (1940-1979) Sociologist, former student rebellion leader in the late 1960s (APO and SDS) |
Albert Einstein | (1879-1955) German scientist and theoretician |
Elisabeth | (1837-1898), better known as Sisi. Austrian royalty |
Ludwig Erhard | (1897-1977) German economist, first German chancellor after Adenauer, from 1963 to 1966 |
Erik H. Erikson | (Homburger, 1902-1994) German-American psychoanalyst and university professor who coined the term "identity crisis" |
Max Ernst | (1891-1976) Dadaist/surrealist painter, sculptor, and graphic artist born in Brühl, Germany, now home to a new Max Ernst Museum - Web > Ernst bio (Guggenheim) | Artchive - Max Ernst | Max Ernst paintings (CSU Hayward) |
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit | (1686-1736) German physicist who developed an improved mercury-in-glass thermometer and invented the temperature scale that bears his name (and is now used only in the USA!) - Web > Fahrenheit - Wikipedia | D.G. Fahrenheit - BBC |
Lyonel Feininger | (1871-1956) German artist |
Joseph (Joschka) Fischer | (1948- ) German politician, foreign minister under chancellor Gerhard Schröder (1998 to present) |
Sigmund Freud | (1856-1939) Austrian inventor of psychoanalysis (with photos) |
Friedrich der Große | (Frederick the Great, 1712-1786) King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786. |
Anton Fugger | (1493-1560) Member of an important German banking family |
Hans Geiger | (1882-1945) German physicist, inventor of the Geiger counter (Geiger-Müller-Zählrohr) |
H.R. Giger | (1940- ) Swiss-German artist who designed the Alien creature - WEB > Giger - German-Hollywood Connection |
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | (1749-1832) German poet, writer; the German "Shakespeare" |
Stefanie (Steffi) Maria Graf | (1969- ) German tennis star (Grandslam winner 1988) now married to Andre Agassi |
Günter Grass (1927- ) | German writer, Nobel Prize winner |
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm | (1785-1863/1786-1859) German authors and linguistic researchers - WEB > Grimm Brothers |
Read some Grimm Fairy Tales | (blank) |
Walter Gropius | (1883-1969) German-American architect |
Johannes Gensfleisch zum Gutenberg | (ca. 1397-1468) Inventor of movable type and modern printing |
Peter Handke | (1942- ) Austrian novelist and playwright |
Franz Joseph Haydn | (1732-1809) Austrian composer |
Werner Karl Heisenberg | (1901-1976) German physicist, co-founder of quantum mechanics |
Hermann der Cherusker | (Arminius in Latin, ca. 18B.C.-19A.D.) Germanic warrior who defeated the Romans at the Battle of the Teutoburger Forest |
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz | (1857-1894) German physicist who did research into radio waves and frequency (see Erfinder/Inventors) |
Roman Herzog | (1934- ) President of Germany from 1994 to 1999 |
Hermann Hesse | (1877-1962) German writer (Siddharta, Der Steppenwolf), poet, and artist |
Paul von Hindenburg | (1847-1934) German army officer and politician who was the chancellor who gave in to the Nazi takeover in 1933 |
Martina Hingis | (1980- ) Swiss tennis player |
Andreas Hofer | (1776-1822) Austrian patriot (Tyrol) |
E.T.A. Hoffmann | (1776-1822) Writer, painter, composer |
Erich Honecker | (1912-1994) Leader of East Germany when the Wall fell |
Alexander von Humboldt | (1769-1859) German researcher, botanist, and explorer who traveled in the Americas |
Wilhelm von Humboldt | (1767-1835) German academic and statesman, founder of the Humboldt University in Berlin, brother of Alexander (above) |
Friedensreich Hundertwasser | (Friedrich Stowasser, 1928-2000) Austrian artist and architect > |
Helmut Jahn | (1940- ) German-American architect with offices in Chicago |
Carl Gustav Jung | (1875-1961) Swiss psychoanalyst |
Franz Kafka | (1883-1924) Austrian writer born in Prague |
Immanuel Kant | (1724-1804) German philosopher |
Karl der Große | (Charlemagne, 747-814) The first unifier of Europe, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (800-814) |
Johannes Kepler | (1571-1630) German astronomer and mathematician who calculated the planetary orbits |
Henry A. Kissinger | (1923- ) German-American politician, Secretary of State under Nixon |
Paul Klee | (1879-1940) Swiss artist |
Gustav Klimt | (1862-1918) Austrian artist |
Robert Koch | (1843-1910) German medical researcher, inventor of TB vaccine, Nobel Prize 1905 |
Helmut Kohl | (1930- ) Former German Kanzler (1982-1998) |
Oskar Kokoschka | (1886-1980) Austrian artist |
Karl Lagerfeld | (1938- ) German fashion designer |
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz | (1646-1716) German philosopher and mathematician |
Otto Lilienthal | (1848-1896) German aviator and glider pilot whose pioneering work inspired the Wright Brothers |
"Mad" Ludwig II | (King of Bavaria, 1864-1886) > Web Link |
Martin Luther | (1483-1546) German religious reformer |
Ernst Mach | (1838-1916) Austrian physicist |
Heinrich Mann | (1871-1950) German writer |
Thomas Mann | (1875-1955) German writer, Nobel Prizze |
Maria Theresia | (1717-1780) Habsburg Austrian empress (1745-80) who had 16 children |
Marie Antoinette | (1755-1793) Daughter of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph who married the French king Louis XVI |
Karl Marx | (1818-1883) German philosopher and co-founder of the communist movement (Marxism) |
Kurt Masur | (1927- ) German musical director, Leipzig (1970-1996), New York (1991-2000) |
Paul (1838-1914) and Wilhelm Mauser (1834-1882) | German gun inventors, weapons manufacturers |
Karl May | (1842-1912) German author of westerns and other adventure stories |
Lise Meitner | (1878-1968) Austrian physicist who coined the term "nuclear fission" (Kernspaltung) |
Phillip Melanchthon | (Phillip Schwartzerd, 1497-1560) German religious reformer |
H.L. Mencken | (1880-1956) German-American writer, journalist |
Gregor Johann Mendel | (1822-1884) Austrian biologist and genetics researcher (Mendel's Laws) |
Felix Mendelsohn-Bartholdy | (1809-1847) German composer and musical director (Leipzig) |
Ulf Merbold | (1941- ) German physicist who flew on missions aboard the American Columbia (1983) and Discovery (1992) space shuttles as well as the Russian Mir space station (1994) |
Gerhard Mercator | (Kremer, 1512-1594) German cartographer, inventor of the Mercator projection for sea charts and maps |
Ottmar Mergenthaler | (1854-1899) German-american inventor of the Linotype typesetting system (1886) |
Matthäus Merian | (1593-1650) Swiss engraver who began publishing "Topographia" in Frankfurt in 1642, a 30-volume collection of European city view etchings |
Angela Merkel | (1954- ) German politician, chairperson of the CDU party since 2000, current German chancelor |
Franz Anton Mesmer | (1734-1815) German inventor of magnetotherapy and source of the term "mesmerize" |
Willy Messerschmidt | (1898-1978) German aircraft designer |
Rheinhold Messner | (1944- ) Italian (South Tyrol) mountain climber, first to climb all 14 peaks above 8000 meters |
Prince Metternich | (Klemens Wenzel Lothar Fürst von M., 1773-1859) Austrian chancellor (1810-48), leading figure at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 |
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe | (1886-1969) German architect considered one of the most influential in modern history; went to the U.S. in 1937 |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | (1756-1791) Austrian composer |
Robert Musil | (1880-1942) Austrian writer |
Anne-Sophie Mutter | (1963- ) Internationally recognized German violinist |
Thomas Nast | (1840-1902) German-American journalist, political cartoonist; see The 'Nasty' Myth |
Richard Josef Neutra | (1892-1970) Austrian-American architect |
Helmut Newton | (Neustädter, 1920-2004) Internationally recognized German fashion and glamour photographer; born in Berlin as Helmut Neustädter, died in an auto accident in Los Angeles on January 24, 2004 |
Friedrich Nietzsche | (1844-1900) German writer and philosopher |
Georg Simon Ohm | (1789-1854) German physicist (Ohm's Law, 1826) |
Carl Orff | (1895-1982) German composer ("Carmina Burana") |
Otto | Many Germanic princes, kings, and emperors have borne this name, from Otto I (der Große, 912-973) to Otto I (Bavaria, 1848-1916) |
Nikolaus August Otto | (1832-1891) German engineer, inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion (Otto) engine (1862), which was used for the first motor cars invented by Benz and Daimler. |
Johann Pachelbel | (1653-1706) German composer and organist |
Wolfgang Pauli | (1900-1958) Austrian physicist, one of the developers of the quantum theory, discoverer of the Pauli principle for electrons in an atom |
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi | (1746-1827) Swiss educational reformer |
Wolfgang Petersen | (1941- ) German film director (Das Boot, In the Line of Fire, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm) WEB > Petersen |
Phillip | Many Germanic counts, dukes and kings have borne this name, from Phillip von Schwaben (1178-1208) to Phillip I (der Großmütige, 1504-1567) |
Max Planck | (1858-1947) German physicist, quantum theory, Nobel prize 1918 |
Pope Benedict XVI | (Joseph Ratzinger, 1927- ) German cardinal who became pope on April 19, 2005. |
Louis Prang | (1824-1909) German-American printer born in Breslau, Silesia (then in Prussia, now Wroclaw, Poland) to a French Huguenot father and a German mother. Considered the "father of the American Christmas card," Prang founded a printing company (L. Prang Co.) in |
Joseph Pulitzer | (1847-1911) Austrian-American journalist and newspaper publisher |
Leopold von Ranke | (1795-1886) German historian who developed the basic tenets of modern, scientific historical research |
Joseph Ratzinger | (Pope Benedict XVI, 1927- ) German cardinal who became pope on April 19, 2005. |
Johannes Rau | (1931- ) German politician (SPD), president of Germany since 1999 |
Marcel Reich-Ranicki | (ra-nitz-key, 1920- ) German writer and influential literary critic |
Philipp Reis | (1838-1874) German inventor of a telephone prototype (1861) |
Erich Maria Remarque (Remark) | (1898-1970) German writer (All Quiet on the Western Front) |
Paul Julius Baron von Reuter | (Israel Beer Josaphat, 1816-1899) German-British publisher, founder of the first worldwide news agency (Reuters) |
Rainer Maria Rilke | (René Karl Wilhelm Johann Joseph Maria Rilke, 1875-1926) Austrian poet who lived in Switzerland after 1919 |
John (Johann) August Roebling ( | 1806-1869) German-American engineer, designer/builder of the Brooklyn Bridge |
Erwin Rommel | (Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, 1891-1944) German general known as the "Desert Fox" |
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen | (1845-1923) German physicist who discovered x-rays and whose name means "x-ray" in German, Nobel Prize 1901 |
Mayer Anselm Rothschild | (Meyer Amschel R., 1743-1812) German-Jewish banker, founder of the Rothschild banking house in Frankfurt am Main |
Heinz Rühmann | (1902-1994) German film and stage actor ("Ship of Fools") |
Ernst Ruska | (1906-1988) German scientist and engineer who co-invented the electron microscope, Nobel Prize for physics in 1986 |
Egon Schiele | (1890-1918) Austrian artist |
Claudia Schiffer | (1971- ) Fashion model |
Friedrich Schiller | (1759-1805) German poet and writer |
Max Schmeling | (1905-2005) German boxer who fought the American Joe Louis twice. |
Helmut Schmidt | (1918- ) German politician and publisher (Die Zeit) who was chancellor of Germany from 1974 to 1982 |
Romy Schneider | (1938-1982) Austrian actress (The Cardinal, Good Neighbor Sam) |
Arthur Schopenhauer | (1788-1869) German philosopher |
Gerhard Schröder | (1944- ) Elected German chancellor (SPD) in September 1998 |
Franz Schubert | (1797-1828) Austrian composer of nine symphonies and over 600 "Lieder" |
Carl Schurz | (1829-1906) German-American politician, U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1877-81) |
Karl von Schuschnigg | (1897-1977) Austrian politician who resisted the Nazi takeover of his country in 1938 and was imprisoned by the Nazis during the war; later a professor in the U.S. (1948-67) > Web Link (DHM) |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | (1947- ) Austrian-American movie superstar and politician |
Albert Schweitzer | (1875-1965) German physician and theologian who set up and ran a hospital in Africa (1913), also known for his organ music; Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 |
Aloys Senefelder | (Aloys Johann Nepomuk Franz Senefelder, 1771-1834) Failed Bavarian actor who invented the lithographic printing technique in 1797. Senefelder was born to a Bavarian father (an actor) in Prague; he died in Munich. |
Heidi Simonis | (1943- ) First woman governor of a German Bundesland (Schleswig-Holstein) |
Elke Sommer | (Elke Schletz, 1940- ) German actress (The Victors, A Shot in the Dark, Zeppelin) - WEB > Elke Sommer - German-Hollywood |
Alexander Spoerl | (1917-1978) German writer |
Claus Spreckels | (1828-1908) German "sugar baron" in California and Hawaii |
Friedrich St. Florian | (1933- ) Austrian-born architect who designed the National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC; his firm's design was selected from 400 entries. WEB > St. Florian.com |
Charles Proteus Steinmetz | (1865-1923) German physicist who did important work on alternating current and lightning |
Franz Josef Strauß | (1915-1988) German politician (CSU) who was the governor of Bavaria (1978-88) and an unsuccessful candidate for Bundeskanzler (1980); involved in the "Spiegel affair" scandal of 1962, forcing his resignation as foreign minister |
Johann Strauß | (father, 1804-1849) Austrian composer and director of Vienna's "Hofball" |
Johann Strauß | (son, 1825-1899) Austrian composer and director of Vienna's "Hofball," known as the "Waltz King" ("The Blue Danube," "The Emperor Waltz"); also composed marches, polkas, and operettas ("Die Fledermaus") |
Richard Strauss | (1864-1949) German composer ("Rosenkavalier") and orchestra director (Munich, Weimar, Berlin), director of the Vienna State Opera (1919-24) |
Rita Süßmuth | (1937- ) First woman president of the German Bundestag (legislature), 1988-1998 |
Johann August Sutter | (1803-1880) Swiss immigrant who founded Neu-Helvetien (Sutter's Mill) in 1839, now Sacramento, California |
Bertha von Suttner | (1814-1914) Austrian pacifist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 |
Edward Teller | (1908- ) Physicist of Austro-Hungarian background who developed the hydrogen bomb |
Gerhard Thiele | (1953- ) German physicist who was on board the Endeavour misson for NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mapping Mission (SRTM) in February 2000 |
Kurt Tucholsky | (1890-1935) German writer, satirist |
Ludwig Uhland | (1787-1862) German lawyer, politician, and poet from Tübingen |
Walter Ulbricht | (1893-1973) Head of East Germany when the Berlin Wall was built |
Wernher von Braun | (1912-1977) German rocket scientist who helped put Americans on the moon |
Richard Wagner | (1813-1883) German composer |
Bruno Walter | (B.W. Schlesinger, 1876-1962) German-American orchestra director |
Walter von der Vogelweide | (ca. 1170-1229) German "Minnesänger" and poet |
Felix Wankel | (1902-1988) German inventor of the rotary cylinder engine (Kreiskolbenmotor) |
August Paul von Wassermann | (1866-1925) German bacteriologist who did important work in the field of immunization |
Alfred Wegener | (1880-1930) German geophysicist who developed the theory of continental drift (Kontinentalverschiebung) |
Richard von Weizsäcker | (1920- ) German politician (CDU) who was the mayor of West Berlin (1981-84) and Bundespräsident from 1984 to 1994 |
Franz Werfel | (1890-1945) Austrian novelist (The Song of Bernadette) and poet who had a brief Hollywood career during his California exile years |
Ludwig Wittgenstein | (1889-1951) Austrian-British philosopher |
Carl Zeiss | (1816-1888) German founder of the Zeiss-Werke in Jena (1846), a manufacturer of optical and precision equipment |
Ferdinand von Zeppelin | (1838-1917) German inventor of the rigid air ship in 1900 |
Konrad Zuse | (1910-1995) German inventor of the first programmable digital computer (Z3) |