People
133 real people. Women and men. Tap a name to read a short life.
- Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard von Bingen
1098–1179
Songs, books, and gardens of healing plants
- Johannes Gutenberg
Johannes Gutenberg
about 1400–1468
A printing press with movable metal type in Mainz
- Regiomontanus
Johannes Müller
1436–1476
Star tables that helped sailors and scholars
- Martin Behaim
Martin Behaim
1459–1507
A round map of the world made in Nürnberg
- Tilman Riemenschneider
Tilman Riemenschneider
about 1460–1531
Wood carvings in churches
- Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
1471–1528
Paintings and prints from Nürnberg
- Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach der Ältere
1472–1553
Paintings and portraits in Wittenberg
- Martin Luther
Martin Luther
1483–1546
A call to reform the church
- Adam Ries
Adam Ries
1492–1559
Arithmetic books for ordinary people
- Katharina von Bora
Katharina von Bora
1499–1552
Running the Luther household and farm
- Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler
1571–1630
Rules for how planets move
- Heinrich Schütz
Heinrich Schütz
1585–1672
Church music before Bach
- Otto von Guericke
Otto von Guericke
1602–1686
The Magdeburg hemispheres and the power of air
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
1646–1716
Calculus, a calculating machine, and big ideas
- Maria Sibylla Merian
Maria Sibylla Merian
1647–1717
Paintings of caterpillars, moths, and plants
- Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus
Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus
1651–1708
Shared work on European porcelain
- Maria Kirch
Maria Margaretha Kirch
1670–1720
A comet found from a Berlin rooftop
- Johann Friedrich Böttger
Johann Friedrich Böttger
1682–1719
Shared work on Meissen porcelain
- Georg Friedrich Händel
Georg Friedrich Händel
1685–1759
Operas and Messiah
- Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
1685–1750
Organ music, choirs, and concertos
- Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
1686–1736
A thermometer scale still used in some countries
- Dorothea Erxleben
Dorothea Christiane Erxleben
1715–1762
The first woman to earn a medical degree in Germany
- Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
1724–1804
Questions about what people can know, and how they should act
- Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn
1729–1786
A Jewish thinker in Berlin who argued for fair treatment
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1749–1832
Poems, plays, and the story of Faust
- Caroline Herschel
Caroline Herschel
1750–1848
Comets found in England with her brother
- Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
1759–1805
Plays and the poem Ode to Joy
- Wilhelm von Humboldt
Wilhelm von Humboldt
1767–1835
Language study and the university in Berlin
- Alexander von Humboldt
Alexander von Humboldt
1769–1859
Measuring lands, plants, and climates
- Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
1770–1827
Symphonies and piano music
- Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich
1774–1840
Paintings of coasts, mountains, and quiet skies
- E. T. A. Hoffmann
E. T. A. Hoffmann
1776–1822
Strange tales, including the story behind The Nutcracker
- Carl Friedrich Gauss
Carl Friedrich Gauß
1777–1855
Deep rules in numbers, stars, and magnetism
- Friedrich Fröbel
Friedrich Fröbel
1782–1852
The kindergarten
- Friedrich Bessel
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel
1784–1846
Measuring how far away a star is
- Jacob Grimm
Jacob Grimm
1785–1863
Writing down old tales with his brother Wilhelm
- Karl Drais
Karl Drais
1785–1851
An early two-wheeler you push with your feet
- Wilhelm Grimm
Wilhelm Grimm
1786–1859
Writing down old tales with his brother Jacob
- Joseph von Fraunhofer
Joseph von Fraunhofer
1787–1826
Fine glass lenses and dark lines in sunlight
- Georg Ohm
Georg Simon Ohm
1789–1854
How current, voltage, and resistance fit together
- Annette von Droste-Hülshoff
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff
1797–1848
Poems and stories of the land around Münster
- Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
1797–1856
Poems, including one about the Lorelei
- Hoffmann von Fallersleben
August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben
1798–1874
The words of the Deutschlandlied
- Friedrich Wöhler
Friedrich Wöhler
1800–1882
Making urea in the laboratory
- Justus von Liebig
Justus von Liebig
1803–1873
Chemistry of soil, food, and the teaching laboratory
- Matthias Schleiden
Matthias Jakob Schleiden
1804–1881
Seeing that plants are made of cells
- Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
1805–1847
Piano music and songs
- Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
1809–1847
Concert music, and bringing Bach's music back
- Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
1810–1856
Piano music and songs
- Theodor Schwann
Theodor Schwann
1810–1882
Seeing that animals are made of cells
- Johann Gottfried Galle
Johann Gottfried Galle
1812–1910
Seeing the planet Neptune where the maths said to look
- Otto von Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
1815–1898
Leading when many states became one empire in 1871
- Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiß
1816–1888
Workshops for microscopes and lenses in Jena
- Werner von Siemens
Werner von Siemens
1816–1892
Telegraphs and electrical machines
- Karl Marx
Karl Marx
1818–1883
Books about work, money, and factories
- Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann
1819–1896
Piano playing and her own music
- Louise Otto-Peters
Louise Otto-Peters
1819–1895
Speaking up for girls' schools and women's work
- Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane
1819–1898
Novels about walks, towns, and families
- Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
1820–1895
Writing with Karl Marx about work and factories
- Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Virchow
1821–1902
Cells, and cleaner cities
- August Kekulé
August Kekulé
1829–1896
The ring shape of benzene
- Levi Strauss
Levi Strauss
1829–1902
Jeans made in America with Jacob Davis
- Nikolaus Otto
Nikolaus Otto
1832–1891
A practical four-stroke engine
- Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
1833–1897
Symphonies and A German Requiem
- Gottlieb Daimler
Gottlieb Daimler
1834–1900
A fast engine for carriages and boats
- Philipp Reis
Philipp Reis
1834–1874
An early telephone
- Ferdinand von Zeppelin
Ferdinand von Zeppelin
1838–1917
Great airships
- Ernst Abbe
Ernst Abbe
1840–1905
Lens science and fairer factory rules
- Robert Koch
Robert Koch
1843–1910
Finding the germs of anthrax, tuberculosis, and cholera
- Karl Benz
Carl Benz
1844–1929
The Patent-Motorwagen of 1886
- Wilhelm Röntgen
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
1845–1923
X-rays
- Wilhelm Maybach
Wilhelm Maybach
1846–1929
Engines designed with Gottlieb Daimler
- Margarete Steiff
Margarete Steiff
1847–1909
Stuffed toy animals, including a teddy bear
- Otto Lilienthal
Otto Lilienthal
1848–1896
Gliders that showed how a wing can lift a person
- Bertha Benz
Bertha Benz
1849–1944
The long drive that showed the car could travel
- Emil Berliner
Emil Berliner
1851–1929
The gramophone, made in America
- Emil von Behring
Emil von Behring
1854–1917
A diphtheria treatment shared with Kitasato Shibasaburō
- Paul Ehrlich
Paul Ehrlich
1854–1915
Stains for cells, and a medicine aimed at one germ
- Heinrich Hertz
Heinrich Hertz
1857–1894
Proving that radio waves exist
- Max Planck
Max Planck
1858–1947
The idea that energy comes in tiny packets
- Rudolf Diesel
Rudolf Diesel
1858–1913
The diesel engine
- Hugo Junkers
Hugo Junkers
1859–1935
Aeroplanes with metal bodies
- Robert Bosch
Robert Bosch
1861–1942
The spark plug, and a wish for fair hours
- David Hilbert
David Hilbert
1862–1943
Big questions that shaped modern mathematics
- Arthur Eichengrün
Arthur Eichengrün
1867–1949
A debated part in the aspirin story
- Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz
1867–1945
Drawings of working people
- Felix Hoffmann
Felix Hoffmann
1868–1946
Aspirin made at Bayer
- Fritz Haber
Fritz Haber
1868–1934
Plant food from the air, and a gas weapon
- Melitta Bentz
Melitta Bentz
1873–1950
The paper coffee filter
- Carl Bosch
Carl Bosch
1874–1940
Making plant food from the air, with Fritz Haber
- Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
1875–1955
Novels, including Buddenbrooks
- Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
1876–1967
First chancellor of West Germany
- Paula Modersohn-Becker
Paula Modersohn-Becker
1876–1907
Paintings of women, children, and still life
- Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse
1877–1962
Stories about young people finding their way
- Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner
1878–1968
Sharing the explanation of nuclear fission
- Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
1879–1955
New ideas about light, time, and gravity
- Otto Hahn
Otto Hahn
1879–1968
Sharing the fission experiments
- Emmy Noether
Emmy Noether
1882–1935
Algebra, and a theorem about symmetry
- Max Born
Max Born
1882–1970
A way to read quantum waves as chances
- Nelly Sachs
Nelly Sachs
1891–1970
Poems, and a Nobel prize
- Ludwig Erhard
Ludwig Erhard
1897–1977
A market that also tried to be fair
- Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
1898–1956
Plays that ask the audience to think
- Erich Kästner
Erich Kästner
1899–1974
Emil and the Detectives and other books for children
- Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
1900–1950
Theatre songs, including The Threepenny Opera
- Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
1901–1992
Songs and films
- Fritz Strassmann
Fritz Straßmann
1902–1980
Sharing the fission experiments
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
1906–1945
A pastor who said the government was wrong
- Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
1906–1975
Writing about how people live together
- Maria Goeppert Mayer
Maria Goeppert-Mayer
1906–1972
How the centre of an atom is built
- Elly Beinhorn
Elly Beinhorn
1907–2007
Long flights as a pilot
- Konrad Zuse
Konrad Zuse
1910–1995
An early programmable computer, the Z3
- Hans von Ohain
Hans von Ohain
1911–1998
A jet engine, shared in the story with Frank Whittle
- Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun
1912–1977
Weapons that hurt people, and later space rockets
- Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt
1913–1992
Talking with the east, and a peace prize
- Artur Fischer
Artur Fischer
1919–2016
The plastic wall plug and fischertechnik
- Sophie Scholl
Sophie Scholl
1921–1943
Papers that said the government was wrong
- Hans Riegel
Hans Riegel
1923–2013
Leading Haribo, the gummy-bear firm
- Otfried Preußler
Otfried Preußler
1923–2013
The Little Witch and other children's books
- Jürgen Dethloff
Jürgen Dethloff
1924–2002
An early smart-card patent
- Anne Frank
Anne Frank
1929–1945
A diary
- Hans Beck
Hans Beck
1929–2009
Designing the Playmobil figures
- Michael Ende
Michael Ende
1929–1995
The Neverending Story and Momo
- Helmut Kohl
Helmut Kohl
1930–2017
Chancellor when the country became one again
- Harald zur Hausen
Harald zur Hausen
1936–2023
Linking some viruses to cancer, which helped a vaccine
- Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
born 1942
How a fruit fly's body takes shape
- Franz Beckenbauer
Franz Beckenbauer
1945–2024
Football captain and coach
- Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
born 1954
A scientist who became chancellor
- Karlheinz Brandenburg
Karlheinz Brandenburg
born 1954
MP3 sound, as part of a Fraunhofer team
- Cornelia Funke
Cornelia Funke
born 1958
Inkheart and other stories
- Steffi Graf
Steffi Graf
born 1969
22 Grand Slam singles titles
- Birgit Prinz
Birgit Prinz
born 1977
Goals for the women's football team
- Dirk Nowitzki
Dirk Nowitzki
born 1978
Basketball shooting
- Mesut Özil
Mesut Özil
born 1988
Football, and a World Cup win in 2014
Things they made
Movable metal type for printing in Europe
Movable type was already used in China and Korea.
The Erdapfel globe
The Magdeburg hemispheres experiment
Calculus
Calculus was also Isaac Newton's work.
Meissen porcelain in Europe
Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus
He shared the work with Johann Friedrich Böttger. Porcelain was made in China long before.
Meissen porcelain
The work was shared with Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. Porcelain was made in China long before.
The Fahrenheit temperature scale
The kindergarten
The Laufmaschine, an early bicycle
Ohm's law
The cell idea for plants
Theodor Schwann studied cells in animals at the same time.
The cell idea for animals
Matthias Schleiden was studying plant cells.
The first sighting of Neptune
Urbain Le Verrier's maths showed where to look. Other people were calculating too.
Precision microscopes
Ernst Abbe worked out much of the lens science.
Practical telegraph gear and the dynamo
Riveted jeans
Jacob Davis shared the idea. They made the jeans in America.
A practical four-stroke engine
Other people were also thinking about engines.
A high-speed petrol engine
Wilhelm Maybach designed much of it with him.
An early telephone
Alexander Graham Bell also belongs in the telephone story.
The rigid airship
Ways to find and grow disease germs
Other people were also finding germs.
The Patent-Motorwagen
X-rays
Engines for early cars
He did this work with Gottlieb Daimler.
The Steiff teddy bear
Morris Michtom in America also made a teddy at the same time.
Practical gliders
The gramophone disc
Thomas Edison also belongs in the story of recorded sound.
Diphtheria antitoxin
The work was shared with Kitasato Shibasaburō.
Proof of radio waves
The diesel engine
A reliable spark plug and magneto
A claimed part in aspirin
We are not sure. Felix Hoffmann made aspirin at Bayer. Willow bark was used long before.
Aspirin at Bayer
People used willow bark for pain long before. We are not sure how large Arthur Eichengrün's part was.
Ammonia from the air
Carl Bosch helped turn the idea into plant food at factory scale.
The paper coffee filter
Factory ammonia for plant food
Fritz Haber shared the idea. Bosch made it work in large factories.
The explanation of nuclear fission
Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann shared this work. She had to leave.
Experiments on nuclear fission
Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann shared the work.
Chemical tests in the fission work
Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner shared the work.
The nuclear shell model
J. Hans D. Jensen and others also belong in this story.
The Z3 computer
Other people in Britain and America also built early computers.
An early jet engine
Frank Whittle in Britain also belongs in the jet story.
The plastic expansion wall plug
The wall plug was also worked on in Britain.
Haribo gummy bears
His father started the firm and made the first bears.
A chip card
Helmut Gröttrup shared the patent. The idea was also worked on in France.
Playmobil figures
Genes that shape a growing animal
Eric Wieschaus and Edward B. Lewis shared the prize.
MP3
It was a team at Fraunhofer, not one person alone.