Notable Alumni of Dresden University of Technology [Sorted List]

1. Bernhard Brænne

1854-1927 (aged 73)

businessperson politician

Bernhard Cornelius Brænne was a Norwegian factory owner and member of the Norwegian Parliament with the Conservative Party.

2. Olav Heggstad

1877-1954 (aged 77)

civil engineer

Olav Heggstad was a Norwegian civil engineer and professor at the Norwegian Institute of Technology.

3. Klaus Jacob

1943-. (aged 83)

rower

Klaus Jacob is a German rower who competed for East Germany in the 1968 Summer Olympics.

4. Frederick William Cappelen

1857-1921 (aged 64)

engineer civil engineer

Frederick William Cappelen was a Norwegian-born architect and civil engineer who held the office of Minneapolis City Engineer.

5. Hassa Horn

1873-1968 (aged 95)

engineer Nordic combined skier politician architect

Hans Thomas "Hassa" Horn was a Norwegian road engineer, industrialist, sports official and politician for the Conservative Party.

6. Augustin Paus

1881-1945 (aged 64)

chief executive officer engineer businessperson

Augustin Thoresen Paus was a Norwegian engineer and industrial leader who played a key role in hydropower development in Norway through the first half of the 20th century. He graduated as an officer from the Military Academy and as a civil engineer from Dresden, starting his engineering career at Norsk Hydro as an associate of Sam Eyde during the development...

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7. Peter Østbye

1855-1943 (aged 88)

translator philologist

Peter Nielsen Østbye was a Norwegian philologist and academic administrator. He taught classical languages and was a proponent of learning the Latin language. He was an education official at Fredrikstad between 1894-1910 and at Drammen between 1910-1926. He is principally known for his translations of Homer's epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey from Ancient Greek into Norwegian.

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8. Jens Dunker

1892-1981 (aged 89)

architect

Jens Gram Dunker was a Norwegian architect. He was noted for his work in the transition between neo-classicism and functionalism in Norwegian architecture. Dunker made significant contributions to Norwegian functionalism through different types of buildings: townhouses, housing blocks, townhouses, villas, theaters and hotels.

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9. Wilhelm Flügge

1904-1990 (aged 86)

military flight engineer civil engineer engineer

Gottfried Wilhelm Flügge was a German engineer, and Professor of Applied Mechanics at Stanford University. He is known as recipient of the 1970 Theodore von Karman Medal in Engineering Mechanics, and the 1970 Worcester Reed Warner Medal.

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10. Hans Hübner

1837-1884 (aged 47)

university teacher chemist

Hans Hübner was a German chemist. He was the son of painter Julius Hübner (1806–1882).

11. William Dunkel

1893-1980 (aged 87)

university teacher architect

William Dunkel was a Swiss architect and painter. He worked in Germany until 1929 when he relocated to Switzerland upon obtaining a teaching job at the ETH (technical university) in Zürich.

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12. Hans Dresig

1937-2018 (aged 81)

university teacher mechanical engineer non-fiction writer

Hans Dresig was a German professor for applied mechanics and theory of mechanisms and machines.

13. Benjamín Máximo Laguna y Villanueva

1826-1902 (aged 76)

forestry engineer botanist

Benjamín Máximo Laguna y Villanueva was a Spanish botanist and entomologist.

14. Sergej Flach

theoretical physicist

Sergej Flach is a theoretical physicist whose research has spanned a number of scientific fields in his career. With about 240 publications to his name, his research has been cited over 16,000 times giving him an h-index of 58 and i10-index of 174. He is a member of the American Physical Society, German Physical Society, Korean Physical Society, and New...

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15. Rudolph Hering

1847-1923 (aged 76)

civil engineer chemist

Rudolph Hering was a founder of modern environmental technology.

16. Hellmut Schmid

1914-1998 (aged 84)

university teacher surveyor

Hellmut H. Schmid was a Swiss professor of geodesy and photogrammetry. He taught at ETH Zürich (Switzerland). In the 1950s, he worked on space exploration in the United States. Between 1968 and 1974, he promoted the first intercontinental network of satellite geodesy.

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17. Bernhard Thalheim

1952-. (aged 74)

computer scientist engineer university teacher mathematician

Bernhard Karl Thalheim is a German computer scientist and professor of information systems engineering at the University of Kiel in Kiel, Germany. He is known for his work on conceptual modeling and its theoretical foundational contributions.

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18. Günther Landgraf

1928-2006 (aged 78)

university teacher pedagogue physicist

Günther Landgraf was a German physicist and, from 1990 till 1994, President of Technische Universität Dresden.

19. Helmut H. Schaefer

1925-2005 (aged 80)

mathematician university teacher

Helmut Heinrich Schaefer was a German mathematician, who worked primarily in functional analysis. His two best known scientific monographs are titled Topological Vector Spaces (1966) and Banach Lattices and Positive Operators (1974). The first of these was subsequently translated into Spanish and Russian. The second made him an internationally recognized and leading scholar in this particular field of mathematics. (Roquette...

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20. Walter Polakov

1879-1948 (aged 69)

mechanical engineer

Walter Nicholas Polakov was a mechanical engineer, consulting engineer, and pioneer of scientific management.

21. Arthur Meinig

1853-1904 (aged 51)

architect

Arthur Meinig was a Kingdom of Saxony-born architect from Austria-Hungary. He was born in Waldheim, Saxony on 7 November 1853 and died in Budapest on 14 September 1904. After studying in Dresden, he worked for architects Fellner and Helmer in Vienna. In 1883 he moved to Budapest and soon became a favorite architect of the Hungarian nobility. Though especially known...

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22. Amé Pictet

1857-1937 (aged 80)

university teacher chemist

Amé Jules Pictet was a Swiss chemist. He discovered the Pictet–Spengler reaction, and the related Pictet–Hubert reaction and Pictet–Gams reaction. He is credited with publishing the first synthesis of nicotine.

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23. Victoria Angelova

1902-1947 (aged 45)

architect

Victoria Angelova Vinarova was one of the first female architects of Bulgaria. She is credited with having built the first modern, national art gallery in the Balkans.

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24. Carl Theodor Albrecht

1843-1915 (aged 72)

astronomer surveyor

Carl Theodor Albrecht was a German astronomer.

25. Günter Baumann

1947-. (aged 79)

politician

Günter Helmut Baumann is a German politician and member of the CDU. An engineer by profession, Baumann has been a member of the Christian Democratic Union (East Germany) since 1972 until that party merged with its West German counterpart in 1990. From 1990 to 1998 he served as the mayor of Jöhstadt. Since 1998, he has been a directly elected...

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26. Emil Winkler

1835-1888 (aged 53)

university teacher civil engineer engineer

Emil Winkler was a German civil engineer, professor with broad academic interest including engineering mechanics, railway engineering, bridge engineering. Emil Winkler was first to formulate and solve a problem of elastic beam on deformable foundation. The model of a beam on elastic foundation which assumes linear force-deflection relationship is known as Winkler Foundation.

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27. Bernhard von Cotta

1808-1879 (aged 71)

university teacher cartographer writer geologist botanist

Carl Bernhard von Cotta, known as Bernhard von Cotta, was a German geologist.

28. Johann Coaz

1822-1918 (aged 96)

cartographer botanist

Johann Wilhelm Fortunat Coaz was a Swiss forester, topographer and mountaineer from Graubünden. In 1850 he made the first ascent of Piz Bernina, the highest mountain in the Eastern Alps. He also gave Piz Bernina its name, after the eponymous pass.

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29. Alwin Walther

1898-1967 (aged 69)

university teacher mathematician engineer

Alwin Oswald Walther was a German mathematician, engineer and professor. He is one of the pioneers of mechanical computing technology in Germany.

30. Oliver Wehner

1984-. (aged 42)

politician

Oliver Wehner is a German politician (CDU). He is the member of the Saxon State Parliament from 2009.

31. Eleonore Trefftz

1920-2017 (aged 97)

physicist

Eleonore Trefftz was a German physicist known for her work on molecular and nuclear physics. She was appointed as a Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in 1971.

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32. Agnes Sjöberg

1889-1964 (aged 75)

veterinarian

Agnes Hildegard Sjöberg was a Finnish veterinarian. She graduated as a veterinarian and was the first woman in Europe and likely the first woman in the world to obtain the PhD degree in veterinary medicine. During her career, Sjöberg worked as a municipal veterinarian in Somero and Närpes and had a private veterinary clinic for many years. Sjöberg was subjected...

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33. Reinhart Heinrich

1946-2006 (aged 60)

university teacher biophysicist writer

Reinhart Heinrich was a German biophysicist.

34. Leon Sternbach

1864-1940 (aged 76)

classical philologist university teacher

Leon Sternbach was a Polish philologist and classicist, professor at Jagiellonian University, and member of Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.

35. Herbert Wagner

1948-. (aged 78)

politician

Herbert Wagner is a German politician.

36. Martin Grothkopp

1986-. (aged 40)

bobsledder athletics competitor

Martin Grothkopp is a German bobsledder. He competed in the four-man event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, winning the gold medal.

37. Heinz Schlicke

1912-2006 (aged 94)

Heinz Schlicke, was a German-born engineer and author, an Operation Paperclip scientist, and engineer at the Allen-Bradley Co. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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38. Gerhard Pohl

1937-2012 (aged 75)

politician

Gerhard Pohl was a German politician and a member of the East German CDU. He served as Minister of Economics from April to August 1990, in the cabinet of Lothar de Maizière.

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39. Martin Böttger

1947-. (aged 79)

politician

Martin Böttger was a prominent civil rights activist in East Germany. He was a member of the Landtag of the Free State of Saxony from 1990 to 1994 and led the faction of Alliance '90/The Greens.

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40. Pavel Gukasov

1858-1937 (aged 79)

entrepreneur

Pavel Osipovich Gukasov was an Armenian industrialist who with his brother, Abram, played a major role in the industrialisation of the oil industry of Imperial Russia. He held management positions in 13 Russian companies before the Russian Revolution in 1917.

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41. Georg-Ludwig von Breitenbuch

1971-. (aged 55)

farmer politician

Georg-Ludwig von Breitenbuch is a German politician. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Breitenbuch has been serving as member of the Landtag of Saxony since 2009. He is serving as Saxony's State Minister for the Environment and Agriculture since December 19, 2024.

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42. Steffen Heidrich

1967-. (aged 59)

association football player

Steffen Heidrich is a German former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.

43. Eduard Friedrich Eversmann

1794-1860 (aged 66)

lepidopterist entomologist zoologist university teacher naturalist

Alexander Eduard Friedrich Eversmann was a Prussian biologist and explorer.

44. Hansjoachim Walther

1939-2005 (aged 66)

university teacher mathematician politician

Hansjoachim Walther was a German politician and mathematician.

45. Manfred Grund

1955-. (aged 71)

politician

Manfred Grund is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

46. Abdulai Silá

1958-. (aged 68)

novelist playwright engineer

Abdulai Silá, is a Guinea-Bissauan engineer, economist, social researcher and writer. He is the author of three novels: Eterna Paixão (1994), A Última Tragédia (1995) and Mistida (1997), the first of which was the first novel published in Guinea-Bissau.

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47. Theophil Sprecher von Bernegg

1850-1927 (aged 77)

politician military officer

Theophil Andreas Luzius Sprecher von Bernegg was a Swiss politician and military Chief of the General Staff (1905–1919).

48. Julius Kühn

1825-1910 (aged 85)

university teacher botanist agronomist

Julius Gotthelf Kühn was a German academic and agronomist and he was one of the pioneers of plant pathology. Kühn's father was a land owner and he gained experience in agriculture and botany on his father's land. He was trained in Bonn, starting at age 30 and was awarded his doctorate, which focused on diseases of beet and canola at...

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49. Rainer Ortleb

1944-. (aged 82)

university teacher engineer politician

Rainer Ortleb is a German academic and politician.

50. Johann Georg von Soldner

1776-1833 (aged 57)

mathematician astronomer physicist

Johann Georg von Soldner was a German physicist, mathematician and astronomer, first in Berlin and later in 1808 in Munich.

51. Gustav Roch

1839-1866 (aged 27)

mathematician

Gustav Adolph Roch was a German mathematician who made significant contributions to the theory of Riemann surfaces. Roch’s career was cut short by his untimely death at the age of 26.

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52. Herbert Seifert

1907-1996 (aged 89)

mathematician university teacher

Herbert Karl Johannes Seifert was a German mathematician known for his work in topology.

53. Richard Konwiarz

1883-1960 (aged 77)

university teacher architect

Richard Konwiarz was a German architect. He was born in Tschempin and died in Hanover.

54. Rudolf Friedrichs

1892-1947 (aged 55)

politician

Rudolf Friedrichs was a German politician who served as the Minister-President of the State of Saxony in the German Democratic Republic from 1945 to his death.

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55. Walter Andrae

1875-1956 (aged 81)

archaeologist museologist architectural historian university teacher architect

Walter Andrae was a German archaeologist and architect born near Leipzig.

56. Carl Enckell

1876-1959 (aged 83)

diplomat politician

Carl Johan Alexis Enckell was a Finnish politician, diplomat, officer and businessman.

57. Tina Punzel

1995-. (aged 31)

competitive diver

Tina Punzel is a German diver.

58. Christian Piwarz

1975-. (aged 51)

lawyer politician

Christian Piwarz is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

59. Wilhelm Knabe

1923-2021 (aged 98)

university teacher ecologist politician

Wilhelm Knabe was a German ecologist, pacifist, civil servant and politician, remembered as a founding member of the Green Party in Germany, and a pioneer of conservation of the environment who shaped the party for decades.

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60. Max Littmann

1862-1931 (aged 69)

university teacher architect

Max Littmann was a German architect.

61. Stephan Kühn

1979-. (aged 47)

politician

Stephan Kühn is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Saxony from 2009 until 2020. Since 2020, he has been serving as part of the city administration of Dresden.

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62. Friedrich Traun

1876-1908 (aged 32)

sprinter middle-distance runner athletics competitor tennis player

Friedrich Adolf "Fritz" Traun was a German athlete and tennis player. Born into a wealthy family, he participated in the 1896 Summer Olympics and won a gold medal in men's doubles. He committed suicide after being accused of fathering a child out of wedlock.

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63. Werner Felfe

1928-1988 (aged 60)

politician

Werner Felfe was an East German politician and high-ranking party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).

64. Arnold Vaatz

1955-. (aged 71)

mathematician politician

Arnold Vaatz is a German politician of represents the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Saxony from 1998 until 2021.

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65. Josef Duchač

1938-. (aged 88)

engineer politician

Josef Duchač is a German politician (CDU).

66. Reinhard Höppner

1948-2014 (aged 66)

mathematician literary editor politician

Reinhard Höppner was a German politician (SPD) and writer.

67. Reimund Neugebauer

1953-. (aged 73)

engineer university teacher

Reimund Neugebauer is a German mechanical engineer and professor who has been working in the field of machine tools and forming processes. From 2012 to 2023 he was President of the Fraunhofer Society, the largest research organization in Europe.

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68. Julia Bonk

1986-. (aged 40)

politician

Julia Bonk is a German Left Party politician. She served as the member of the Landtag of Saxony from 2004 to 2014 and was a member of the executive board of the Left Party from June 2012 to 2014.

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69. Friedrich Weinbrenner

1766-1826 (aged 60)

master builder architect university teacher urban planner

Friedrich Weinbrenner was a German architect and city planner admired for his mastery of classical style.

70. Erik von Frenckell

1887-1977 (aged 90)

civil servant engineer sportsperson politician

Erik von Frenckell was a Swedish-speaking Finnish nobleman, member of the Parliament of Finland, member of the International Olympic Committee and a vice president of the International Football Association FIFA.

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71. Johann Andreas Schubert

1808-1870 (aged 62)

composer university teacher mathematician engineer scientist

Johann-Andreas Schubert was a German general engineer (Universalingenieur), designer and university lecturer.

72. Albert Renger-Patzsch

1897-1966 (aged 69)

photographer artist

Albert Renger-Patzsch was a German photographer associated with the New Objectivity.

73. Evgeny Paton

1870-1953 (aged 83)

engineer civil engineer university teacher politician

Professor Yevhen Oksarovych Paton, also known as Evgeny Oskarovich Paton (Russian: Евгений Оскарович Патон), was a Ukrainian engineer of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union who established in 1934 the E. O. Paton Electric Welding Institute in Kyiv. Paton was a people's deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (1946–1953). He was the father of Borys Paton.

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74. Lilia Skala

1896-1994 (aged 98)

stage actor television actor architect actor film actor

Lilia Skala was an Austrian and American architect and actress known for her role in the film Lilies of the Field (1963), for which she received critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination. During her career, Skala was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.

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75. Slavoljub Eduard Penkala

1871-1922 (aged 51)

inventor engineer

Slavoljub Eduard Penkala was a Croatian engineer and inventor.

76. Jörg Urban

1964-. (aged 62)

hydraulic engineer politician

Jörg Urban is a German politician for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and is party leader of the AfD in Saxony. He has been a member of the Landtag of the Free State of Saxony since 2014. Under Urban's leadership, the Saxon AfD moved so strongly towards the right wing that the State Office for the Protection of the...

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77. Carsten Borchgrevink

1864-1934 (aged 70)

explorer scientific collector

Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink was a Norwegian polar explorer and a pioneer of Antarctic travel. He inspired Sir Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, and others associated with the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

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78. Martin Dulig

1974-. (aged 52)

politician construction worker

Martin Dulig is a German politician for the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Until 20 December 2019, he was the Saxon State Minister of Labor and Traffic and Deputy Minister President of Saxony in the governments of Stanislaw Tillich III and Michael Kretschmer. On 20 December 2019, Michael Kretschmer appointed a new cabinet, with Dulig continuing his role as State Minister...

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79. Dirk Hilbert

1971-. (aged 55)

politician

Dirk Hilbert is a German politician serving as the current Lord Mayor of Dresden, the capital city of Saxony, since Helma Orosz's resignation in 2015.

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80. Maria Reiche

1903-1998 (aged 95)

archaeologist language teacher mathematician

Maria Reiche Grosse-Neumann was a German-born Peruvian mathematician, archaeologist, and technical translator. She is known for her research into the Nazca Lines, which she first saw in 1941 together with American historian Paul Kosok. Known as the "Lady of the Lines", Reiche made the documentation, preservation and public dissemination of the Nazca Lines her life's work.

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81. Katja Kipping

1978-. (aged 48)

slavist literary scholar politician

Katja Kipping is a German politician of The Left party. She was a member of the Bundestag representing Saxony from 2005 to 2021, a federal co-leader of The Left from 2012 to 2021 alongside Bernd Riexinger, and the Senator for Integration, Labour and Social Affairs in the Berlin state government from December 2021 to April 2023.

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82. Maximilian Krah

1977-. (aged 49)

lawyer politician

Maximilian Eugen Krah is a German lawyer and politician for right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD). He has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 until March 2025 when he became a member of the German parliament.

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83. Stanislaw Tillich

1959-. (aged 67)

politician

Stanislaw Rudi Tillich is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as the 3rd Minister President of Saxony from 2008 to 2017. From 1 November 2015 until 31 October 2016, he was President of the Bundesrat and ex officio deputy to the President of Germany. Tillich is of Sorbian ethnicity and lives in Panschwitz-Kuckau (Pančicy-Kukow), which...

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84. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

1884-1976 (aged 92)

sculptor draftsperson university teacher painter illustrator

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff was a German expressionist painter and printmaker; he was one of the four founders of the artist group Die Brücke.

85. Uwe Tellkamp

1968-. (aged 58)

physician novelist physician writer screenwriter

Uwe Tellkamp is a German writer and physician. He practised medicine until 2004. Before the fall of communism, he was enlisted in the National People's Army as a tank commander and imprisoned when he refused to break up a demonstration in October 1989. Until the fall of the German Democratic Republic shortly after, he was prohibited from studying medicine.

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86. Reiner Haseloff

1954-. (aged 72)

physicist politician

Reiner Erich Haseloff is a German politician who served as the Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt from 2011 to 2026. He served a one-year term as President of the Bundesrat from 2020 to 2021. From 2022 to 2026, he was the longest-serving minister-president of the German states.

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87. Marco Wanderwitz

1975-. (aged 51)

lawyer politician

Marco Wanderwitz is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). From 2018 until 2021, he served as Parliamentary State Secretary in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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88. Heinrich Hertz

1857-1894 (aged 37)

inventor physicist philosopher university teacher

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was a German physicist who first conclusively proved the existence of the electromagnetic waves proposed by James Clerk Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism.

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89. Theodor Pallady

1871-1956 (aged 85)

painter

Theodor Pallady was a Romanian painter.

90. Franz Dischinger

1887-1953 (aged 66)

university teacher civil engineer

Franz Dischinger was a pioneering German civil and structural engineer, responsible for the development of the modern cable-stayed bridge. He was also a pioneer of the use of prestressed concrete, patenting the technique of external prestressing (where the prestressing bars or tendons are not encased in the concrete) in 1934.

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91. Adolf Loos

1870-1933 (aged 63)

writer architect art theorist essayist photographer

Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, polemicist of modern architecture. He was inspired by modernism and a widely-known critic of the Art Nouveau movement. His controversial views and literary contributions sparked the establishment of the Vienna Secession movement and postmodernism.

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