23 Notable alumni of Folkwang University of the Arts
Updated: May 30, 2026 EliteDegrees
Folkwang University of the Arts is ranked #1,432 in the world and #77 in Germany by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 23 notable alumni from Folkwang University of the Arts sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with Folkwang University of the Arts won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Greta Wrage von Pustau
1902-1989 (aged 87)
dancer
Greta Wrage von Pustau was a Chinese-born German dancer and dance teacher.
2. Mie Miki
1956-. (aged 70)
university teacher
keyboardist
Mie Miki is a classical accordion musician. She took up the accordion at age 4 and has been dubbed "Queen of the Classical Accordion". She is a professor of accordion as well as Vice President at Folkwang University of the Arts and is honorary professor at the Xinjian Arts College. She has published at least 16 albums since 1984 and...
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3. Agnes Giebel
1921-2017 (aged 96)
opera singer
concert singer
Agnes Giebel was a German classical soprano. She was born in Heerlen, in the Netherlands, where she lived the first years of her life. She studied at the Folkwangschule in Essen and made her first public appearance as a singer in 1947. Her career lasted until the 1990s during which she established a wide-ranging discography.
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4. Thomas Gabriel
1957-. (aged 69)
organist
composer
harpsichordist
Thomas Gabriel is a German church musician, composer and arranger.
5. Tommy Finke
1981-. (aged 45)
composer
songwriter
Tommy Finke, sometimes using the pseudonym T.D. Finck von Finckenstein, is a German singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is known for his work in indie, alternative, and pop music, as well as for composing electronic music, theater scores, and film soundtracks. From 2015 to 2020, Finke served as the musical director at Schauspiel Dortmund.
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6. Susanne Linke
1944-. (aged 82)
choreographer
dancer
Susanne Linke is an internationally renowned German dancer and choreographer who is one of the major innovators of German Tanztheater, along with Pina Bausch and Reinhild Hoffmann.
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7. Max Burchartz
1887-1961 (aged 74)
publicity graphist
painter
art theorist
graphic artist
lithographer
Max Hubert Innocenz Maria Burchartz was a German painter, typographer, photographer, commercial art designer, and graphic arts teacher.
8. Reinhild Hoffmann
1943-. (aged 83)
choreographer
dancer
Reinhild Hoffmann is a German choreographer and dancer who is an important innovator in Tanztheater, along with Pina Bausch and Susanne Linke.
9. Helmut Koch
1908-1975 (aged 67)
choir director
conductor
musician
Helmut Koch was a German conductor, choir leader, composer, and academic teacher. He was recording manager for the Berliner Rundfunk from 1945, where he founded the Solistenvereinigung Berlin, the Kammerorchester Berlin and the Großer Chor des Berliner Rundfunks. He conducted a recording of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in 1949, and later also contemporary classical music by composers including Hanns Eisler, Fritz Geißler,...
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10. Dirk Weiler
singer
stage actor
musical theatre actor
actor
choreographer
Dirk Weiler is a German actor and singer.
11. Johannes Brandrup
1967-. (aged 59)
film actor
television actor
stage actor
Johannes Brandrup is a German actor.
12. Hagen Rether
1969-. (aged 57)
pianist
cabaret performer
Hagen Rether is a Romanian-born German political cabaret artist and musician. The most remarkable features in his performance are usually the presence and use of a grand piano. He was a frequent contributor to the German Kabarett TV show Scheibenwischer.
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13. Klara Höfels
1949-2022 (aged 73)
documentary filmmaker
actor
theatrical director
Klara Höfels was a German actress, director and theatre producer. She was first a stage actress, who played leading roles on stage at Schauspiel Frankfurt, Residenztheater in Munich and Staatstheater Stuttgart. She became known for roles in television series such as SOKO and Hinter Gittern – Der Frauenknast, beginning in the 1990s. She produced film documentaries, responsible for direction and...
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14. Andreas Deja
1957-. (aged 69)
character animator
character designer
animator
Andreas Deja is a Polish-born German-American character animator most noted for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Deja's work includes serving as supervising animator on characters in several Disney animated films, including King Triton and Vanessa in The Little Mermaid, Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, Jafar in Aladdin, and Scar in The Lion King, the titular character in...
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15. Nina Scheer
1971-. (aged 55)
author
politician
Nina Scheer is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been a member of the Bundestag since 2013. Her political interests include energy policy and climate change. In 2019, Scheer was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2019 Social Democratic Party of Germany leadership election, in a team with Karl Lauterbach. Her father was Hermann...
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16. Anton Stankowski
1906-1998 (aged 92)
graphic designer
designer
typographer
photographer
graphic artist
Anton Stankowski was a German graphic designer, photographer and painter. He developed an original Theory of Design and pioneered Constructive Graphic Art. Typical Stankowski designs attempt to illustrate processes or behaviours rather than objects. Such experiments resulted in the use of fractal-like structures long before their popularisation by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975.
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17. Hilmar Hoffmann
1925-2018 (aged 93)
university teacher
teacher
film director
politician
Beamter
Hilmar Hoffmann was a German stage and film director, cultural politician and academic lecturer. He founded the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. He was for decades an influential city councillor in Frankfurt, where he initiated the Museumsufer of 15 museums, including the Jewish Museum Frankfurt. He was the president of the Goethe-Institut and taught at universities such as Bochum and...
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18. Jürgen Prochnow
1941-. (aged 85)
musician
stage actor
television actor
voice actor
film actor
Jürgen Prochnow is a German actor. His international breakthrough was his portrayal of the good-hearted and sympathetic U-boat Commander "Der Alte" ("Old Man") in the 1981 war film Das Boot.
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19. Pina Bausch
1940-2009 (aged 69)
choreographer
university teacher
ballet dancer
film director
ballet master
Philippine "Pina" Bausch was a German dancer and choreographer who was a significant contributor to a neo-expressionist dance tradition now known as Tanztheater. Bausch's approach was noted for a stylised blend of dance movement, prominent sound design, and involved stage sets, as well as for engaging the dancers under her to help in the development of a piece, and her...
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20. Armin Rohde
1955-. (aged 71)
voice actor
film actor
Armin Rohde is a German actor and voice actor.
21. Karoline Eichhorn
1965-. (aged 61)
film actor
actor
stage actor
Karoline Eichhorn is a German stage, film, television, and voice actress.
22. Thomas Ruff
1958-. (aged 68)
photojournalist
university teacher
artist
visual artist
photographer
Thomas Ruff is a German photographer who lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. He has been described as "a master of edited and reimagined images".
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23. Graham Waterhouse
1962-. (aged 64)
composer
cellist
organist
musician
Graham Waterhouse is an English composer and cellist who specializes in chamber music. He has composed a cello concerto, Three Pieces for Solo Cello and Variations for Cello Solo for his own instrument, and string quartets and compositions that juxtapose a quartet with a solo instrument, including Piccolo Quintet, Bassoon Quintet and the piano quintet Rhapsodie Macabre. He has set...
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