Notable Alumni of Friedrich Schiller University of Jena [Sorted List]

1. Wilhelm Roux

1850-1924 (aged 74)

biologist university teacher anatomist zoologist

Wilhelm Roux was a German zoologist and pioneer of experimental embryology.

2. Karl Gutzkow

1811-1878 (aged 67)

literary critic novelist writer journalist playwright

Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow was a German writer and dramatist who promoted political and social reformism. He studied philosophy and theology with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Schleiermacher, and his early works, like the novel Maha-Guru, Geschichte eines Gottes (1833), were satirical. His 1835 novel Wally, die Zweiflerin led to his imprisonment and suppression, marking the start of the Young...

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3. Levon Shant

1869-1951 (aged 82)

public figure teacher writer

Levon Shant was an Armenian playwright, novelist, poet and founder of the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society.

4. Jost Winteler

1846-1929 (aged 83)

linguist

Jost Winteler was a Swiss professor of Greek and history at the Kantonsschule Aarau (today called the Old Cantonal School Aarau), a linguist, a "noted" philologist, an ornithologist, a journalist, and a published poet. He served as both a mentor and father figure to a teenage Albert Einstein, who boarded at his home from October 1895 to October 1896, while...

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5. Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg

1826-1908 (aged 82)

aristocrat

Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, was a duke of Saxe-Altenburg. He was the first son of Georg, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Marie Luise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In 1853, he succeeded his father as Duke of Saxe-Altenburg. He was of a retiring disposition and he took little active part in running the country. After a reign that lasted 55 years, he died...

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6. Andreas Libavius

1555-1616 (aged 61)

university teacher chemist physician

Andreas Libavius was a German writer.

7. Franz Ernst Neumann

1798-1895 (aged 97)

military volunteer university teacher crystallographer mathematician mineralogist

Franz Ernst Neumann was a German mineralogist and physicist. He devised the first formulas to calculate inductance. He also formulated Neumann's law for molecular heat. In electromagnetism, he is credited for introducing the magnetic vector potential.

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8. Georg Ebers

1837-1898 (aged 61)

writer orientalist university teacher egyptologist

Georg Moritz Ebers was a German Egyptologist and novelist. He is best known for his purchase of the Ebers Papyrus, one of the oldest Egyptian medical documents in the world.

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9. Johann Karl August Musäus

1735-1787 (aged 52)

literary critic collector of fairy tales writer children's writer poet

Johann Karl August Musäus was a German author. He was one of the first collectors of German folk stories, most celebrated for his Volksmärchen der Deutschen (1782–1787), a collection of German fairy tales retold as satires.

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10. Karl Leonhard Reinhold

1757-1823 (aged 66)

university teacher philosopher

Karl Leonhard Reinhold was an Austrian philosopher who helped to popularise the work of Immanuel Kant in the late 18th century. His "elementary philosophy" (Elementarphilosophie) also influenced German idealism, notably Johann Gottlieb Fichte, as a critical system grounded in a fundamental first principle.

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11. Christian Hirte

1976-. (aged 50)

lawyer politician

Christian Hirte is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as member of the German Bundestag since 2008. From 2020 to 2022, he has been the chairman of the CDU in Thuringia and co-deputy Chairman since then.

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12. Hanns Seidel

1901-1961 (aged 60)

lawyer politician

Franz Wendelin "Hanns" Seidel was a German politician who served as Minister-President of Bavaria from 1957 to 1960. He was a member, and from 1955 to 1961 chairman, of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU).

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13. Hermann Samuel Reimarus

1694-1768 (aged 74)

writer philosopher university teacher theologian

Hermann Samuel Reimarus, was a German philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment who is remembered for his Deism, the doctrine that human reason can arrive at a knowledge of God and ethics from a study of nature and our own internal reality, thus eliminating the need for religions based on revelation. He denied the supernatural origin of Christianity, and was...

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14. Grigore Antipa

1867-1944 (aged 77)

biologist scientific collector ichthyologist zoologist

Grigore Antipa was a Romanian naturalist, zoologist, ichthyologist, ecologist, oceanologist, Darwinist biologist who studied the fauna of the Danube Delta and the Black Sea. Between 1892 and 1944 he was the director of the Bucharest Natural History Museum, which now bears his name. He is also considered to be the first person to modernize the diorama by emphasizing the three-dimensional...

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15. Francis Daniel Pastorius

1651-. (aged 375)

writer poet lawyer abolitionist politician

Francis Daniel Pastorius was a German-born educator, lawyer, poet, and public official. He was the founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania, now part of Philadelphia, the first permanent German-American settlement and the gateway for subsequent emigrants from Germany.

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16. Jürgen Fuchs

1950-1999 (aged 49)

writer playwright poet psychologist

Jürgen Fuchs was an East German writer and dissident.

17. Eduard Strasburger

1844-1912 (aged 68)

university teacher plant cell biologist botanist

Eduard Adolf Strasburger was a Polish-German professor and one of the most famous botanists of the 19th century. He discovered mitosis in plants.

18. Heinrich von Gagern

1799-1880 (aged 81)

military personnel politician

Heinrich Wilhelm August Freiherr von Gagern was a statesman who argued for the unification of Germany.

19. Bernard of Saxe-Weimar

1604-1639 (aged 35)

military officer

Bernard of Saxe-Weimar was a duke of Saxe-Weimar and a politically active Protestant general during the Thirty Years' War (1618–48). Known as one of the most capable field commanders of the conflict, he secured several notable victories against the forces of the Austrian Habsburgs, which strengthened both his reputation and the strategic position of the Protestant armies.

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20. Heinrich Graetz

1817-1891 (aged 74)

university teacher theologian historian philologist rabbi

Heinrich Graetz was a German exegete and one of the first modern historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective.

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21. Carl Duisberg

1861-1935 (aged 74)

industrialist chemist engineer

Friedrich Carl Duisberg was a German chemist, industrialist and co-founder of I.G. Farben.

22. Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland

1762-1836 (aged 74)

university teacher physician chief physician

Christoph Wilhelm Friedrich Hufeland was a German physician, naturopath and writer. Considered one of the most eminent practical physicians of his time in Germany, he authored numerous works displaying extensive reading and a cultivated critical faculty.

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23. Paul Langerhans

1847-1888 (aged 41)

biologist pathologist physiologist

Paul Langerhans was a German pathologist, physiologist and biologist, credited with the discovery of the cells that secrete insulin, named after him as the islets of Langerhans.

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24. Christine Lieberknecht

1958-. (aged 68)

politician pastor

Christine Lieberknecht is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). From 2009 to 2014, she served as the Minister President of Thuringia. Lieberknecht was the first woman to become head of government in Thuringia and only the second woman to govern a German state.

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25. Hans Carl von Carlowitz

1645-1714 (aged 69)

forester economist naturalist official essayist

Hans Carl von Carlowitz or Hannß Carl von Carlowitz, was a Saxon tax accountant and mining administrator. His book Sylvicultura oeconomica, oder haußwirthliche Nachricht und Naturmäßige Anweisung zur wilden Baum-Zucht (1713) was the first comprehensive treatise about forestry. He approached forestry from the fears of a shortage of wood needed for the mining industry. He coined the term Nachhaltigkeit, now...

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26. Ingo Schulze

1962-. (aged 64)

dramaturge novelist writer journalist playwright

Ingo Schulze is a German writer born in Dresden in former East Germany. He studied classical philology at the University of Jena for five years, and, until German reunification, was an assistant director (dramatic arts advisor) at the State Theatre in Altenburg 45 km south of Leipzig for two years. After sleeping through the events of the night of 9...

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27. Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach

1775-1833 (aged 58)

jurist writer university teacher philosopher judge

Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach was a German legal scholar. His major achievement was a reform of the Bavarian penal code which led to the abolition of torture and became a model for several other countries. He is also well known for his research on Kaspar Hauser, who died the same year as Feuerbach.

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28. Alfred Brehm

1829-1884 (aged 55)

biologist naturalist painter zoologist scientific collector

Alfred Edmund Brehm was a German zoologist and writer. His multi-volume book Brehms Tierleben, which he co-authored with Eduard Pechuël-Loesche, Wilhelm Haacke, and Richard Schmidtlein, became a household word for popular zoological literature. He was the first director of the Zoological Garden of Hamburg.

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29. Johann Wilhelm Ritter

1776-1810 (aged 34)

university teacher chemist physicist

Johann Wilhelm Ritter was a German chemist, physicist and philosopher. He is associated with the German Romanticism. He is also known for discovering the ultraviolet part of the electromagnetic spectrum. He is also credited for the first achieved sustained electrolysis of water and the discovery of electroplating.

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30. Wilhelm Windelband

1848-1915 (aged 67)

historian philosopher university teacher

Wilhelm Windelband was a German philosopher of the Baden School.

31. Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg

1871-1955 (aged 84)

military personnel

Ernst II was the last reigning duke of Saxe-Altenburg and a German general active during World War I.

32. Heinrich Friedrich Weber

1843-1912 (aged 69)

physicist university teacher

Heinrich Friedrich Weber was a physicist born in the town of Magdala, near Weimar.

33. Herbert Kroemer

1928-2024 (aged 96)

physicist university teacher

Herbert Kroemer was a German–American solid-state physicist who, along with Zhores Alferov, received the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics "for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics." He was Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research into transistors was a stepping stone to the later development of mobile phone technologies.

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34. Alexander Svanidze

1886-1941 (aged 55)

politician writer historian translator official

Alexander Semyonovich "Alyosha" Svanidze was a Georgian Old Bolshevik, politician and historian. He was a personal friend of Joseph Stalin and a brother of Stalin's first wife Kato. Nevertheless, he was arrested during the Great Purge in 1937 and he was shot in prison in 1941.

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35. Karl Korsch

1886-1961 (aged 75)

essayist university teacher politician philosopher jurist

Karl Korsch was a German Marxist theoretician and political philosopher. He is recognized as one of the "dissidents" that challenged the Marxism of the Second International of Karl Kautsky, Georgi Plekhanov and Lenin. Along with György Lukács, Korsch is considered to be one of the major figures responsible for laying the groundwork for Western Marxism in the 1920s.

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36. Bruno Beger

1911-2009 (aged 98)

racial theorist explorer anthropologist

Bruno Beger was a German racial anthropologist, ethnologist, and explorer who worked for the Ahnenerbe. In that role he participated in Ernst Schäfer's 1938–1939 expedition to Tibet, helped the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS, RuSHA) identify Jews, and later helped select human subjects to be killed to create an anatomical study collection of Jewish...

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37. Karl Christian Friedrich Krause

1781-1832 (aged 51)

university teacher philosopher writer

Karl Christian Friedrich Krause was a German philosopher whose doctrines became known as Krausism. Krausism, when considered in its totality as a complete, stand-alone philosophical system, had only a small following in Germany, France, and Belgium, in contradistinction to certain other philosophical systems (such as Hegelianism) that had a much larger following in Europe at that time. However, Krausism became...

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38. Pavel Jozef Šafárik

1795-1861 (aged 66)

university teacher journalist ethnographer linguist pedagogue

Pavel Jozef Šafárik was a Slovak philologist, poet, literary historian, historian and ethnographer. He was one of the first scientific Slavists.

39. Ján Kollár

1793-1852 (aged 59)

linguist poet folklorist slavist philosopher

Ján Kollár was a Slovak writer (mainly poet), archaeologist, scientist, Lutheran pastor, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.

40. Roland Matthes

1950-2019 (aged 69)

swimmer surgeon

Roland Matthes was a German swimmer and the most successful backstroke swimmer of all time. Between April 1967 and August 1974 he won all backstroke competitions he entered. He won four European championships and three world championships in a row, and swam 19 world and 28 European records in various backstroke, butterfly and medley events. He was trained by Marlies...

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41. Hans Berger

1873-1941 (aged 68)

scientist university teacher psychiatrist neurologist inventor

Hans Berger was a German psychiatrist. He is best known as the inventor of electroencephalography (EEG) in 1924, which is a method used for recording the electrical activity of the brain, commonly described in terms of brainwaves, and as the discoverer of the alpha wave rhythm which is a type of brainwave. Alpha waves have been eponymously referred to as...

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42. Friedrich Joseph Haass

1780-1853 (aged 73)

physician

Dr. Friedrich Joseph Haass was the "holy doctor of Moscow". Born in Bad Münstereifel, as a member of Moscow's governmental prison committee, he spent 25 years until the end of his life to humanize the penal system. During the last nine years before his death, he spent all of his assets to run a hospital for homeless people. He died...

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43. August von Kotzebue

1761-1819 (aged 58)

autobiographer poet lawyer writer playwright

August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue was a German playwright, who had also worked as a Russian diplomat.

44. Thomas Röhler

1991-. (aged 35)

athletics competitor javelin thrower

Thomas Röhler is a German track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. He is the 2016 Olympic Champion and 2018 European Champion. His personal best of 93.90 m for the event ranks him third on the overall list.

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45. Matthias Claudius

1740-1815 (aged 75)

writer poet journalist poet lawyer

Matthias Claudius was a German poet and journalist, otherwise known by the pen name of "Asmus".

46. Andrey Osterman

1686-1747 (aged 61)

diplomat politician

Count Andrey Ivanovich Ostermann was a German-born Russian statesman who came to prominence under Tsar Peter I of Russia (r. 1682–1725) and served until the accession of the Tsesarevna Elizabeth in 1741. He based his foreign policy on the Austrian alliance. General Admiral (1740; dismissed 1741).

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47. Wiebke Muhsal

1986-. (aged 40)

politician

Wiebke Muhsal is a German politician with the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Since 2014, she is a member of the Landtag of Thuringia and deputy chairman of the AfD caucus. She is also her party's critic on family and education policy and is a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Youth and Sports.

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48. George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

1582-1641 (aged 59)

military personnel

George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, ruled as Prince of Calenberg from 1635. He was a member of the House of Welf, a prominent German noble family. George was part of a cadet branch of the family known as the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg, which held territories in what is now Lower Saxony in Germany.

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49. Georg Ernst Stahl

1659-1734 (aged 75)

university teacher surgeon philosopher chemist physician

Georg Ernst Stahl was a German chemist, physician and philosopher. He was a supporter of vitalism, and until the late 18th century his works on phlogiston were accepted as an explanation for chemical processes.

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50. Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner

1780-1849 (aged 69)

university teacher chemist pharmacist

Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner was a German chemist who is known best for work that was suggestive of the periodic law for the chemical elements, and for inventing the first lighter, which was known as the Döbereiner's lamp. He became a professor of chemistry and pharmacy for the University of Jena.

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51. Carl Zeiss

1816-1888 (aged 72)

engineer physicist entrepreneur photographer

Carl Zeiss was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Zeiss. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted practical and theoretical opticians and glass makers to reshape most aspects of optical instrument production. His collaboration with Ernst Abbe revolutionized optical theory and practical design of microscopes. Their quest...

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52. Johann Friedrich Herbart

1776-1841 (aged 65)

university teacher teacher philosopher pedagogue psychologist

Johann Friedrich Herbart was a German philosopher, psychologist and founder of pedagogy as an academic discipline.

53. Gazi Yaşargil

1925-2025 (aged 100)

scientist university teacher surgeon neurosurgeon physician

Mahmut Gazi Yaşargil was a Turkish-Swiss medical scientist and neurosurgeon. He collaborated with Raymond M. P. Donaghy M.D at the University of Vermont in developing microneurosurgery. Yaşargil treated epilepsy and brain tumours with instruments of his own design. From 1953 until his retirement in 1993, he was first resident, chief resident and then professor and chairman of the Department of...

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54. Jack Barsky

1949-. (aged 77)

writer sleeper agent

Jack Philip Barsky is an author, former CIO at a Fortune 500 energy firm and former operative of the KGB who spied on the United States from 1978 to 1988. Exposed after the Cold War had ended, Barsky became a resource for U.S. counterintelligence agencies, and held executive technology roles at major U.S. corporations. He was not charged with any...

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55. Gunther von Hagens

1945-. (aged 81)

inventor sculptor university teacher anatomist

Gunther von Hagens is a German anatomist, businessman, and lecturer. He developed the technique for preserving biological tissue specimens called plastination. Von Hagens has organized numerous Body Worlds public exhibitions and occasional live demonstrations of his and his colleagues' work, and has traveled worldwide to promote its educational value. The sourcing of biological specimens for and the commercial background of...

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56. Friedrich Schiller

1759-1805 (aged 46)

philosopher historian aesthetician librettist military physician

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered to be one of Germany's most important classical playwrights.

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57. Friedrich Fröbel

1782-1852 (aged 70)

association football player teacher writer non-fiction writer pedagogue

Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froebel was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique needs and capabilities. He created the concept of the kindergarten and coined the word, which soon entered the English language as well. He also developed the educational toys known...

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58. Gerhart Hauptmann

1862-1946 (aged 84)

playwright autobiographer novelist lyricist poet

Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into his work as well. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.

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59. Walter Eucken

1891-1950 (aged 59)

resistance fighter economist

Walter Eucken was a German economist of the Freiburg school and father of ordoliberalism. Ordoliberalism was based on the concept of social market economy balancing free markets with regulatory oversight. The Walter Eucken Institut was founded four years after his death and his ideas influenced West Germany’s economic policy.

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60. Lorenz von Stein

1815-1890 (aged 75)

economist lawyer sociologist university teacher

Lorenz von Stein was a German economist, sociologist, and public administration scholar from Eckernförde. As an advisor to Meiji period Japan, his liberal political views influenced the wording of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan as well as major constitutional thinkers such as Rudolf von Gneist.

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61. Arnold Ruge

1802-1880 (aged 78)

autobiographer writer translator philosopher politician

Arnold Ruge was a German philosopher and political writer. He was the older brother of Ludwig Ruge.

62. Wilhelm Heinrich Solf

1862-1936 (aged 74)

orientalist politician diplomat jurist physician

Wilhelm Heinrich Solf was a German scholar, diplomat, jurist and statesman.

63. Georg Wilhelm Richmann

1711-1753 (aged 42)

physicist inventor

Georg Wilhelm Richmann was a Russian physicist of Baltic German origin who did pioneering work on electricity, atmospheric electricity, and calorimetry. He died by electrocution in St. Petersburg when struck by apparent ball lightning produced by an experiment attempting to ground the electrical discharge from a storm.

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64. Johann Joachim Winckelmann

1717-1768 (aged 51)

in-home tutor writer art historian librarian historian

Johann Joachim Winckelmann was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology", Winckelmann was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the history of art....

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65. Samuel von Pufendorf

1632-1694 (aged 62)

economist jurist writer university teacher philosopher

Samuel von Pufendorf was a German jurist, political philosopher, economist and historian. He was born Samuel Pufendorf and ennobled in 1694; he was made a baron by Charles XI of Sweden a few months before his death at age 62. Among his achievements are his commentaries and revisions of the natural law theories of Thomas Hobbes and Hugo Grotius.

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66. Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock

1724-1803 (aged 79)

writer playwright linguist poet in-home tutor

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock was a German poet. His best known works are the epic poem Der Messias ("The Messiah") and the poem Die Auferstehung ("The Resurrection"), with the latter set to music in the finale of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2. One of his major contributions to German literature was to open it up to exploration outside of French models.

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67. Christian Wolff

1934-. (aged 92)

composer classical scholar teacher university teacher pianist

Christian Wolff was a German philosopher. Wolff is characterized as one of the most eminent German philosophers between Leibniz and Kant. His life work spanned almost every scholarly subject of his time, displayed and unfolded according to his demonstrative-deductive, mathematical method, which some deem the peak of Enlightenment rationality in Germany.

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68. Christa Wolf

1929-2011 (aged 82)

writer critic science fiction writer author screenwriter

Christa Wolf was a German novelist and essayist. She is considered one of the most important writers to emerge from the former East Germany.

69. Johann Gottlieb Fichte

1762-1814 (aged 52)

university teacher philosopher writer

Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant.

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70. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

1646-1716 (aged 70)

mathematician diplomatician engineer music theorist philosopher of law

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist, and diplomat who is credited, alongside Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to many other branches of mathematics, such as binary arithmetic and statistics. Leibniz has been called the "last universal genius" due to his vast expertise across fields, which became a rarity after...

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71. Novalis

1772-1801 (aged 29)

poet writer literary theorist philosopher lyricist

Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, pen name Novalis, was a German aristocrat and polymath, who was a poet, novelist, philosopher and mystic. He is regarded as an influential figure of Jena Romanticism.

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72. Paul Friedrich I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

1800-1842 (aged 42)

sovereign

Paul Friedrich ruled as Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1837 to 1842.

73. Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt

1885-1964 (aged 79)

psychiatrist university teacher pathologist neuroscientist judge

Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt was a German neurologist and neuropathologist. Although he is typically credited as the physician to first describe the Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, this has been disputed. He was born in Harburg an der Elbe and died in Munich.

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74. Axel Oxenstierna

1583-1654 (aged 71)

land owner military personnel diplomat politician

Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna was a Swedish statesman and Count of Södermöre. He became a member of the Swedish Privy Council in 1609 and served as Lord High Chancellor of Sweden from 1612 until his death. He was a confidant of King Gustavus Adolphus and then Queen Christina, for whom he was at first regent.

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75. Friedrich Hund

1896-1997 (aged 101)

university teacher physicist non-fiction writer nuclear physicist chemist

Friedrich Hermann Hund was a German physicist from Karlsruhe known for his work on atoms and molecules. He is known for the Hund's rules to predict the electron configuration of chemical elements. His work on Hund's cases and molecular orbital theory furthered the understanding of molecular structure.

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76. Ernst Moritz Arndt

1769-1860 (aged 91)

politician university teacher writer historian poet

Ernst Moritz Arndt was a German nationalist historian, writer and poet. Early in his life, he fought for the abolition of serfdom, later against Napoleonic dominance over Germany. Arndt had to flee to Sweden for some time due to his anti-French positions. He is one of the main founders of German nationalism during the Napoleonic wars and the 19th century...

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77. Ernst Abbe

1840-1905 (aged 65)

astronomer university teacher physicist statistician lens designer

Ernst Karl Abbe HonFRMS, was a German businessman, optical engineer, physicist, and social reformer. Together with Otto Schott and Carl Zeiss, he developed numerous optical instruments. He was also a co-owner of Carl Zeiss AG, a German manufacturer of scientific microscopes, astronomical telescopes, planetariums, and other advanced optical systems.

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78. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach

1752-1840 (aged 88)

curator physiologist biologist university teacher anthropologist

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach was a German physician, naturalist, physiologist, and anthropologist. He is considered to be a main founder of zoology and anthropology as comparative, scientific disciplines. He has been called the "founder of racial classifications".

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79. Matthias Jacob Schleiden

1804-1881 (aged 77)

botanist botanical collector biologist university teacher philosopher

Matthias Jakob Schleiden was a German botanist and co-founder of cell theory, along with Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow. He published some poems and non-scientific work under the pseudonym Ernst.

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80. Gottlob Frege

1848-1925 (aged 77)

university teacher analytic philosopher logician mathematician philosopher of language

Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic philosophy, concentrating on the philosophy of language, logic, and mathematics. Though he was largely ignored during his lifetime, Giuseppe Peano (1858–1932), Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), and, to some extent,...

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81. Alexander von Humboldt

1769-1859 (aged 90)

oceanographer volcanologist naturalist economist world traveler

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, while his advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement pioneered modern...

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82. Gottfried Benn

1886-1956 (aged 70)

author poet novelist essayist physician writer

Gottfried Benn was a German poet, essayist, and physician. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1951.

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83. Friedrich Carl von Savigny

1779-1861 (aged 82)

jurist writer legal historian university teacher philosopher

Friedrich Carl von Savigny was a German jurist and historian.

84. Christoph Cellarius

1638-1707 (aged 69)

pedagogue classical scholar orientalist university teacher philologist

Christoph Cellarius (22 November 1638 – 4 June 1707) was a German classical scholar from Schmalkalden who held positions in Weimar and Halle. Although the Ancient-Medieval-Modern division of history was used earlier by Italian Renaissance scholars Leonardo Bruni and Flavio Biondo, Cellarius' Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, and New Period (1685) helped popularize it. After him, this tripartite...

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85. Arvid Harnack

1901-1942 (aged 41)

economist jurist resistance fighter

Arvid Harnack was a German jurist, Marxist economist, Communist, and German resistance fighter in Nazi Germany. Harnack came from an intellectual family and was originally a humanist. He was strongly influenced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe but progressively moved to a Marxist-Socialist outlook after a visit to the Soviet Union and the Nazis' appearance. After starting an undercover discussion group...

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86. Manfred Stolpe

1936-2019 (aged 83)

politician

Manfred Stolpe was a German canonist, theologian and politician who served as Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs of Germany from 2002 until 2005. Before, he was Ministerpräsident of the state Brandenburg from 1990 until 2002. Stolpe was, after the state elections following German reunification, the only Social Democratic Minister-President of a state of former East Germany. Stolpe...

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87. Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge

1794-1867 (aged 73)

university teacher chemist

Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was a German analytical chemist. Runge identified the mydriatic (pupil dilating) effects of belladonna (deadly nightshade) extract, identified caffeine, and discovered the first coal tar dye (aniline blue).

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88. Kurt Tucholsky

1890-1935 (aged 45)

journalist poet lawyer opinion journalist playwright critic

Kurt Tucholsky was a German journalist, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel.

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89. Karl Marx

1818-1883 (aged 65)

sociologist historian writer economist philosopher

Karl Marx was a German philosopher, social and political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet The Communist Manifesto (written with Friedrich Engels), and his three-volume Das Kapital (1867–1894), a critique of classical political economy which employs his theory of historical materialism in an analysis of capitalism, in the culmination of his life's work....

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90. Sahra Wagenknecht

1969-. (aged 57)

economist non-fiction writer opinion journalist editor politician

Sahra Wagenknecht is a German politician. She was a member of the Bundestag from 2009 to 2025, where she represented The Left until 2023. From 2015 to 2019, she served as that party's parliamentary co-chair. With a small team of allies, Wagenknecht left the party on 23 October 2023 to found her own Eurosceptic, populist party, Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, which...

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91. Max Scheler

1874-1928 (aged 54)

university teacher philosopher axiologist anthropologist sociologist

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.

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92. Adolf Bastian

1826-1905 (aged 79)

explorer university teacher writer anthropologist psychologist

Adolf Philipp Wilhelm Bastian was a 19th-century polymath remembered best for his contributions to the development of ethnography and the development of anthropology as a discipline. His theory of the Elementargedanke resulted in Carl Jung's development of the theory of archetypes. His ideas influenced the "father of American anthropology" Franz Boas and comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell.

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93. Otto Schott

1851-1935 (aged 84)

chemist glassmaker inventor

Friedrich Otto Schott was a German chemist, glass technologist, and the inventor of borosilicate glass. Schott systematically investigated the relationship between the chemical composition of the glass and its properties. In this way, he solved fundamental problems in glass properties, identifying compositions with optical properties that approach the theoretical limit. Schott's findings were a major advance in the optics for...

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94. Georg Heym

1887-1912 (aged 25)

poet lawyer novelist writer playwright poet

Georg Theodor Franz Artur Heym was a German writer. He is particularly known for his poetry, representative of early Expressionism.

95. Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay

1846-1888 (aged 42)

traveler zoologist marine biologist biologist anthropologist

Nicholas or Nicholai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay was a Russian explorer and scientist. He worked as an ethnologist, anthropologist and biologist. He became famous as one of the earliest scientists to settle among and study indigenous people of New Guinea "who had never seen a European".

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96. Friedrich Hölderlin

1770-1843 (aged 73)

philosopher librettist Hofmeister writer translator

Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was a German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticism. Particularly due to his early association with and philosophical influence on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, he was also an important thinker in the development of German...

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97. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

1770-1831 (aged 61)

philosopher of law writer philosophy historian university teacher logician

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher and a major figure in the tradition of German idealism. His influence on Western philosophy extends across a wide range of topics—from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy, to the philosophy of art and religion.

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98. Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch

1867-1941 (aged 74)

biologist philosopher university teacher zoologist

Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch was a German biologist and philosopher from Bad Kreuznach. He is most noted for his early experimental work in embryology and for his neo-vitalist philosophy of entelechy. He has also been credited with performing the first artificial 'cloning' of an animal in the 1880s, although this claim is dependent on how one defines cloning.

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99. Hartmut Rosa

1965-. (aged 61)

philosopher editor sociologist university teacher

Hartmut Rosa is a German sociologist and political scientist who is best known for his theory of resonance and temporal sociology of social acceleration.

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100. Hans Christian Ørsted

1777-1851 (aged 74)

chemist university teacher pharmacist engineer inventor

Hans Christian Ørsted, sometimes transliterated as Oersted, was a Danish chemist and physicist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields. This phenomenon is known as Oersted's law. He also discovered aluminium, a chemical element.

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