100 Notable alumni of University of Rostock

Stephan Praetorius was a German Lutheran theologian and pastor.

Daniel Nettelbladt was a German jurist and philosopher.

Christine Lucyga is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and former member of the East German Volkskammer (March–October 1990) and the Bundestag (1990–2005).

Henrich Smet Heidelberg was a physician and humanist scholar.

Johannes Steuchius was Archbishop of Uppsala in the Church of Sweden from 1730 to his death.

Lucas Bacmeister was a Lutheran theologian and church music composer.

Wenceslaus Johann Gustav Karsten was a German mathematician. In 1768, Karsten published a graphic representation of infinitely many logarithms of real and complex numbers. He was a professor of Mathematics at the Universities of Rostock, Bützow and Halle.

Magnus Pegel was a German doctor and mathematician. Pegel was born in Rostock in Pomerania/Germany and was one of the first authors to write (in 1604) about the theory of blood transfusions. He died at Stettin.

Nils Carlsson Gyllenstierna af Fogelvik, a member of the Swedish baronial family of Gyllenstierna, was a Swedish field-marshal, member of the Royal Council, president of the Board of War, and governor-general of Bremen-Verden. Rewarded with the earldom of Fogelvik, he belonged to the cautious senior officers, who he hesitated when faced with Charles XII's aggressive plans, and allied with his...

Johannes Loccenius was a German jurist and historian, known as an academic in Sweden.

Bengt Bengtsson Oxenstierna af Eka och Lindö, Baron of Eka and Lindö, in non-contemporary sources sometimes referred to as Resare-Bengt (Bengt the Traveller), was a Swedish diplomat and noble, Swedish Privy Councillor, and Governor-General of Ingria and Livonia. He is mainly known for his extensive travels, as he was one of the few Swedish contemporaries who travelled to Persia, Palestine...

Johann Oldendorp was a German jurist and reformer.

Erkki Nghimtina was a Namibian politician and military officer in the Namibia Defence Force (NDF). A member of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), Nghimtina served as member of the National Assembly of Namibia from 1995 to 2020. He served in various cabinet roles from 2005 to 2020.

Friedrich Schlie was a German art historian and archaeologist.

Dietrich von Bülow was a German Bishop of Lebus-Fürstenwalde.

Lena Fitting Kourkoutis was an American physicist working in the field of electron microscopy, and a professor of applied and engineering physics at Cornell University. Her research focused on the use of aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope, providing atomic resolution, at cryogenic temperatures (>77K) to study physical processes such as superconductivity and biological structures such as proteins.

Burgrave Christopher von Dohna was a German politician and scholar during the time of the Thirty Years' War. He came from the Prussian family of the Burgraves of Dohna.

Werner Kuhn is a German politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 until 2019. He is a member of the Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.

Martina Bunge was a German politician and member of "die Linke" (The Left).

Constantin Gane was a Romanian novelist, amateur historian, biographer and memoirist. Born into the boyar aristocracy of Western Moldavia, he worked as a lawyer in Bucharest, achieving literary notoriety with his recollections from the Second Balkan War and the Romanian front of World War I. By the 1930s, he was primarily a writer on historical and genealogical topics, famous for...

Henrik Klasson Fleming was a member of the Swedish nobility and admiral, diplomat and lord marshal. He was the author of one of the first autobiographies in Swedish, a colourful depiction of his early life which he wrote for his children in a moralising purpose.

Johann Wigand was a German Lutheran cleric, Protestant reformer and theologian. He served as Bishop of Pomesania.

Selig Soskin was an Israeli agronomist and an early member of the Zionist movement.

Ernst Schmutzer was a German theoretical physicist.

Niklas Nienaß is a German politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2019 to 2024.

Laurentius Paulinus Gothus was a Swedish theologian, astronomer and Archbishop of Uppsala.

Daniel Cramer was a German Lutheran theologian and writer from Reetz (Recz), Brandenburg. He was an opponent of the Ramists and the Jesuits.

Bernhard Moritz Carl Ludwig Riedel was a German surgeon, who was a native of Teschentin, Grossherzogtum Mecklenburg (Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg).

Nils Turesson Bielke was a Swedish statesman, member of the privy council, son of Ture Pedersson Bielke.

Ewald Banse was a German geographer.

Johan Jacob Döbelius, was a German-born Swedish professor of medicine.

Jakob Ulvsson was the archbishop of Uppsala and primate of the Roman Catholic Church of Sweden from 1469 to 1515. He was also the founder of Uppsala University in 1477.

Christian Martin Joachim Frähn (4 June 1782 – 16 August 1851) was a German and Russian numismatist and Orientalist. He moved to the Russian Empire from his home town of Rostock in 1807 and spent the rest of his life there.

Franz Eilhard Schulze was a German anatomist and zoologist born in Eldena, near Greifswald.

Adolf von Wilbrandt was a German novelist and dramatist.

Christian Scriver was a German Lutheran minister and devotional writer.

Karl Friedrich Adolf Konrad Bartsch was a German medievalist.

Daniel Georg Morhof was a German writer and scholar.

Balthasar of Mecklenburg was a Duke of Mecklenburg and Coadjutor of the Diocese of Hildesheim between 1471 and 1474 and the Diocese of Schwerin between 1474 and 1479.

Gotthold Julius Rudolph Sohm was a German jurist and Church historian as well as a theologian. He published works concerning Roman and German law, Canon law and Church History.

Richard Carl Theodor August Wossidlo was a German schoolteacher and folklorist.

Nikodem Caro was an industrial chemist and entrepreneur. Caro was born in Łódź, to a prominent Silesian-Jewish family. He studied chemistry in Berlin at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin (now Technische Universität Berlin) and got his doctorate from Rostock University. From 1895 on he worked in the Deutsche Dynamit AG with Adolph Frank on the development of calcium cyanamide as...

Max Friedlaender was a German bass singer, music editor, and musicologist. He specialized in German Lieder.

Walter Romberg was a German politician and finance minister of East Germany.

Jürgen Kurths is a German physicist and mathematician. He is senior advisor in the research department Complexity Sciences of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, a Professor of Nonlinear Dynamics at the Institute of Physics at the Humboldt University, Berlin, and a 6th-century chair for Complex Systems Biology at the Institute for Complex Systems and Mathematical Biology at Kings...

Johann Jakob Engel was a German author.

Christen Sørensen Longomontanus was a Danish astronomer.

Fritz Hofmann was a German organic chemist who first synthesized synthetic rubber.

Kettil Karlsson was a Swedish clergyman, diplomat, military leader and statesman during the Kalmar Union era. He was a member of the house of Vasa. At age 25, he was elected Bishop of Linköping. He rebelled against King Christian I in 1463, was Captain General (rikshövitsman) and de facto regent of Sweden from February to August 1464, stepping down during...

Caren Metschuck is a German former swimmer and a multiple Olympic gold medalist. At the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, she won gold medals in the 100 m butterfly, 4×100 m freestyle relay team and 4×100 m medley relay, becoming the most successful female competitor of the Summer Olympic Games that year.

Karl Franz Friedrich Chrysander was a German music historian, critic and publisher, whose edition of the works of George Frideric Handel and authoritative writings on many other composers established him as a pioneer of 19th-century musicology.

Karl-Heinz Schröter is a German politician (Social Democratic Party). He is the current State Minister of the Interior government of Minister-President Dietmar Woidke of Brandenburg. He previously served as district administrator of the Oberhavel district (country Brandenburg) and was a member of the twelfth German Bundestag.

Johan Carl Wilcke was a Swedish physicist.

Friedrich Heinrich Karl Syrup was a German jurist and politician.

Charles Wiener was an Austrian-French scientist-explorer. Born in Vienna, he is perhaps best known as the explorer who traveled extensively in Peru, climbed the Illimani and came close to re-discovering Machu Picchu.

Armin Willingmann is a German legal scholar and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as Deputy Minister-President and State Minister for Research, Energy, Climate Protection and the Environment in the government of Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff since 2021.

Johann Rist was a German poet and dramatist best known for his hymns, which inspired musical settings and have remained in hymnals.

Johannes Nikolaus Tetens was a German-Danish philosopher, statistician and scientist.

Christian Reiher is a German mathematician. He is the fifth most successful participant in the history of the International Mathematical Olympiad, having won four gold medals in the years 2000 to 2003 and a bronze medal in 1999.

Abraham Calovius was a Lutheran theologian, and was one of the champions of Lutheran orthodoxy in the 17th century.

Philip II, Duke of Pomerania-Stettin was from 1606 to 1618 the reigning duke of Pomerania-Stettin and is considered to be among of the most artistic of the Pomeranian dukes. He married Sophia of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg (1579-1618) in 1607. The marriage remained childless.

Caspar Bartholin the Elder was a Danish physician, scientist and theologian.

Nicholas Mercator (c. 1620, Duchy of Holstein – 1687, Versailles), also known by his German name Kauffmann, was a 17th-century mathematician.

Augustus II, called the Younger (German: August der Jüngere), a member of the House of Welf was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In the estate division of the House of Welf of 1635, he received the Principality of Wolfenbüttel which he ruled until his death. Considered one of the most literate princes of his time, he is known for founding the Herzog...

Harald Ringstorff was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Minister President of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. He headed a coalition government of the SPD and PDS (since 2007 the Left Party, Die Linke) from 1998 until 2006, and subsequently headed a coalition between the SPD and CDU. With a term of almost ten years, he...

Günther Kleiber was a former East German politician. He was a member of the politburo of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) from 1984 to 1989, and previously served as a minister for machinery, agricultural machinery and vehicle construction from 1973 to 1986. He was also a member of the SED central committee and the People's Chamber from 1967....

Georg-Henning Graf von Bassewitz-Behr was an SS-Gruppenführer who served as an SS and Police Leader in Dnepropetrovsk, Mogilev and Hamburg during the Second World War.

Wilhelm Kettler was the Duke of Courland, a Baltic German region in today's Latvia. He ruled the western Courland portion of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, while his brother Friedrich ruled the eastern Semigallia portion.

Erhard Krack was a German politician and mayor of East Berlin from 1974 to 1990.

Camilo Escalona Medina is a Chilean politician. He was the President of the Senate. He served as chairman of the Socialist Party of Chile from May 2006 until January 2010.

Carl Busse (12 November 1872 – 3 December 1918) was a German lyric poet. He worked as a literary critic and published his own poetry and prose, occasionally under the pseudonym Fritz Döring.

Max "Maxime" Hans Kuczyński was a German physician of Polish-Jewish origin. He was the father of the former President of Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt was a Swedish general, best known for his participation in the Great Northern War.

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.

Erich Salomon was a German news photographer known for his pictures in the diplomatic and legal professions and the innovative methods he used to acquire them.

George ruled the state of Mecklenburg-Strelitz as Grand Duke of Mecklenburg from 1816 until his death.

Carl Brockelmann German Semiticist, was the foremost orientalist of his generation. He was a professor at the universities in Breslau, Berlin and, from 1903, Königsberg. He is best known for his multi-volume Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (first published 1898–1902) ('History of Arabic literature') which included all writers in Arabic to 1937, and remains the fundamental reference volume for all Arabic...

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

Michael Maier was a German physician and counsellor to Rudolf II Habsburg. He was a learned alchemist, epigramist, and amateur composer.

Joachim Wilhelm Gauck is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany.

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.

Anetta Kahane is a German left-wing journalist, author and activist against antisemitism, racism and right-wing extremism. From 1974 to 1982 she was an unofficial collaborator for the East German Stasi secret police. In 1998 she founded the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which she has led since 2003. She has been a target of right wing hate campaigns since 2002 and of...

Johann Heinrich von Thünen, sometimes spelled Thuenen, was a prominent nineteenth-century economist and a native of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, now in northern Germany.

Uwe Johnson was a German writer, editor, and scholar. Such prominent writers and scholars as Günter Grass and Hans Mayer declared Johnson to be the most significant writer to emerge from East Germany. During the 1950s, he had troubles with the East German authorities, being treated as a "dissident" both for political reasons and for Modernist experiments in his works...

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.

Fritz Reuter was a novelist from Northern Germany who was a prominent contributor to Low German literature.

Ludwig Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel was a German biochemist and pioneer in the study of genetics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1910 for his work in determining the chemical composition of nucleic acids, the genetic substance of biological cells.

Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann was a German businessman and an influential archaeologist. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeological excavator of Hisarlık, now presumed to be the site of Troy, along with the Mycenaean sites Mycenae and Tiryns. His work lent weight to the idea that Homer's Iliad...

Hans Brask was a Swedish Bishop of Linköping.

Ulrich von Hutten was a German knight, scholar, poet and satirist, who later became a follower of Martin Luther and a Protestant reformer.

Joachim Jungius was a German mathematician, logician and philosopher of science.

Franz Grashof was a German engineer. He was a professor of Applied Mechanics at the Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe.

Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach was a German surgeon. He was born in Königsberg and died in Berlin.

Eugen Karl Albrecht Gerstenmaier was a German Protestant theologian, resistance fighter in the Third Reich, and a CDU politician. From 1954 to 1969, he served as the third president of the Bundestag. With a tenure of over 14 years, he is, as of January 2026, the longest serving presiding officer of the German parliament and also the only person to...

Paul Ehrlich was a German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology and antimicrobial chemotherapy. He shared the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Élie Metchnikoff "in recognition of their work on immunity". Among his foremost achievements were finding a cure for syphilis in 1909 and inventing an important modification of the technique for...

Pieter Pauw, (2 August 1564 – 1 August 1617) was a Dutch botanist and anatomist. He was a student of Hieronymus Fabricius. He was the first Anatomy Professor at University of Leiden.

Tycho Brahe, generally called Tycho for short, was a Danish astronomer known for his comprehensive and unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations which helped to turn astronomy into the first modern science and launch the Scientific Revolution. He was known during his lifetime as an astronomer, astrologer, and alchemist. He was the last major astronomer before the invention of the telescope and...

Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian New Age guru, philosopher, occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German...

Robert Brown FRSE FRS FLS MWS was a Scottish botanist and paleobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope. His contributions include one of the earliest detailed descriptions of the cell nucleus and cytoplasmic streaming; the observation of Brownian motion; early work on plant pollination and fertilisation, including being the first to recognise...