100 Notable alumni of University of Vienna
Updated: June 22, 2026 EliteDegrees
University of Vienna is ranked #100 in the world and #1 in Austria by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from University of Vienna sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with University of Vienna won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Karl von Frisch
1886-1982 (aged 96)
entomologist
beekeeper
university teacher
ethologist
Karl Ritter von Frisch, ForMemRS was a German-Austrian ethologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz.
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2. Alma Zadić
1984-. (aged 42)
lawyer
environmentalist
politician
Alma Zadić is a Bosnian-born Austrian lawyer and politician of the Green Party. She served as Minister of Justice from 7 January 2020 until 3 March 2025 in the governments of Chancellors Sebastian Kurz, Alexander Schallenberg and Karl Nehammer.
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3. Sándor Ferenczi
1873-1933 (aged 60)
psychoanalyst
neurologist
Sándor Ferenczi was a Hungarian psychoanalyst, a key theorist of the psychoanalytic school and a close associate of Sigmund Freud.
4. Hermann Broch
1886-1951 (aged 65)
essayist
prose writer
writer
philosopher
playwright
Hermann Broch was an Austrian writer, best known for two major works of modernist fiction: The Sleepwalkers (Die Schlafwandler, 1930–32) and The Death of Virgil (Der Tod des Vergil, 1945).
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5. Wolfgang Schüssel
1945-. (aged 81)
jurist
politician
Wolfgang Schüssel is a retired Austrian politician. He was Chancellor of Austria for two consecutive terms from February 2000 to January 2007. While being recognised as a rare example of an active reformer in contemporary Austrian politics, his governments were also highly controversial from the beginning, starting with the fact that he formed a coalition government with Jörg Haider's Freedom...
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6. Franz Grillparzer
1791-1872 (aged 81)
writer
playwright
poet
politician
Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer was an Austrian writer who was considered to be the leading Austrian dramatist of the 19th century. His plays were and are frequently performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna. He also wrote the oration for his longtime friend Ludwig van Beethoven's funeral, as well as the epitaph for his friend Franz Schubert.
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7. Nataša Pirc Musar
1968-. (aged 58)
jurist
journalist
public relations officer
politician
Nataša Pirc Musar is a Slovenian attorney, author, and politician serving as President of Slovenia since 2022. She is a former Information Commissioner (2004–2014), a former journalist, and former president of the Slovenian Red Cross (2015–2016).
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8. Adam Stefan Sapieha
1867-1951 (aged 84)
Catholic deacon
Catholic priest
politician
Catholic bishop
theologian
Prince Adam Stefan Stanisław Bonifacy Józef Sapieha was a Polish Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Kraków from 1911 to 1951. A member of the Polish nobility, between 1922 and 1923 he was a senator of the Second Polish Republic. In 1946, Pope Pius XII made him a cardinal.
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9. Abraham Wald
1902-1950 (aged 48)
university teacher
research scientist
mathematician
statistician
economist
Abraham Wald was a Hungarian and American mathematician and statistician who contributed to decision theory, geometry and econometrics, and founded the field of sequential analysis. One of his well-known statistical works was written during World War II on how to minimize the damage to bomber aircraft and took into account the survivorship bias in his calculations. He spent his research...
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10. Helmut Qualtinger
1928-1986 (aged 58)
television actor
writer
film actor
cabaret performer
stage actor
Helmut Gustav Friedrich Qualtinger was an Austrian actor, cabaret performer, writer and reciter.
11. George Pólya
1887-1985 (aged 98)
mathematician
university teacher
George Pólya was a Hungarian-American mathematician. He was a professor of mathematics from 1914 to 1940 at ETH Zürich and from 1940 to 1953 at Stanford University. He made fundamental contributions to combinatorics, number theory, numerical analysis and probability theory. He is also noted for his work in heuristics and mathematics education. He has been described as one of The...
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12. Percy Lavon Julian
1899-1975 (aged 76)
chemist
Percy Lavon Julian was an American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. Julian was the first person to synthesize the natural product physostigmine, and a pioneer in industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. His work laid the foundation for...
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13. Fritjof Capra
1939-. (aged 87)
writer
environmentalist
physicist
documentary participant
Fritjof Capra is an Austrian-born American author, physicist, systems theorist and deep ecologist. In 1995, he became a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California. He was on the faculty of Schumacher College which was disestablished in 2024.
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14. Alfred Schütz
1899-1959 (aged 60)
university teacher
writer
philosopher
musicologist
sociologist
Alfred Schutz was an Austrian philosopher and social phenomenologist whose work bridged sociological and phenomenological traditions. Schutz is gradually being recognized as one of the 20th century's leading philosophers of social science. He related Edmund Husserl's work to the social sciences, using it to develop the philosophical foundations of Max Weber's sociology, in his major work Phenomenology of the Social...
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15. Walter Kohl
1963-. (aged 63)
economist
writer
entrepreneur
Walter Kohl is a German financial analyst, businessman and author. He is the elder of the two sons of the former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Hannelore Kohl, and the brother of Peter Kohl.
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16. Richard von Krafft-Ebing
1840-1902 (aged 62)
philosopher
university teacher
author
writer
psychiatrist
Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing was a German psychiatrist and author of the foundational work Psychopathia Sexualis (1886).
17. Anton Zeilinger
1945-. (aged 81)
quantum physicist
physicist
non-fiction writer
university teacher
Anton Zeilinger is an Austrian quantum physicist and Nobel laureate in physics of 2022. Zeilinger is professor of physics emeritus at the University of Vienna and senior scientist at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Most of his research concerns the fundamental aspects and applications of quantum entanglement.
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18. Paul Ehrenfest
1880-1933 (aged 53)
mathematician
theoretical physicist
physicist
university teacher
Paul Ehrenfest was an Austrian theoretical physicist who made major contributions to statistical mechanics and its relation to quantum mechanics, including the theory of phase transition and the Ehrenfest theorem. He befriended Albert Einstein on a visit to Prague in 1912 and became a professor in Leiden, where he frequently hosted Einstein. Suffering from depression, in 1933 Ehrenfest killed his...
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19. Adalbert Stifter
1805-1868 (aged 63)
teacher
painter
writer
preservationist
poet
Adalbert Stifter was a Bohemian-Austrian writer, poet, painter, and pedagogue. He was notable for the vivid natural landscapes depicted in his writing and has long been popular in the German-speaking world.
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20. Werner Faymann
1960-. (aged 66)
consultant
taxi driver
politician
Werner Faymann is an Austrian former politician who was Chancellor of Austria and chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) from 2008 to 2016. On 9 May 2016, he resigned from both positions amid widening criticism within his party.
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21. Otto Rank
1884-1939 (aged 55)
psychoanalyst
psychologist
existential therapist
Otto Rank was an Austrian psychoanalyst, writer, and philosopher. Born in Vienna, he became one of Sigmund Freud's closest collaborators, served as secretary of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, and edited leading psychoanalytic journals while publishing studies of myth and creativity. His book The Trauma of Birth (1924) proposed that the anxiety of birth precedes the Oedipus complex, coined the term...
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22. Helmuth James Graf von Moltke
1907-1945 (aged 38)
jurist
lawyer
resistance fighter
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke was a German jurist who, as a draftee in the German Abwehr, acted to subvert German human-rights abuses of people in territories occupied by Germany during World War II. He was a founding member of the Kreisau Circle opposition group, whose members opposed the government of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, and discussed prospects for...
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23. Ernst Gombrich
1909-2001 (aged 92)
aesthetician
writer
historian
art historian
professor
Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich OM CBE FBA was an Austrian-born art historian who, after settling in England in 1936, became a naturalised British citizen in 1947 and spent most of his working life in the United Kingdom.
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24. Carl Menger
1840-1921 (aged 81)
professor
economist
Carl Menger von Wolfensgrün was an Austrian economist who contributed to the marginal theory of value. Menger is considered the founder of the Austrian school of economics.
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25. Christoph Schönborn
1945-. (aged 81)
university teacher
Catholic priest
theologian
writer
Latin Catholic bishop
Christoph Maria Michael Hugo Damian Peter Adalbert Schönborn, OP is a Bohemian-born Austrian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Vienna from 1995 until 2025. He was chairman of the Austrian Bishops' Conference from 1998 to 2020 and was made a cardinal in 1998. He is a member of the Dominican Order.
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26. Robert Bunsen
1811-1899 (aged 88)
chemist
teacher
physicist
experimentalist
university teacher
Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium in 1860 and rubidium in 1861 with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Bunsen–Kirchhoff Award for spectroscopy is named after Bunsen and Kirchhoff.
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27. Georg Trakl
1887-1914 (aged 27)
poet
writer
pharmacist
Georg Trakl was an Austrian poet and the brother of the pianist Grete Trakl. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists. He is perhaps best known for his poem "Grodek", which he wrote shortly before he died of a cocaine overdose at the age of 27.
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28. France Prešeren
1800-1849 (aged 49)
poet lawyer
poet
lawyer
France Prešeren was a Slovene poet whose works are widely considered some of the most important in Slovene literature. His poems have been translated into many languages.
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29. Pamela Rendi-Wagner
1971-. (aged 55)
chairman of the Social Democratic Party
civil servant
politician
physician
women's rights activist
Pamela Rendi-Wagner is an Austrian physician and politician who is the current director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and who previously served as chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) from 2018 to 2023. She was the first woman to lead the SPÖ.
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30. Lucian Blaga
1895-1961 (aged 66)
philosopher
journalist
university teacher
diplomat
linguist
Lucian Blaga was a Romanian philosopher, poet, playwright, poetry translator and novelist. He is one of the most important philosophers and poets of Romania, and a prominent philosopher of the interwar period in Eastern Europe who, due to the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his career, is barely known to the outside world.
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31. Josef Breuer
1842-1925 (aged 83)
university teacher
psychoanalyst
philosopher
physiologist
physician
Josef Breuer was an Austrian physician who made discoveries in neurophysiology, and whose work during the 1880s with his patient Bertha Pappenheim, known as Anna O., led to the development of the "cathartic method" (also referred to as the "talking cure") for psychiatric disorders. The method was a major initiatory factor for psychoanalysis, as developed by Breuer's friend and collaborator...
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32. Bruno Kreisky
1911-1990 (aged 79)
lawyer
diplomat
war correspondent
politician
Bruno Kreisky was an Austrian social democratic politician who served as foreign minister from 1959 to 1966 and as chancellor from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72, he was the oldest chancellor after World War II.
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33. Brigitte Bierlein
1949-2024 (aged 75)
jurist
judge
politician
Brigitte Bierlein was an Austrian jurist who served as President of the Constitutional Court from 2018 to 2019 and as Chancellor of Austria from 2019 to 2020. An independent, she was the first woman to hold either office.
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34. Franziska Weisz
1980-. (aged 46)
film actor
actor
stage actor
Franziska Weisz is an Austrian actress. She starred in the film Hotel, which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
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35. Karin Kneissl
1965-. (aged 61)
journalist
diplomat
opinion journalist
politician
Karin Kneissl is an Austrian diplomat, journalist, and politician. She served as Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2017 and 2019. Prior to assuming her government position, she was a lecturer.
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36. Otto Weininger
1880-1903 (aged 23)
philosopher
psychologist
writer
Otto Weininger was an Austrian philosopher who in 1903 published the book Geschlecht und Charakter (Sex and Character), which gained popularity after his suicide at the age of 23. Weininger had a strong influence on Ludwig Wittgenstein, August Strindberg, and, via his lesser-known work Über die letzten Dinge, on James Joyce.
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37. Daniel Kehlmann
1975-. (aged 51)
novelist
writer
translator
Daniel Kehlmann is a German-language novelist and playwright of both Austrian and German nationality.
38. Karl Kraus
1874-1936 (aged 62)
literary critic
journalist
opinion journalist
writer
translator
Karl Kraus was an Austrian writer and journalist, known as a satirist, essayist, aphorist, playwright and poet. He directed his satire at the press, German culture, and German and Austrian politics. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times.
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39. Fred Zinnemann
1907-1997 (aged 90)
director
film director
producer
film producer
photographer
Alfred Zinnemann was an Austrian and American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Austria-Hungary and educated in France and Germany, Zinnemann began his career in Europe before emigrating to the US, where he specialized in shorts before making 25 feature films during his 50-year career. He won four Academy Awards, both for directing and producing, and made films in...
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40. Money Boy
1981-. (aged 45)
singer
rapper
Sebastian Meisinger, better known by his stage name Money Boy, is an Austrian rapper and singer. He became famous with his hit "Dreh den Swag auf".
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41. Joseph von Eichendorff
1788-1857 (aged 69)
poet lawyer
playwright
writer
translator
novelist
Joseph Karl Benedikt Freiherr von Eichendorff was a German poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, and anthologist. Eichendorff was one of the major writers and critics of Romanticism. Ever since their publication and up to the present day, some of his works have been very popular in German-speaking Europe.
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42. Alexander Schallenberg
1969-. (aged 57)
jurist
politician
Alexander Georg Nicolas Schallenberg is an Austrian diplomat, jurist, and politician who served as the minister of foreign affairs from 2019 until 2025, briefly interrupted by a period from October until December 2021, when he served as 27th chancellor of Austria, a role he served in an acting capacity again from January to March 2025.
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43. Anton Webern
1883-1945 (aged 62)
classical composer
conductor
musician
composer
Anton Webern was an Austrian avant-garde composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonal and twelve-tone techniques. His approach was typically rigorous, inspired by his studies of the Franco-Flemish School under Guido Adler and by Arnold Schoenberg's emphasis on structure in teaching composition...
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44. Franz Anton Mesmer
1734-1815 (aged 81)
physician
magnetizer
astronomer
Franz Anton Mesmer was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorized the existence of a process of natural energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimate objects; this he called "animal magnetism", later referred to as mesmerism. Mesmer's theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end...
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45. Hugo von Hofmannsthal
1874-1929 (aged 55)
playwright
librettist
composer
writer
poet
Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist.
46. Paul Walker
1924-1994 (aged 70)
university teacher
scholar
philosopher
Paul Karl Feyerabend was an Austrian philosopher best known for his work in the philosophy of science. He started his academic career as lecturer in the philosophy of science at the University of Bristol (1955–1958); afterward, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught for three decades (1958–1989). At various points in his life, he held joint...
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47. Karl Kautsky
1854-1938 (aged 84)
economist
journalist
philosopher
politician
Karl Johann Kautsky was an Austrian-born Marxist theorist. One of the most authoritative promulgators of orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895, he was for decades the leading theorist of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Second International. His influence was so pervasive that he was often called the "Pope of Marxism", with his...
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48. Christian Kern
1966-. (aged 60)
politician
Christian Kern is an Austrian businessman and former politician who served as Chancellor of Austria from 17 May 2016 to 18 December 2017 and chairman of the Social Democratic Party from 25 June 2016 to 25 September 2018.
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49. Arthur Schnitzler
1862-1931 (aged 69)
physician writer
writer
playwright
film screenwriter
television writer
Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist. He is considered one of the most significant representatives of Viennese Modernism. Schnitzler’s works, which include psychological dramas and narratives, dissected turn-of-the-century Viennese bourgeois life, making him a sharp and stylistically conscious chronicler of Viennese society around 1900. Schnitzler's Jewish upbringing and the sexual content of his works made them controversial or...
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50. İlber Ortaylı
1947-. (aged 79)
historian
military historian
art historian
university teacher
İlber Ortaylı is a Turkish historian and professor of history of Crimean Tatar origin at the MEF University, Galatasaray University in Istanbul and at Bilkent University in Ankara. In 2005, he was appointed as the director of the Topkapı Museum in Istanbul, until he retired in 2012.
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51. Elias Canetti
1905-1994 (aged 89)
chemist
playwright
writer
essayist
novelist
Elias Canetti was a German-language writer, known as a modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and nonfiction writer. Born in Ruse, Bulgaria, to a Sephardic Jewish family, he later lived in England, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. He won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power". He is noted for...
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52. Melanie Klein
1882-1960 (aged 78)
psychoanalyst
Melanie Klein was an Austrian-British author and psychoanalyst known for her work in child analysis. She was the primary figure in the development of object relations theory. Klein's work primarily focused on the role of ambivalence and moral ambiguity in human development. Klein suggested that pre-verbal existential anxiety in infancy catalyzed the formation of the unconscious, which resulted in the...
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53. Ernst Mach
1838-1916 (aged 78)
pedagogue
professor
philosopher
politician
photographer
Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach was an Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher who contributed to the understanding of the physics of shock waves. The ratio of the speed of a flow or object to that of sound is named the Mach number in his honor. As a philosopher of science, he was a major influence on logical positivism and American pragmatism....
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54. Joseph Roth
1894-1939 (aged 45)
playwright
writer
journalist
Moses Joseph Roth was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga Radetzky March (1932), about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, his novel of Jewish life Job (1930) and his seminal essay "Juden auf Wanderschaft" (1927; translated into English as The Wandering Jews), a fragmented account of the Jewish migrations from eastern to western...
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55. Roger Willemsen
1955-2016 (aged 61)
news presenter
journalist
television presenter
linguist
writer
Roger Willemsen was a German author, essayist and TV presenter.
56. Otto Preminger
1905-1986 (aged 81)
film producer
film actor
film director
television actor
actor
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austrian-American film and theatre director, film producer and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre, and was one of the most influential directors in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, twice for Best Director and once for Best Picture,...
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57. Martin Buber
1878-1965 (aged 87)
university teacher
theologian
literary editor
educator
pedagogue
Martin Buber was an Austrian-Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I–Thou relationship and the I–It relationship. Born in Vienna, Buber came from a family of observant Jews, but broke with Jewish custom to pursue secular studies in philosophy. He produced writings about Zionism and worked with various...
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58. Hans Kelsen
1881-1973 (aged 92)
university teacher
lawyer
judge
philosopher
jurist
Hans Kelsen was an Austrian and later American jurist, legal philosopher and political philosopher. He is known principally for his theory of law, which he named the "pure theory of law (Reine Rechtslehre)", and for his writings on international law and theory of democracy.
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59. Herbert Kickl
1968-. (aged 58)
politician
Herbert Kickl is an Austrian politician who has been leader of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) since June 2021. He previously served as minister of the interior from 2017 to 2019 and general-secretary of the FPÖ from 2005 to 2018. In the 2024 Austrian legislative election, the FPÖ became Austria's strongest party for the first time in history....
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60. Konrad Lorenz
1903-1989 (aged 86)
zoologist
psychologist
biologist
university teacher
writer
Konrad Zacharias Lorenz was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, the study of animal behavior. He developed an approach that began with an earlier generation, including his teacher Oskar Heinroth.
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61. Jörg Haider
1950-2008 (aged 58)
lawyer
businessperson
politician
Jörg Haider was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Austria (Bündnis Zukunft Österreich, BZÖ), a breakaway party from the FPÖ.
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62. Alcide De Gasperi
1881-1954 (aged 73)
journalist
diplomat
linguist
politician
Alcide Amedeo Francesco De Gasperi was an Italian politician and statesman who founded the Christian Democracy party and served as prime minister of Italy in eight successive coalition governments from 1945 to 1953.
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63. Richard Nikolaus von Coudenhove-Kalergi
1894-1972 (aged 78)
philosopher
writer
politician
Richard Nikolaus Eijiro, Count of Coudenhove-Kalergi, was a politician, philosopher, and count of Coudenhove-Kalergi. A pioneer of European integration, he served as the founding president of the Paneuropean Union for 49 years. His parents were Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi, an Austro-Hungarian diplomat, and Mitsuko Aoyama, the daughter of an oil merchant, antiques-dealer and major landowner in Tokyo. His childhood name in...
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64. Hans Asperger
1906-1980 (aged 74)
psychiatrist
university teacher
Johann Friedrich Karl Asperger was an Austrian physician. Noted for his early studies on atypical neurology, specifically in children, he is the namesake of the autism spectrum disorder, Asperger syndrome. He wrote more than 300 publications on psychological disorders that posthumously acquired international renown in the 1980s. His diagnosis of autism, which he termed "autistic psychopathy", garnered controversy.
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65. Ludwig von Mises
1881-1973 (aged 92)
writer
economist
philosopher
university teacher
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian and American political economist and philosopher of the Austrian school. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the social contributions of classical liberalism and the central role of consumers in a market economy. He is best known for his work in praxeology, particularly for studies comparing communism and capitalism, as well as for...
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66. Lise Meitner
1878-1968 (aged 90)
physicist
chemist
university teacher
nuclear physicist
Elise "Lise " Meitner was an Austrian and Swedish nuclear physicist who was instrumental in the discovery of nuclear fission.
67. Ivan Franko
1856-1916 (aged 60)
journalist
literary critic
translator of Adam Mickiewicz
economist
playwright
Ivan Yakovych Franko PhD was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, translator, economist, political activist, ethnographer, and the author of the first detective novels and modern poetry in Ukrainian.
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68. Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
1850-1937 (aged 87)
sociologist
university teacher
pedagogue
writer
philosopher
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was a Czechoslovak statesman, political activist and philosopher who served as the first president of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1935. He is regarded as the founding father of Czechoslovakia.
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69. Huldrych Zwingli
1484-1531 (aged 47)
writer
translator
theologian
preacher
priest
Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli was a Swiss Christian theologian, musician, and leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. Born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system, he attended the University of Vienna and the University of Basel, a scholarly center of Renaissance humanism. He continued his studies while he served as a pastor...
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70. Ludwig Boltzmann
1844-1906 (aged 62)
chemist
theoretical physicist
university teacher
mathematician
philosopher
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann was an Austrian mathematician and theoretical physicist. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics and the statistical explanation of the second law of thermodynamics. In 1877 he provided the current definition of entropy, S = k B ln Ω {displaystyle S=k_{rm {B}}ln Omega }, where Ω is the number of microstates whose energy equals...
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71. Michael Haneke
1942-. (aged 84)
film director
director
university teacher
writer
film critic
Michael Haneke is a German-born Austrian film director and screenwriter. His work often examines social issues and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society. Haneke has made films in French, German, and English and has worked in television and theatre. He also teaches film direction at the Film Academy Vienna.
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72. Alfred Adler
1870-1937 (aged 67)
ophthalmologist
psychiatrist
psychotherapist
Alfred Adler was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of belonging, relationships within the family, and birth order set him apart from Freud and others in their common circle. He proposed that contributing to others (social interest or Gemeinschaftsgefühl) was how the individual feels a sense...
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73. Kurt Gödel
1906-1978 (aged 72)
university teacher
physicist
computer scientist
philosopher
mathematician
Kurt Friedrich Gödel was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel profoundly influenced scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century (at a time when Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, and David Hilbert were using logic and set theory to investigate the foundations of...
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74. Karl Landsteiner
1868-1943 (aged 75)
pathologist
university teacher
biologist
physiologist
immunologist
Karl Landsteiner ForMemRS was an Austrian-American biologist, physician, and immunologist. He emigrated with his family to New York in 1923 at the age of 55 for professional opportunities, working for the Rockefeller Institute.
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75. Edmund Husserl
1859-1938 (aged 79)
mathematician
philosopher
university teacher
phenomenologist
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of phenomenology.
76. Joseph Schumpeter
1883-1950 (aged 67)
university teacher
political economist
anthropologist
book collector
economist
Joseph Alois Schumpeter was an Austrian political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at Harvard University, where he remained until the end of his career, and in 1939 obtained American citizenship.
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77. Paracelsus
1493-1541 (aged 48)
astrologer
writer
naturalist
philosopher
astronomer
Paracelsus, born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance.
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78. Friedrich Hayek
1899-1992 (aged 93)
university teacher
historian
philosopher
political scientist
economist
Friedrich August von Hayek was an Austrian economist and philosopher. He is known for his contributions to political economy, political philosophy and intellectual history. Hayek shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Gunnar Myrdal for work on money and economic fluctuations, and the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena. His account of how prices communicate information...
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79. Billy Wilder
1906-2002 (aged 96)
film director
journalist
director
producer
writer
Billy Wilder was an American filmmaker and screenwriter. Born in Sucha Beskidzka, at the time in Austria-Hungary (now Poland), Wilder's career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of classical Hollywood cinema. He received seven Academy Awards (among 21 nominations), a BAFTA Award, the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or...
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80. Ignaz Semmelweis
1818-1865 (aged 47)
botanist
obstetrician
university teacher
hygienist
gynecologist
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician and scientist of German descent who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures and was described as the "saviour of mothers". Postpartum infection, also known as puerperal fever or childbed fever, consists of any bacterial infection of the reproductive tract following birth and in the 19th century was common and often fatal. Semmelweis...
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81. Mihai Eminescu
1850-1889 (aged 39)
journalist
actor
writer
prose writer
poet
Mihai Eminescu was a Romanian Romantic poet, novelist, and journalist from Moldavia, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul ("The Time"), the official newspaper of the Conservative Party (1880–1918). His poetry was first published when he was 16...
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82. Sebastian Kurz
1986-. (aged 40)
politician
Sebastian Kurz is an Austrian former politician who served twice as Chancellor of Austria, first from 2017 to 2019 and then again from 2020 to 2021.
83. Stefan Zweig
1881-1942 (aged 61)
journalist
literary critic
novelist
essayist
playwright
Stefan Zweig was an Austrian writer. At the height of his literary career in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular writers in the world.
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84. Erwin Schrödinger
1887-1961 (aged 74)
university teacher
physicist
theoretical physicist
non-fiction writer
mathematician
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger, sometimes written as Schroedinger or Schrodinger, was an Austrian–Irish theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum theory. In particular, he is recognized for devising the Schrödinger equation, an equation that provides a way to calculate the wave function of a system and how it changes dynamically in time. He coined the term "quantum entanglement"...
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85. Karl Popper
1902-1994 (aged 92)
teacher
philosopher of science
university teacher
mathematician
sociologist
Sir Karl Raimund Popper CH FRS FBA was an Austrian–British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the classical inductivist views on the scientific method in favour of empirical falsification made possible by his falsifiability criterion, and for founding the Department of Philosophy at the...
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86. Viktor Frankl
1905-1997 (aged 92)
psychiatrist
aircraft pilot
university teacher
neurologist
existential therapist
Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor, who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is part of existential and humanistic psychology theories.
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87. Theodor Herzl
1860-1904 (aged 44)
playwright
literary critic
lawyer
writer
politician
Theodor Herzl was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and lawyer who was the father of modern political Zionism. Herzl formed the Zionist Organization and promoted Jewish immigration to Palestine in an effort to form a Jewish state. Due to his Zionist work, he is known in Hebrew as Chozeh HaMedinah (חוֹזֵה הַמְדִינָה), lit. 'Visionary of the State'. He is specifically mentioned in...
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88. Sigmund Freud
1856-1939 (aged 83)
essayist
psychoanalyst
neurologist
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in the psyche, through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst, and the distinctive theory of mind and human agency derived from it.
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89. Gregor Mendel
1822-1884 (aged 62)
beekeeper
friar
botanical collector
botanist
scientific collector
Gregor Johann Mendel OSA was an Austrian biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brno (Brünn), Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel was born in a German-speaking family in the Silesian part of the Austrian Empire (today's Czech Republic) and gained posthumous recognition as the founder of the modern science of genetics. Though farmers had known for...
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90. Ludwig von Bertalanffy
1901-1972 (aged 71)
biologist
physiologist
philosopher
university teacher
Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy was an Austrian biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory (GST). This is an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, applicable to biology, cybernetics and other fields. Bertalanffy proposed that the classical laws of thermodynamics might be applied to closed systems, but not necessarily to "open systems" such as living...
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91. Heinz Fischer
1938-. (aged 88)
university teacher
jurist
politician
Heinz Fischer is an Austrian politician who served as the president of Austria from 2004 to 2016. Fischer previously served as minister for science from 1983 to 1987 and as president of the National Council of Austria from 1990 to 2002. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) until 2004, he suspended his party membership as he...
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92. Karel Schwarzenberg
1937-2023 (aged 86)
entrepreneur
diplomat
foreign minister
politician
Karel Schwarzenberg was a Czech politician, diplomat and statesman who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic from 2007 to 2009 and then again between 2010 and 2013. Schwarzenberg was leader and co-founder of the TOP 09 party and its candidate for president of the Czech Republic in the 2013 election. He served as a member...
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93. Ivo Andrić
1892-1975 (aged 83)
poet
writer
novelist
essayist
short story writer
Ivo Andrić was a Yugoslav novelist, poet and short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. His writings dealt mainly with life in his native Bosnia under Ottoman rule.
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94. Gernot Blümel
1981-. (aged 45)
politician
Gernot Blümel is an Austrian politician of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). He served as Austria's finance minister from 2020 to 2021, having announced his resignation shortly after Alexander Schallenberg's resignation on 2 December 2021. Since 2015, he has been the chairman of the Vienna branch of the ÖVP. Prior, he was Chancellery minister for European Affairs, Art, Culture, and...
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95. Thomas Klestil
1932-2004 (aged 72)
diplomat
economist
politician
Thomas Klestil was an Austrian diplomat and politician who served as the president of Austria from 1992 until his death in 2004. He was elected in 1992 and re-elected in 1998.
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96. Christian Doppler
1803-1853 (aged 50)
pedagogue
professor
astronomer
mathematician
academic
Christian Andreas Doppler was an Austrian mathematician and physicist. He formulated the principle – now known as the Doppler effect – that the observed frequency of a wave depends on the relative speed of the source and the observer.
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97. Beate Meinl-Reisinger
1978-. (aged 48)
tour guide
jurist
politician
Beate Meinl-Reisinger is an Austrian politician serving as Minister for European and International Affairs since March 2025. She has been party leader of the NEOS since June 2018.
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98. Josef Hoffmann
1870-1956 (aged 86)
sculptor
architect
jewelry designer
interior designer
teacher
Josef Hoffmann was an Austrian-Moravian architect and designer. He was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstätte. His most famous architectural work is the Stoclet Palace, in Brussels, (1905–1911) a pioneering work of Modern Architecture, Art Deco and peak of Vienna Secession architecture.
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99. Elfriede Jelinek
1946-. (aged 80)
playwright
literary critic
librettist
writer
translator
Elfriede Jelinek is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors to write in German and was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power". She is considered to...
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100. Verena Altenberger
1987-. (aged 39)
stage actor
film actor
Verena Altenberger is an Austrian actress. She is known for having played the lead role in the 2017 film The Best of All Worlds (Die beste aller Welten).
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