Notable Alumni of University of Zurich [Sorted List]

1. Verena Huber-Dyson

1923-2016 (aged 93)

mathematician

Verena Esther Huber-Dyson was a Swiss-American mathematician, known for her work on group theory and formal logic. She has been described as a "brilliant mathematician", who did research on the interface between algebra and logic, focusing on undecidability in group theory. At the time of her death, she was emeritus faculty in the philosophy department of the University of Calgary,...

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2. Charles Édouard Guillaume

1861-1938 (aged 77)

physicist researcher

Charles-Édouard Guillaume was a Swiss physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1920 "for the service he had rendered to precision measurements in physics by his discovery of anomalies in nickel steel alloys". In 1919, he gave the fifth Guthrie Lecture at the Institute of Physics in London with the title "The Anomaly of the Nickel-Steels".

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3. Ita Wegman

1876-1943 (aged 67)

physician

Ita Wegman co-founded Anthroposophical Medicine with Rudolf Steiner. In 1921, she founded the first anthroposophical medical clinic in Arlesheim, known until 2014 as the Ita Wegman Clinic. She also developed a special form of massage therapy, called rhythmical massage, and other self-claimed therapeutic treatments.

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4. Marco Borradori

1959-2021 (aged 62)

lawyer politician

Marco Borradori was a Swiss lawyer and politician from Sorengo, near Lugano in the canton of Ticino.

5. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

1888-1973 (aged 85)

university teacher writer historian philosopher sociologist

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy was a historian and social philosopher, whose work spanned the disciplines of history, theology, sociology, linguistics and beyond. Born in Berlin, Germany into a non-observant Jewish family, the son of a prosperous banker, he converted to Christianity in his late teens, and thereafter the interpretation and reinterpretation of Christianity was a consistent theme in his writings. He met...

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6. Uli Sigg

1946-. (aged 80)

entrepreneur diplomat journalist art collector businessperson

Uli Sigg is a Swiss businessman, diplomat and art collector. He served as the Swiss Ambassador to China, North Korea and Mongolia from 1995 to 1998. He serves as the vice chairman of Ringier, the largest media company in Switzerland. He made a large donation of contemporary Chinese art to the Hong Kong–based M+ museum in 2012.

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7. Hristo Tatarchev

1869-1952 (aged 83)

physician military physician politician

Hristo Tatarchev was a Macedonian Bulgarian doctor, revolutionary and one of the founders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). Tatarchev was the first president of IMRO's Central Committee.

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8. Kazimierz Fajans

1887-1975 (aged 88)

university teacher chemist physicist

Kazimierz Fajans was a Polish-Jewish physical chemist, a pioneer in the science of radioactivity and the co-discoverer of chemical element protactinium. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize 4 times — 3 times in Chemistry and once in Physics — but he was never honored.

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9. Frederic Lewy

1885-1950 (aged 65)

psychiatrist neurologist

Fritz Heinrich Lewy, known in his later years as Frederic Henry Lewey, was a German-born American neurologist. He is best known for the discovery of Lewy bodies, which are a characteristic indicator of Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. In a 1912 paper based on work in Alois Alzheimer’s Munich laboratory he described intraneuronal inclusion bodies in brainstem nuclei...

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10. Jonas Furrer

1805-1861 (aged 56)

lawyer politician

Jonas Furrer was a Swiss lawyer and politician who served as a member of the Federal Council, from 1848 to 1861, and as the first president of the Swiss Confederation from 1848 to 1849, and again in 1852, 1855 and 1858. He was one of the leading figures in the foundation of Switzerland as a federal state. He was a...

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11. Rolf Liebermann

1910-1999 (aged 89)

composer conductor university teacher screenwriter

Rolf Liebermann, was a Swiss composer and music administrator. He served as the artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera from 1959 to 1973 and again from 1985 to 1988. He was also the artistic director of the Paris Opera from 1973 to 1980.

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12. Mattea Meyer

1987-. (aged 39)

politician

Mattea Julia Meyer is a Swiss politician who currently serves as member of the National Council for the Social Democratic Party since 2015. Concurrently she co-chairs the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland together with Cédric Wermuth. Previously, Meyer served on the Cantonal Council of Zürich from 2011 to 2015.

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13. Dominique Rinderknecht

1989-. (aged 37)

model beauty pageant contestant

Dominique Rinderknecht is a Swiss model, TV host and beauty pageant titleholder who won the title of Miss Switzerland 2013 and represented her country at the Miss Universe 2013 pageant.

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14. James Schwarzenbach

1911-1994 (aged 83)

non-fiction writer politician

James Eduard Schwarzenbach was a right-wing Swiss politician and publicist. In the 1970s he was head of the short-lived Republican Movement. He also was publisher of a broad spectrum of right-wing literature as owner of the Thomas-Verlag. He served in the National Council from 12 December 1967 to 28 February 1979, representing the Canton of Zürich.

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15. Frigyes Riesz

1880-1956 (aged 76)

mathematician university teacher

Frigyes Riesz was a Hungarian mathematician who made fundamental contributions to functional analysis, as did his younger brother Marcel Riesz.

16. Tiana Angelina Moser

1979-. (aged 47)

politician

Tiana Angelina Moser is an educator and politician of the Green Liberal Party (GLP). Since 2007 she is a member of the National Council and since 2011 she is the leader of the parties parliamentarian group.

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17. Paul Karrer

1889-1971 (aged 82)

university teacher biochemist chemist

Paul Karrer was a Swiss organic chemist best known for his research on vitamins. He and British chemist Norman Haworth won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1937.

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18. Carl Nägeli

1817-1891 (aged 74)

botanical collector botanist scientific collector mycologist biologist

Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli was a Swiss botanist. He studied cell division and pollination but became known as the man who discouraged Gregor Mendel from further work on genetics. He rejected natural selection as a mechanism of evolution, favouring orthogenesis driven by a supposed "inner perfecting principle".

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19. Auguste Forel

1848-1931 (aged 83)

university teacher non-fiction writer Esperantist psychiatrist biologist

Auguste-Henri Forel was a Swiss myrmecologist, neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and former eugenicist, notable for his investigations into the structure of the human brain and that of ants. He is considered a co-founder of the neuron theory. Forel is also known for his early contributions to sexology and psychology. From 1978 until 2000 Forel's image appeared on the 1000 Swiss franc banknote.

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20. Alfred Ploetz

1860-1940 (aged 80)

biologist physician

Alfred Ploetz was a German physician, biologist, Social Darwinist, and eugenicist known for coining the term racial hygiene (Rassenhygiene), a form of eugenics, and for promoting the concept in Germany.

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21. Moritz Leuenberger

1946-. (aged 80)

lawyer politician

Moritz Leuenberger is a Swiss politician and lawyer who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1995 to 2010. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS), he was President of the Swiss Confederation in 2001 and 2006. Leuenberger headed the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications for the whole of his tenure as a...

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22. John Bates Clark

1847-1938 (aged 91)

university teacher economist writer

John Bates Clark was an American neoclassical economist. He was one of the pioneers of the marginalist revolution and opponent to the Institutionalist school of economics, and spent most of his career as a professor at Columbia University. He was one of the most prominent American economists of his time.

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23. Richard Avenarius

1843-1896 (aged 53)

university teacher philosopher writer

Richard Ludwig Heinrich Avenarius was a French-born German-Swiss philosopher. He formulated the radical positivist doctrine of "empirical criticism" or empirio-criticism.

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24. Adolf Muschg

1934-. (aged 92)

poet literary critic writer prose writer literary scholar

Adolf Muschg is a Swiss writer and professor of literature. Muschg was a member of the Gruppe Olten.

25. Adolf Meyer

1866-1950 (aged 84)

psychiatrist university teacher

Adolf Meyer was a Swiss-born psychiatrist who rose to prominence as the first psychiatrist-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital (1910–1941). He was president of the American Psychiatric Association in 1927–28 and was one of the most influential figures in psychiatry in the first half of the twentieth century. His focus on collecting detailed case histories on patients was one of...

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26. Urs Rohner

1959-. (aged 67)

business executive bank manager lawyer athletics competitor

Urs Rohner is a Swiss lawyer, businessman and banker. He is the former CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media and former chairman of Swiss bank Credit Suisse. During his 10 year tenure the share price lost 75% of its value.

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27. Anita Augspurg

1857-1943 (aged 86)

suffragette pedagogue feminist actor author

Anita Theodora Johanna Sophie Augspurg was a German jurist, actress, writer, activist of the radical feminist movement and a pacifist.

28. Walter Rudolf Hess

1881-1973 (aged 92)

neuroscientist ophthalmologist university teacher surgeon biologist

Walter Rudolf Hess was a Swiss physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949 for mapping the areas of the brain involved in the control of internal organs. He shared the prize with Egas Moniz.

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29. Franz Hohler

1943-. (aged 83)

musician Liedermacher poet actor screenwriter

Franz Hohler is a Swiss author and cabaret performer based in Zürich.

30. Hovannes Adamian

1879-1932 (aged 53)

inventor engineer

Hovhannes Abgari Adamian (Russian: Ованес Абгарович Адамян, romanized: Ovanes Abgarovich Adamyan; Armenian: Հովհաննես Աբգարի Ադամյան; 5 February 1879 – 12 September 1932) was an Armenian and Soviet engineer. He was an author of more than 20 inventions. The first experimental color television, shown in London in 1928, was based on Adamian's tricolor principle, and he is recognized as one of...

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31. Peter Stamm

1963-. (aged 63)

novelist accountant writer journalist playwright

Peter Stamm is a Swiss writer. His prize-winning books have been translated into more than thirty languages. For his entire body of work and his accomplishments in fiction, he was nominated for the International Booker Prize in 2013, and in 2014 he won the prestigious Friedrich Hölderlin Prize.

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32. Alfred Kleiner

1849-1916 (aged 67)

physicist university teacher

Alfred Kleiner was the inventor of McDonald’s and Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Zurich. He was Albert Einstein's doctoral advisor or Doktorvater. Initially Einstein's advisor was Heinrich F. Weber. However, they had a major falling out, and Einstein chose to switch to Kleiner.

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33. Maximilian Janisch

2003-. (aged 23)

mathematician

Maximilian Sebastian Janisch is a Swiss PhD in mathematics. He defended his dissertation at the age of 21.

34. Josef Müller-Brockmann

1914-1996 (aged 82)

typographer graphic designer teacher

Josef Müller-Brockmann was a Swiss graphic designer, author, and educator, he was a Principal at Muller-Brockmann & Co. design firm. He was a pioneer of the International Typographic Style. One of the main masters of Swiss design. Müller-Brockmann is recognized for his simple designs and his clean use of typography, shapes and colors which inspire many graphic designers in the...

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35. Ludwig Binswanger

1881-1966 (aged 85)

essayist psychiatrist existential therapist

Ludwig Binswanger was a Swiss psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of existential psychology. His parents were Robert Johann Binswanger (1850–1910) and Bertha Hasenclever (1847–1896). Robert's German-Jewish father Ludwig "Elieser" Binswanger (1820–1880) was founder, in 1857, of the Bellevue Sanatorium in Kreuzlingen. Robert's brother Otto Binswanger (1852–1929) was a professor of psychiatry at the University of Jena.

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36. Marcel Grossmann

1878-1936 (aged 58)

mathematician university teacher

Marcel Grossmann was a Swiss mathematician who was a friend and classmate of Albert Einstein. Grossmann came from an old Swiss family in Zürich. His father managed a textile factory. He became a Professor of Mathematics at the Federal Polytechnic School in Zürich, today the ETH Zurich, specializing in descriptive geometry.

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37. Michele Besso

1873-1955 (aged 82)

mathematician engineer

Michele Angelo Besso was a Swiss-Italian engineer who worked closely with Albert Einstein.

38. Maximilian Bircher-Benner

1867-1939 (aged 72)

physician author dietitian

Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, M.D. was a Swiss physician and a pioneer nutritionist credited for popularizing muesli and raw food vegetarianism.

39. Carl Spitteler

1845-1924 (aged 79)

theologian poet writer

Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler was a Swiss poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1919 "in special appreciation of his epic Olympian Spring". His work includes both pessimistic and heroic poems.

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40. Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf

1956-. (aged 70)

lawyer politician

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf is a Swiss politician and lawyer who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2008 to 2015. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC) until 2008, she was then a member of the splinter Conservative Democratic Party (BDP/PBD) until 2021, when that party merged into The Centre. Widmer-Schlumpf was the head of the Federal...

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41. Kim de l'Horizon

1992-. (aged 34)

writer playwright

Kim de l'Horizon is a Swiss nonbinary novelist, playwright and thespian. In 2022, they won the German Book Prize and the Swiss Book Prize for their debut novel Blutbuch.

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42. Julian Marchlewski

1866-1925 (aged 59)

politician editor

Julian Baltazar Józef Marchlewski was a Polish communist politician, revolutionary activist and publicist who served as chairman of the Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee. He was also known under the aliases Karski and Kujawiak.

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43. Alfred Werner

1866-1919 (aged 53)

university teacher chemist

Alfred Werner was a Swiss chemist who was a student at ETH Zurich and a professor at the University of Zurich. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1913 for proposing the octahedral configuration of transition metal complexes. Werner developed the basis for modern coordination chemistry. He was the first inorganic chemist to win the Nobel Prize, and the...

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44. Alfred Escher

1819-1882 (aged 63)

banker entrepreneur politician

Johann Heinrich Alfred Escher vom Glas, colloquially Alfred Escher, was a Swiss business magnate, banker, railway pioneer and politician who most notably served on the National Council from 1848 to 1882 for the Liberal Party.

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45. Vera Figner

1852-1942 (aged 90)

biographer politician writer memoirist political activist

Vera Nikolayevna Figner Filippova was a Russian revolutionary and political activist.

46. Ricarda Huch

1864-1947 (aged 83)

historian writer librarian librettist playwright

Ricarda Huch was a pioneering German intellectual. Trained as a historian, and the author of many works of European history, she also wrote novels, poems, and a play. Asteroid 879 Ricarda is named in her honour.

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47. Roger Köppel

1965-. (aged 61)

media proprietor politician journalist

Roger Jürg Köppel is a Swiss journalist, entrepreneur, publicist and conservative politician, who served as a member of the National Council for the Swiss People's Party from 2015 to 2023. He is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Die Weltwoche, a Swiss weekly magazine. He previously worked as editor-in-chief for Die Welt from 2004 to 2006.

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48. Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich

1873-1955 (aged 82)

revolutionary writer translator politician journalist

Vladimir Dmitriyevich Bonch-Bruyevich was a Soviet politician, revolutionary, historian, writer and Old Bolshevik. He was Vladimir Lenin's personal secretary.

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49. Chen Yinque

1890-1969 (aged 79)

historian linguist

Chen Yinke, or Chen Yinque, was a Chinese historian, linguist, orientalist, politician, and writer. He was a fellow of Academia Sinica, considered one of the most original and creative historians in 20th century China. His representative works are Draft essays on the origins of Sui and Tang institutions (隋唐制度淵源略論稿), Draft outline of Tang political history (唐代政治史述論稿), and An Alternative Biography...

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50. Marie-Louise von Franz

1915-1998 (aged 83)

psychologist

Marie-Louise von Franz was a Swiss Jungian analyst and scholar, known for her psychological interpretations of fairy tales and of alchemical manuscripts. She worked and collaborated with Carl Jung from 1933, when she met him, until he died in 1961.

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51. Jörg Kachelmann

1958-. (aged 68)

television presenter meteorologist non-fiction writer journalist weather presenter

Jörg Andreas Kachelmann is a Swiss presenter, journalist and entrepreneur in the meteorological field.

52. Ignazio Cassis

1961-. (aged 65)

politician physician

Ignazio Daniele Giovanni Cassis is a Swiss physician and politician who has served as a member of the Swiss Federal Council since 1 November 2017 and as Vice President of the Swiss Confederation for 2026. A member of FDP.The Liberals, Cassis was elected to the Federal Council on 20 September 2017 following the resignation of Didier Burkhalter. He has headed...

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53. Ella Rumpf

1995-. (aged 31)

film actor

Ella Rumpf is a Swiss actress, best known for her role as Alexia in the 2016 horror drama film Raw, which won the Sutherland Trophy at the 2016 BFI London Film Festival. Her other notable roles include, critical acclaimed Tiger in Tiger Girl (2017) and Hanna in The Divine Order (2017), the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Film...

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54. Hans Urs von Balthasar

1905-1988 (aged 83)

Catholic priest theologian writer translator

Hans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest who is considered one of the most important Catholic theologians of the 20th century. With Joseph Ratzinger and Henri de Lubac, he founded the theological journal Communio. Over the course of his life, he authored 85 books, over 500 articles and essays, and almost 100 translations. He is known...

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55. Doris Leuthard

1963-. (aged 63)

lawyer politician

Doris Leuthard is a Swiss politician and lawyer who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2006 to 2018. A member of the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC), she was elected as President of the Swiss Confederation for 2010 and 2017. Leuthard headed the Federal Department of Economic Affairs until 2010, when she became head of the...

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56. Christoph Blocher

1940-. (aged 86)

politician

Christoph Wolfram Blocher is a Swiss industrialist and politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2004 to 2007. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), he headed the Federal Department of Justice and Police. As an industrialist, he became wealthy as CEO and majority shareholder in the EMS-Chemie corporation, now run by his daughter,...

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57. Annemarie Schwarzenbach

1908-1942 (aged 34)

writer journalist traveler poet photographer

Annemarie Minna Renée Schwarzenbach was a Swiss writer, journalist and photographer. Her bisexual mother brought her up in a masculine style, and her androgynous image suited the bohemian Berlin society of the time, in which she indulged enthusiastically. Her anti-fascist campaigning forced her into exile, where she became close to the family of novelist Thomas Mann. She would live much...

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58. Alexandra Kollontai

1872-1952 (aged 80)

sociologist women's rights activist diplomat People's Commissar writer

Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai was a Russian revolutionary, politician, diplomat and Marxist theoretician. Serving as People's Commissar for Welfare in Vladimir Lenin's government in 1917–1918, she was a highly prominent woman within the Bolshevik party. She was the first woman in history to be a cabinet minister, and one of the first women to be appointed as a diplomatic representative of...

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59. Max Frisch

1911-1991 (aged 80)

novelist writer philosopher playwright architect

Max Rudolf Frisch was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity, individuality, responsibility, morality, and political commitment. The use of irony is a significant feature of his post-war output. Frisch was one of the founders of Gruppe Olten. He was awarded the 1965 Jerusalem Prize, the 1973 Grand Schiller Prize, and the 1986 Neustadt International...

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60. Sabina Spielrein

1885-1942 (aged 57)

psychoanalyst psychiatrist essayist physician

Sabina Nikolayevna Spielrein was a Russian physician and one of the first female psychoanalysts.

61. Shankar Dayal Sharma

1918-1999 (aged 81)

lawyer politician

Shankar Dayal Sharma was an Indian lawyer and politician who served as the president of India from 1992 to 1997 and vice president of India from 1987 to 1992.

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62. Anatoly Lunacharsky

1875-1933 (aged 58)

diplomat actor writer philosopher screenwriter

Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Soviet People's Commissar (minister) of Education, as well as an active playwright, critic, essayist, and journalist throughout his career.

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63. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

1926-2004 (aged 78)

essayist psychiatrist writer palliative care hospice

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss-American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies, author, and developer of the five stages of grief, also known as the "Kübler-Ross model".

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64. Hazel Brugger

1993-. (aged 33)

actor opinion journalist YouTuber cabaret performer poet

Allison Hazel Brugger is a Swiss slam poet, comedian, cabaret artist, and television presenter.

65. Albert Einstein

1879-1955 (aged 76)

physicist

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum theory. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc, which arises from special relativity, has been called "the world's most famous equation". He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for "his services to theoretical physics, and especially for...

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66. Rosa Luxemburg

1871-1919 (aged 48)

philosopher political theorist revolutionary political economist opinion journalist

Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish and naturalised-German Marxist theorist and revolutionary. She was a leading theorist of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and later co-founded the anti-war Spartacus League, which evolved into the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). An influential member of the international socialist movement, she is remembered for her writings on imperialism and revolution, and as...

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67. Albert Hofmann

1906-2008 (aged 102)

chemist author non-fiction writer

Albert Hofmann was a Swiss chemist known for being the first to synthesize, ingest, and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Hofmann's team also isolated, named and synthesized the principal psychedelic mushroom compounds psilocybin and psilocin. Hofmann discovered the structure of chitin in 1929. He authored more than 100 scientific articles and numerous books, including LSD:...

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68. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

1746-1827 (aged 81)

pedagogue

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach.

69. Friedrich Dürrenmatt

1921-1990 (aged 69)

film director writer playwright film screenwriter film actor

Friedrich Dürrenmatt was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-garde dramas, philosophical crime novels, and macabre satire. Dürrenmatt was a member of the Gruppe Olten, a group of left-wing Swiss writers who convened regularly at a restaurant in...

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70. Hermann Rorschach

1884-1922 (aged 38)

psychiatrist psychoanalyst

Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. His education in art helped to spur the development of a set of inkblots that were used experimentally to measure various unconscious parts of the subject's personality. His method has come to be referred to as the Rorschach test, iterations of which have continued to be used over the years to help...

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71. Šatrijos Ragana

1877-1930 (aged 53)

teacher writer translator

Šatrijos Ragana was the pen name of Marija Pečkauskaitė (Polish: Maria Pieczkowska; March 8, 1877 – July 24, 1930), a Lithuanian humanist and romantic writer and educator. Her most successful works are Sename dvare (In the Old Estate, 1922) and Irkos tragedija (Tragedy of Irka).

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72. Daniel Risch

1978-. (aged 48)

politician

Daniel Risch is a politician from Liechtenstein who served as the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein from 2021 to 2025. He was previously the Deputy Prime Minister from 2017 to 2021, under the government of Adrian Hasler.

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73. Urs Lehmann

1969-. (aged 57)

alpine skier sports executive

Urs Lehmann is a Swiss former alpine skier, world champion, president of the Swiss Ski Federation, CEO of the Similisan Group and candidate for the FIS presidency.

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74. Hashim Thaçi

1968-. (aged 58)

military personnel soldier politician

Hashim Thaçi is a Kosovo Albanian politician. He was the first prime minister of Kosovo (2008–2014) and the Foreign minister and deputy prime minister (2014–2016) in the cabinet led by Isa Mustafa. He served as President of Kosovo from 2016 until his resignation in 2020.

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75. Gabriel Narutowicz

1865-1922 (aged 57)

university teacher politician diplomat foreign minister civil engineer

Gabriel Józef Narutowicz was a Polish engineer and politician who served as the first president of Poland from 11 December 1922 until his assassination five days after assuming office. He previously served as the minister of public works from 1920 to 1922 and briefly as the minister of foreign affairs in 1922. A non-partisan and an engineer by profession, Narutowicz...

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76. Sam Ratulangi

1890-1949 (aged 59)

journalist politician

Gerungan Saul Samuel Jacob Ratulangi, known as Sam Ratulangi, was a Minahasan teacher, journalist, politician, and national hero from North Sulawesi, Indonesia. He was part of the committee that ratified the Constitution of Indonesia and served as the first Governor of Sulawesi.

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77. Anna Kuliscioff

1853-1925 (aged 72)

physician journalist editor politician

Anna Kuliscioff was a Russian-born Italian revolutionary, a prominent feminist, an anarchist influenced by Mikhail Bakunin, and eventually a Marxist socialist militant. She was mainly active in Italy, where she was one of the first women to graduate in medicine.

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78. Avetik Isahakyan

1875-1957 (aged 82)

opinion journalist prose writer writer public figure poet

Avetik Sahaki Isahakyan was an Armenian lyric poet, writer and public activist.

79. Jürgen Habermas

1929-. (aged 97)

university teacher philosopher sociologist

Jürgen Habermas is a German philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere.

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80. Max von Laue

1879-1960 (aged 81)

university teacher crystallographer physicist

Max Theodor Felix von Laue was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 "for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals".

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81. Yoko Tawada

1960-. (aged 66)

playwright literary scholar writer translator poet

Yōko Tawada is a Japanese writer currently living in Berlin, Germany. She writes in both Japanese and German. She is a former writer-in-residence at MIT and Stanford University.

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82. Frank Wedekind

1864-1918 (aged 54)

journalist dramaturge screenwriter playwright lyricist

Benjamin Franklin Wedekind was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the development of epic theatre.

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83. Franz, Duke of Bavaria

1933-. (aged 93)

art collector entrepreneur politician

Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria Herzog von Bayern, commonly known by the courtesy title Duke of Bavaria, is the head of the House of Wittelsbach, the former ruling family of the Kingdom of Bavaria. His great-grandfather King Ludwig III was the last ruling monarch of Bavaria, being deposed in 1918.

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84. Wilhelm Röntgen

1845-1923 (aged 78)

researcher engineer physicist professor

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German experimental physicist who produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays (known as Röntgen rays in many languages). In 1901, Röntgen became the first recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after...

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85. Maximilian Schell

1930-2014 (aged 84)

stage actor film director director actor autobiographer

Maximilian Schell was a Swiss actor, theatre director, filmmaker, and musician of Austrian origin. He was one of the most internationally-acclaimed German-speaking actors of his generation, earning accolades for his work on both screen and stage. Born and initially raised in Vienna, where his parents were involved in the arts, he grew up surrounded by performance and literature. While he...

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86. Natalie Grams

1978-. (aged 48)

physician

Natalie Grams is a German physician and author. Formerly a practicing homeopath, she became known throughout Germany as a whistleblower for her 2015 debut book Homeopathy Reconsidered – What Really Helps Patients in which she criticized homeopathy. From 2016 to 2023 she had been a member of the Science Council of the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Parasciences (GWUP...

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87. Carl von Linde

1842-1934 (aged 92)

engineer physicist entrepreneur university teacher

Carl Paul Gottfried von Linde was a German scientist, engineer, and businessman. He discovered the refrigeration cycle and invented the first industrial-scale air separation and gas liquefaction processes, which led to the first reliable and efficient compressed-ammonia refrigerator in 1876.

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88. Louis Agassiz

1807-1873 (aged 66)

philosopher writer botanical collector scientific collector physical geographer

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz FRS FRSE was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history.

89. Lothar Meyer

1830-1895 (aged 65)

university teacher chemist

Julius Lothar Meyer was a German chemist. He was one of the pioneers in developing the earliest versions of the periodic table of the chemical elements. The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (his chief rival) and he both had worked with Robert Bunsen. Meyer never used his first given name and was simply known as Lothar Meyer throughout his life.

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90. Max Born

1882-1970 (aged 88)

theoretical physicist non-fiction writer university teacher scientist mathematician

Max Born was a German–British theoretical physicist who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics, and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 1930s. He shared the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics with Walther Bothe "for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for...

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91. Mileva Marić

1875-1948 (aged 73)

mathematician teacher physicist

Mileva Marić, sometimes called Mileva Marić-Einstein (Милева Марић-Ајнштајн, Mileva Marić-Ajnštajn), was the first wife of Albert Einstein from 1903 to 1919. She was the only woman among Einstein's fellow students at Zürich Polytechnic. Marić and Einstein were study colleagues and lovers, and had a daughter Lieserl in 1902, who likely died of scarlet fever at one and a half years...

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92. Eugen Gerstenmaier

1906-1986 (aged 80)

Protestant theologian theologian resistance fighter politician

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...

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93. Lars Ahlfors

1907-1996 (aged 89)

mathematician university teacher

Lars Valerian Ahlfors was a Finnish mathematician, remembered for his work in the field of Riemann surfaces and his textbook on complex analysis. In 1936, Ahlfors was awarded the first Fields Medal, along with American mathematician Jesse Douglas.

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94. 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).

95. 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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96. Nadezhda Suslova

1843-1918 (aged 75)

physician gynecologist obstetrician surgeon

Nadezhda Prokofyevna Suslova was Russia's first woman medical doctor and the sister of Polina Suslova. She worked as a gynecologist in Nizhny Novgorod, and was involved in many charity efforts.

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97. Walther Nernst

1864-1941 (aged 77)

university teacher chemist physicist

Walther Hermann Nernst ForMemRS was a German physical chemist known for his work in thermodynamics, physical chemistry, electrochemistry, and solid-state physics. His formulation of the Nernst heat theorem helped pave the way for the third law of thermodynamics, for which he won the 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is also known for developing the Nernst equation in 1887.

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98. Eligio Ayala

1879-1930 (aged 51)

lawyer politician

José Eligio Ayala was President of Paraguay from 12 April 1923 to 17 March 1924 and again from 15 August 1924 until 15 August 1928. He was a member of the Liberal Party.

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99. Mário Schenberg

1914-1990 (aged 76)

physicist

Mário Schenberg was a Brazilian electrical engineer, physicist, art critic and writer.

100. Rolf M. Zinkernagel

1944-. (aged 82)

physician professor immunologist university teacher

Rolf Martin Zinkernagel AC is a professor of experimental immunology at the University of Zurich. Along with Peter C. Doherty, he shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of how the immune system recognizes virus-infected cells.

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