German Profiles: Biographies
Notable Austrians, Germans, German-Swiss
Biographical profiles of significant people, both living and dead, from Austria, Germany, or German Switzerland—handy for biographical projects or general inspiration. This page includes only those personalities profiled here at About.com, some in German or English. For a more extensive list of famous Germans see Famous Germans and Famous German-Americans, as well as the Top 100 Germans list and German Misnomers, Myths and Mistakes.
Biographical Profiles
Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) First chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
Karl Benz (1844-1929) and Gottfried Daimler (1834-1900) Inventors of the first motor car (although they never met)
Wernher von Braun (1912-1977) German rocket scientist who helped put Americans on the moon
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German author, dramatist, best known for his Dreigroschenoper ("Threepenny Opera") co-authored with composer Kurt Weill
Adolf (Adi) Dassler (1900-1959) Inventor of the first pro track shoe
Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990) Swiss writer of crime stories, dramas, and other German literature (Der Besuch der alten Dame)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, writer; the German "Shakespeare"
Günter Grass (1927- ) German writer, Nobel Prize winner
Peter Handke (1942- ) Austrian novelist and playwright
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) German writer (Siddharta, Der Steppenwolf), poet, and artist
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Austrian writer born in Prague
Robert Koch (1843-1910) German medical researcher, inventor of TB vaccine, Nobel Prize 1905
Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) Austrian artist
Philipp Reis (1838-1874) German inventor of a telephone prototype (1861)
Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947- ) Austrian-American movie superstar and politician
Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865-1923) German physicist who did important work on alternating current and lightning
Gerhard Thiele (1953- ) German physicist who was on board the Endeavour misson for NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mapping Mission (SRTM) in February 2000
Kurt Tucholsky (1890-1935) German writer, satirist
Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862) German lawyer, politician, and poet from Tübingen
Wernher von Braun (1912-1977) German rocket scientist who helped put Americans on the moon
Franz Werfel (1890-1945) Austrian novelist (The Song of Bernadette) and poet who had a brief Hollywood career during his California exile years
Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917) German inventor of the rigid air ship in 1900
Konrad Zuse (1910-1995) German inventor of the first programmable digital computer (Z3)
MORE > Famous German-Americans
MORE > Famous Germans, Austrians, and Swiss
MORE > Authors in German Literature
MORE > German Inventors and Researchers
ACTIVITY > Graveyard Tour of famous Germans
For FILM PEOPLE see: The German-Hollywood Connection
VOCABULARY > German Word of the Day
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