![[street sign in Göttingen - photo © D Nutting]](../../images/a-e-strasse.jpg)
Eine Straße in der deutschen Stadt Göttingen (Bundesland Niedersachsen)
![[street sign in Kassel - photo © D Nutting]](../../images/mozart-str_0184.jpg)
Eine Straße in der deutschen Stadt Neustadt (Bundesland Hessen)
Berühmte Leute aus deutschsprachigen Ländern
Famous people from German-speaking countries
Research a famous person from a German-speaking country. Here is a list of some people you could choose from. Why not look at a person you haven't heard of before? Introductory links are given for selected people in the list.
Use search engines to find relevant information about a person.
You could use Wikipedia.
To: more links (all external links open in a new tab/window)
| Field | Person |
|---|---|
| Sport | • tennis ➜ Roger Federer; Steffi Graf (ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks); Thomas Muster; Boris Becker (six Grand Slam titles); Angelique Kerber (winner of three Grand Slam tournaments); Dominic Thiem; Martina Hingis; Alexander Zverev; Philipp Kohlschreiber; Michael Stich (Gold medal at 1992 Olympic Games / only male player to win both the singles and doubles at Wimbledon); Nicholas
Kiefer; Tommy Haas; Anke Huber; Jürgen Melzer; • motor-racing ➜ Sebastian Vettel (youngest World Champion in F1); Nico Rosberg (F1 World Champion 2016); Michael Schumacher (multiple F1 world champion) & Ralf Schumacher; Sabine Schmitz; Niki Lauda (three-time F1 World Drivers' Champion); Gerhard Berger; Heinz-Harald Frentzen; • football ➜ Franz Beckenbauer (won the World Cup as a player and as a manager); Lothar Matthäus (captain of West Germany in winning the 1990 FIFA World Cup); Mario Götze (goal that won the 2014 World Cup Final); Miroslav Klose (world record holder for goals in World Cups); Manuel Neuer; Oliver Kahn; Mesut Özil; Michael Ballack (played with Chelsea FC, captained German team); Leroy Sané; Jürgen Klopp (coach at Borussia Dortmund and at Liverpool FC); Timo Werner; Jürgen Klinsmann; Lukas Podolski; Bastian Schweinsteiger; Thomas Müller; Birgit Prinz (FIFA World Player of the Year in 2003, 2004 and 2005); Nadine Angerer (captain of the German national soccer team, FIFA Women's World Player of the Year 2013, played also for Brisbane Roar); • basketball ➜ Dirk Nowitzki (multiple awards in the American NBA); Detlef Schrempf; Dennis Schröder; • skiing ➜ Maria Höfl-Riesch (three Olympic gold medals); Hermann Maier; Alexandra Meissnitzer; Jens Weissflog; Benjamin Raich; Vreni Schneider; Annemarie Moser-Pröll (six World Cup titles); Hanni Wenzel; Marlies Schild; • figure skating ➜ Katarina Witt (four times World Champion, twice Olympic Gold); • golf ➜ Martin Kaymer (World #1, 2011); Bernhard Langer (World #1, 1986); • mountaineering ➜ Reinhold Messner (first person to climb all fourteen mountain peaks in the world over 8,000 metres above sea level) |
| Actors | Arnold Schwarzenegger; Jürgen Prochnow; Marlene Dietrich; Diane Kruger; Florence Kasumba; Til Schweiger; Thomas Kretschmann; Christoph Waltz; Daniel Brühl; Klaus Kinski; Nastassja Kinski; Hardy Krüger; Bruno Ganz; Alexandra Maria Lara; Franka Potente (incl. The Bourne Identity) |
| Film directors | Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, Air Force One...etc); Roland Emmerich (known for Hollywood disaster movies); Wim Wenders; Volker Schlöndorf; Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| Music | Silbermond; Tokio Hotel; Lena Meyer-Landrut (2010 Eurovision winner); Kraftwerk; Nina Hagen; Sarah Connor; Scooter; Udo Lindenberg; Nena (99 Luftballons); Die Fantastischen Vier; Modern Talking; Herbert Grönemeyer; Falco; The Scorpions; Einstürzende Neubauten; Die Toten Hosen; Blixa Bargeld (of The Bad Seeds); Tangerine Dream; Johannes Brahms; J.S. Bach; W.A. Mozart; Ludwig van Beethoven; Felix Mendelssohn; Richard Wagner; Joseph Haydn; Robert Schumann; Herbert von Karajan; Die Prinzen; Rammstein; Conchita Wurst (2014 Eurovision winner); |
| Art | Gottfried Helnwein; Caspar David Friedrich; Franz Marc; Joseph Beuys; Eugen von Guérard; Hans Heysen; Walter Gropius; Gustav Klimt; Friedensreich Hundertwasser; Albrecht Dürer; Regine Schumann; |
| Writers | J. W. Goethe (the German 'Shakespeare'); The Brothers Grimm; Bertolt Brecht; Cornelia Funke (children’s writer, wrote the Inkheart series); Thomas Mann; Franz Kafka; Heinrich Heine; Günter Grass; Friedrich Schiller; Michael Ende (The Neverending Story); Karl Marx (Das Kapital / The Communist Manifesto) |
| Science | Albert Einstein; Robert Koch; Otto Hahn; Johannes Keppler; Baron Ferdinand von Mueller ➜ option #1 / option #2; Gottlieb (Wilhelm) Daimler; Karl Friedrich Benz; Ferdinand Porsche; Wilhelm Konrad von Roentgen; Georg von Neumayer; Sigmund Freud; Hans Geiger; Karlheinz Brandenburg (mp3 audio file-format); Wernher von Braun; Johannes Gutenberg; Max Planck (Nobel Prize in Physics); Ferdinand von Zeppelin; Ludwig Leichhardt (see also book in school library: Australia, Willkommen... A History of the Germans in Australia); |
| Models / Fashion | Claudia Schiffer; Nadia Auermann; Heidi Klum; Toni Garrn; Anna Ewers; Julia Stegner; Karl Lagerfeld; |
| Various | • politicians ➜ Angela Merkel (topped Forbes magazine's list of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011; world's second most powerful person according to Forbes magazine in 2012 [highest ranking ever achieved by a woman]); Konrad Adenauer; Helmut Schmidt; Helmut Kohl; Willy Brandt; Otto von Bismarck; • American Revolutionary War ➜ Baron Friedrich von Steuben; • World War II resistance ➜ Sophie and Hans Scholl; Anne Frank (Jewish girl of German nationality who wrote a famous diary while being hidden from the Nazis); Oskar Schindler (German businessman who saved many Jews in WWII); • royalty ➜ Elisabeth von Wittelsbach (known as »Sis(s)i«), empress consort of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria; Ludwig II, King of Bavaria (sometimes known as »Mad King Ludwig«, or »The Swan King«, or »The Dream King«); • religious figures ➜ the former Pope Benedikt XVI; • business/entrepreneurs ➜ Levi Strauss (founder of first company making blue jeans); Adolf "Adi" Dassler (Adidas) and Rudolf Dassler (Puma); Nicholas Hayek (inventor of SWATCH watches); • comedian ➜ Henning Wehn; |
Other short introductory biographies
An A-Z list of Notable Austrians, Germans, Swiss (@ The German Way and More)
Famous Austrians (Austrian National Tourist Office)
Famous Austrians (@ The Famous People)
The German Way and More: short biographies of notable Germans, Austrians, Swiss
List of German inventors and discoverers (Wikipedia)
Inventors from Germany - A Sampling of German Inventors and Inventions
Quiz: Inventors and inventions from the German-speaking countries
Computers, Cars, Planes: German Inventors | The Truth About Germany | Euromaxx
Compiled by D Nutting