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FAMOUS GERMANS

Th e roster of famous Germans is long in most fi elds of endeavor.

Th e name of Johann Gutenberg (1400?–1468?), who is generally

regarded in the Western world as the inventor of movable

precision-cast metal type, and therefore as the father of modern

book printing, might well head the list of notable Germans.

Martin Luther (1483–1546), founder of the Reformation, still exerts

profound infl uence on German religion, society, music, and

language.

Th e earliest major names in German literature were the poets

Wolfram von Eschenbach (1170?–1220?), Gottfried von Strassburg

(d.1210?), and Sebastian Brant (1457?–1521). Hans Sachs

(1494–1576) wrote thousands of plays, poems, stories, and songs.

Hans Jakob Christoff el von Grimmelshausen (1620?–76) created

a famous picaresque novel, Simplicissimus. Th e fl owering of

German literature began with such renowned 18th-century poets

and dramatists as Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803),

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–81), Christoph Martin Wieland

(1733–1813), and Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803),

and culminated with the greatest German poet, Johann Wolfgang

von Goethe (1749–1832), and the greatest German dramatist, Johann

Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805). Leaders of

the Romantic movement included Jean Paul (Jean Paul Friedrich

Richter, 1763–1825), August Wilhelm von Schlegel (1767–1845),

Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg, 1772–1801), Ludwig Tieck

(1773–1853), E. T. A. (Ernst Th eodor Wilhelm—the A stood for

Amadeus, the middle name of Mozart) Hoff mann (1776–1822),

and Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (1777–1811). Th e brothers Jakob

Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859) are

world-famous for their collections of folk tales and myths. Heinrich

Heine (1797–1856), many of whose poems have become

folksongs, is generally regarded as the greatest German poet after

Goethe. Other signifi cant poets are Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–

1843), Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866), Eduard Mörike (1804–75),

Stefan Georg (1868–1933), and Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926).

Playwrights of distinction include Friedrich Hebbel (1813–63),

Georg Büchner (1813–37), Georg Kaiser (1878–1945), Ernst

Toller (1893–1939), and Bertolt Brecht (1898–1957). Two leading

novelists of the 19th century were Gustav Freytag (1816–95)

and Th eodor Storm (1817–88). Germany’s 20th-century novelists

include Ernst Wiechert (1887–1950), Anna Seghers (Netty Reiling,

1900–1983), and Nobel Prize winners Gerhart Johann Robert

Hauptmann (1862–1946), Thomas Mann (1875–1955), Nelly

Sachs (1891–1970), and Heinrich Böll (1917–86). Other major

writers of the 20th and 21st centuries include German-born Erich

Maria Remarque (1898–1970), Günter Grass (b.1927), Christa

Wolf (b.1929), and Peter Handke (b.1942).

Leading fi lmmakers include G. W. (Georg Wilhelm) Pabst

(b.Czechoslovakia, 1885–1967), F. W. (Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe)

Murnau (1888–1931), Fritz Lang (b.Austria, 1890–1976), German born

Ernst Lubitsch (1892–1947), Max Ophüls (Oppenheimer,

1902–57), Leni (Helene Bertha Amalie) Riefenstahl (1902–2003),

Volker Schlöndorff (b.1939), Werner Herzog (b.1942), Rainer

Werner Fassbinder (1946–82), Wim Wenders (b.1945), and Doris

Dörrie (b.1955). Outstanding performers include Emil Jannings

(Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, b.Switzerland, 1886–1950), Marlene

Dietrich (1901–1992), and Klaus Kinski (Claus Günther

Nakszynski, 1926–91).

Th e two giants of German church music were Heinrich Schütz

(1585–1672) and, preeminently, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–

1750). Signifi cant composers of the 18th century were Germanborn

Georg Friedrich Handel (1685–1759), Carl Philipp Emanuel

Bach (1714–88), and Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714–87).

Th e classical period and music in general were dominated by the

titanic fi gure of Ludwig von Beethoven (1770–1827). Romanticism

in music was ushered in by Carl Maria von Weber (1786–

1826), among others. Outstanding composers of the 19th century

were Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809–47), Robert Schumann

(1810–56), Richard Wagner (1813–83), and Johannes Brahms

(1833–97). Major fi gures of the 20th and 21st centuries are Richard

Strauss (1864–1949), Paul Hindemith (1895–1963), Carl Orff

(1895–1982), German-born Kurt Weill (1900–50), Hans Werner

Henze (b.1926), and Karlheinz Stockhausen (b.1928). Important

symphonic conductors included Otto Klemperer (1885–1973),

Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886–1954), Karl Böhm (1894–1981), and

Eugen Jochum (1902–87). Among Germany’s outstanding musical

performers are singers Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (b.1915) and

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b.1925), and pianists Walter Gieseking

(1895–1956) and Wilhelm Kempff (1895–91).

Veit Stoss (1440?–1533) was one of the greatest German sculptors

and woodcarvers of the 15th century; another was Tilman

Riemenschneider (1460?–1531). Outstanding painters, engravers,

and makers of woodcuts were Martin Schongauer (1445?–91), Matthias

Grünewald (1460?–1528?), Hans Holbein the Elder (1465?–

1524), Lucas Cranach (1472–1553), Hans Holbein the Younger

(1497?–1543), and above all, Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). More

recent artists of renown are the painters Emil Nolde (1867–1956),

Franz Marc (1880–1916), Max Beckmann (1884–1950), the USborn

Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956), Otto Dix (1891–1969), Max

Ernst (1891–1976), and Horst Antes (b.1936); the painter and cartoonist

George Grosz (1893–1959); the sculptors Ernst Barlach

(1870–1938) and Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881–1919); the painteretcher-

sculptor Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945); the Dadaist Hannah

Höch (1889–1978); the painter-sculptor-installation artist Joseph

Beuys (1921–1986); the painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer

(b.1945); and the architects Walter Gropius (1883–1969), leader of

the Bauhaus School of Design, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–

1969), Erich Mendelsohn (1887–1953), Gottfried Böhm (b.1920),

and Helmut Jahn (b.1940).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 2:21 pm and is filed under About Germany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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FAMOUS GERMANS

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