Germany Destination News

Scholars and Leaders

German infl uence on Western thought can be traced back at least

as far as the 13th century, to the great scholastic philosopher, naturalist,

and theologian Albertus Magnus (Albert von Bollstädt,

d.1280) and the mystic philosopher Meister Eckhart (1260?–

1327?). Philipp Melanchthon (Schwartzerd, 1497–1560) was a

scholar and religious reformer. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

(1646–1716) was an outstanding philosopher, theologian, mathematician,

and natural scientist. Th e next two centuries were

dominated by the ideas of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), Moses

Mendelssohn (1729–86), Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814),

Friedrich Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher (1768–1834), Georg Wilhelm

Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph

von Schelling (1775–1854), Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860),

Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804–72), Karl Marx (1818–83),

Friedrich Engels (1820–95), and Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

(1844–1900). In the 20th century, Edmund Husserl (1859–1938),

Oswald Spengler (1880–1936), Karl Jaspers (1883–1969), Martin

Heidegger (1889–1976), and Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002)

are highly regarded. Figures of the Frankfurt School of social and

political philosophy include Th eodor Adorno (1903–1969), Max

Horkheimer (1895–1973), Walter Benjamin (1892–1940), Herbert

Marcuse (1898–1979), and Jürgen Habermas (b.1929). Political

theorist Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) is also highly regarded,

as is Carl Schmitt (1888–1985). One of the founders of modern

Biblical scholarship was Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918). Franz

Rosenzweig (1886–1929) was one of the most infl uential modern

Jewish religious thinkers, as was Gershom Scholem (1897–1982).

Among the most famous German scientists are Johann Rudolf

Glauber (1694–1768), Justus von Liebig (1803–73), Robert Wilhelm

Bunsen (1811–99), and Nobel Prize winners Hermann Emil

Fischer (1852–1919), Adolf von Baeyer (1835–1917), Eduard Buchner

(1860–1917), Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932), Otto Wallach

(1847–1931), Richard Martin Willstätter (1872–1942), Fritz Haber

(1868–1934), Walther Nernst (b.Poland, 1864–1941), Heinrich

Otto Wieland (1877–1957), Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus (1876–

1959), Carl Bosch (1874–1940), Friedrich Bergius (1884–1949),

Otto Hahn (1879–1968), Hans Fischer (1881–1945), Friedrich

Bergius (1884–1949), Georg Wittig (1897–1987), Adolf Butenandt

(1903–1995), Otto Diels (1876–1954), Kurt Alder (1902–58), Hermann

Staudinger (1881–1965), Karl Ziegler (1898–1973), Manfred

Eigen (b.1927), Ernst Otto Fischer (b.1918), Johann Deisenhofer

(b.1943), Robert Huber (b.1937), and Hartmut Michel (b.1948)

in chemistry; Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), Georg Simon

Ohm (1787–1854), Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz

(1821–94), Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857–1894), and Nobel Prize

winners Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen (1845–1923), Max Karl Ernst

Ludwig Planck (1858–1947), Albert Einstein (1879–1955), Gustav

Ludwig Hertz (1887–1975), Werner Heisenberg (1901–76), Walter

Bothe (1891–1957), Carl-Friedrich von Weizsäcker (b.1912),

Rudolf Mössbauer (b.1929), Hans Bethe (1906–2005), Klaus

von Klitzing (b.1943), Ernst Ruska (1906–1988), Gerd Binnig

(b.1947), Johannes Georg Bednorz (b.1950), Hans Georg Dehmelt

(b.Germany, 1922), Wolfgang Paul (1913–1993), Wolfgang Ketterle

(b.1957), and Th eodor Wolfgang Hänsch (b.1941) in physics;

Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902), August von Wassermann (1866–

1925), and Nobel Prize winners Robert Koch (1843–1910), Paul

Ehrlich (1854–1915), Emil von Behring (1854–1917), Otto H.

Warburg (1883–1970), Konrad Lorenz (Austria, 1903–89), Konrad

Emil Bloch (1912–2000), Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen (1911–

1979), Max Delbrück (b.Germany 1906–1981), Sir Bernard Katz

(b.Germany 1911–2003), Georges Jean Franz Köhler (1946–

1995), Erwin Neher (b.1944), Bert Sakmann (b.1942), Christiane

Nüsslein-Volhard (b.1942), and Günter Blobel (b.1936), in physiology

or medicine; earth scientists Alexander von Humboldt

(1769–1859) and Karl Ernst Richter (1795–1863); and mathematician

Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (1826–66). Notable

among German inventors and engineers are Gabriel Daniel

Fahrenheit (1686–1736), developer of the thermometer; Gottlieb

Daimler (1834–1900), Rudolf Diesel (b.Paris, 1858–1913), and Felix

Wankel (1902–88), developers of the internal combustion engine;

airship builder Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838–1917);

and rocketry pioneer Wernher von Braun (1912–77). Leading social

scientists, in addition to Marx and Engels, were the historians

Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886) and Th eodor Mommsen (1817–

1903), Nobel Prize winner in literature; the political economist

Georg Friedrich List (1789–1846); the sociologists Georg Simmel

(1858–1918) and Max Weber (1864–1920); and the German-born

anthropologist Franz Boas (1858–1942). Johann Joachim Winckelmann

(1717–68) founded the scientifi c study of classical art and

archaeology. Heinrich Schliemann (1822–90) uncovered the remains

of ancient Troy, Mycenae, and Tiryns; Wilhelm Dörpfeld

(1853–1940) continued his work.

Outstanding fi gures in German political history are the Holy

Roman emperors Otto I (the Great, 912–973), Frederick I (Barbarossa,

1123–90), Frederick II (1194–1250), and Spanish-born

Charles V (1500–58); Frederick William (1620–88), the “great

elector” of Brandenburg; his great-grandson Frederick II (the

Great, 1712–86), regarded as the most brilliant soldier and statesman

of his age; Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (1815–98), the

Prussian statesman who made German unity possible; Austrianborn

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945), founder of Nazism and dictator

of Germany (1933–45); and Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967), FRG

chancellor (1948–63). Walter Ernst Karl Ulbricht (1893–1973),

chairman of the Council of State (1960–73), and leader of the SED

from 1950 to 1971, was the dominant political fi gure in the GDR

until his death in 1973. Erich Honecker (1912–94) became fi rst

secretary of the SED in 1971 and was chairman of the Council of

State and SED general secretary from 1976 until the FRG and GDR

merged in 1990. Willi Stoph (1914–1999), a member of the Polit

buro since 1953, served as chairman of the Council of Ministers in

1964–73 and again from 1976 on. Willy Brandt (1913–1992), FRG

chancellor (1969–74) won the Nobel Peace Prize for his policy of

Ostpolitik. Other Nobel Peace Prize winners were Ludwig Quidde

(1858–1941), Gustav Stresemann (1878–1929), Carl von Ossietzky

(1889–1938), and Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965).

Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben

(1730–94) was a general in the American Revolution. Karl

von Clausewitz (1780–1831) is one of the great names connected

with the science of war. Important military leaders were Hellmuth

von Moltke (1800–1891); Gen. Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934),

who also served as president of the German Reich (1925–34); and

Gen. Erwin Rommel (1891–1944).

Pope Benedict XVI (b.Joseph Alois Ratzinger, 1927) became the

265th pope in 2005. He is the ninth German pope, the last being

the Dutch-German Adrian VI (1522–1523).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 2:24 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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Scholars and Leaders

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