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).