johann

German - Turkish

Definition of johann in German Turkish dictionary

(-es) n.pr. mV Jan; Johannes der Täufer (Bibel) Yahya -a n.pr. wV Jan

Turkish - Turkish

Definition of johann in Turkish Turkish dictionary

Related Terms

johann eskepler

Gezegenlerin hareketlerinin temel kuralları üzerinde çalışan Alman gökbilimci

johann gutenberg

Avrupa'nın ilk baskı makinesinin tasarımını ve üretimi gerçekleştiren Alman matbaacı

English - Turkish

Definition of johann in English Turkish dictionary

Related Terms

johann sebastian bach

Johann Sebastian Bach'ın

German - English

Definition of johann in German English dictionary

Related Terms

Johann Maier, wh. Amtsstrasse 5, Luzern

Johann Maier, r/o 5, Amtsstrasse, Lucerne

'König Johann' (von Shakespeare / Werktitel)

'King John' (by Shakespeare / work title)

English - English

Definition of johann in English English dictionary

Johann Jakob Astor Bach Johann Christian Bach Johann Sebastian Baeyer Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Johann Heinrich Belter Bernstorff Johann Heinrich count von Bodmer Johann Georg Eck Johann Johann Maier Fabricius Johann Christian Fichte Johann Gottlieb Froben Johann Johann Heinrich Füssli Johann Friedrich Carl Gauss Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Haitink Bernard Johann Hermann Hauptmann Gerhart Johann Robert Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Herder Johann Gottfried von Heyse Paul Johann Ludwig von Hölderlin Johann Christian Friedrich Hummel Johann Nepomuk Kalb Johann Kändler Johann Joachim Meckel Johann Friedrich Mendel Gregor Johann Miescher Johann Friedrich Neumann Johann Balthasar Pachelbel Johann Pestalozzi Johann Heinrich Reger Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Scharnhorst Gerhard Johann David von Schein Johann Hermann Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Stamitz Johann Wenzel Anton Strauss Johann Baptist Johann August Suter Thünen Johann Heinrich von Tieck Johann Ludwig Tilly Johann Tserclaes count von Johann Von Neumann Weiser Johann Conrad Winckelmann Johann Joachim Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Yorck von Wartenburg Johann David Ludwig Count

{i} male first name (German)

Related Terms

Johann Count Yorck von Wartenburg

born Sept. 26, 1759, Potsdam, Prussia died Oct. 4, 1830, Klein-ls, Silesia Prussian army commander. After serving with the Prussian army (1772-79) and Dutch army (1779-87), he rejoined the Prussian army and fought in Poland (1794) and later in the war against France (1806). Promoted to major general, he helped reorganize the army, developing the tactics of the infantry scout and the line of skirmishes. In 1812 he led the Prussian contingent of Napoleon's invading army into Russia. During the French retreat, he concluded an accord with Russia that opened the way for Prussia to join the Allied powers against Napoleon. He was made a count in 1814 and a field marshal in 1821

Johann Balthasar Neumann

born 1687, Eger, Bohemia, Austrian Habsburg domain died Aug. 19, 1753, Würzburg German architect. Born in Bohemia, Neumann moved to Würzburg in 1711. In 1719 he began work on a new palace for the prince-bishop, Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn, that was especially noted for its grand staircase. Friedrich Karl von Schönborn, who was elected prince-bishop of Würzburg in 1729, went on to became Neumann's greatest patron, putting Neumann in charge of all major building projects in Würzburg and Bamberg, including palaces, public buildings, bridges, a water system, and many churches. One of Neumann's best works was the pilgrimage church at Vierzehnheiligen (1743-53). A master of the late Baroque style, he made ingenious use of domes and barrel vaults to create sequences of round and oval spaces possessing an airy elegance lit by huge windows; the lively interplay of these elements was accented by lavish use of decorative plasterwork, gilding, statuary, and murals

Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger

born March 19, 1873, Brand, Bavaria, Ger. died May 11, 1916, Leipzig German composer and organist. From 1890 to 1893 he studied at Sondershausen and Wiesbaden and taught piano, organ, and theory. By 1901, despite opposition to his traditional methods, he had established himself in Munich as a composer, pianist, and teacher. He became a prolific composer of songs, piano pieces, and especially organ music. His music, combining progressive and conservative elements and often highly chromatic, has always been more popular in Germany than elsewhere

Johann Baptist Strauss

born Oct. 25, 1825, Vienna, Austria died June 3, 1899, Vienna Austrian composer. His father, Johann Strauss the Elder, was a self-taught musician who established a musical dynasty in Vienna. A violinist, he played in a dance orchestra from 1819; when it split in two (1824), he took over the second group, for which he began to write waltzes, galops, polkas, and quadrilles, eventually publishing more than 250 works. As bandmaster of a local regiment, he also wrote marches, including the Radetzsky March. Johann the Younger left his family in 1842 and soon surpassed his father's popularity and productivity, becoming known as the "Waltz King." By inducing his brothers, Josef and Eduard, to take over his conducting duties, he gained more time to compose the symphonic waltzes for which he is best known, including The Blue Danube (1867) and Tales from the Vienna Woods (1868). His operettas include the popular Die Fledermaus (1874) and The Gypsy Baron (1885). Eduard's son Johann, a conductor and composer in Berlin, was the last of the dynasty

Johann Bauhin

{i} (1541-1613) Swiss botanist and son of Jean Bauhin

Johann Christian Bach

born Sept. 5, 1735, Leipzig died Jan. 1, 1782, London, Eng. German-born British composer. Youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, he studied with his brother Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Berlin before moving to Italy. In 1762 he became composer to the King's Theatre in London, where he would remain the rest of his life, becoming music teacher to the queen, and later the impresario (with Karl Friedrich Abel) of an important series of concerts (1765-81). He wrote some 50 symphonies, some 35 keyboard concertos, and much chamber music. His music, melodious and well formed but far from profound and with no trace of his father's influence, became an important prototype of the Classical style and influenced Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Johann Christian Fabricius

born Jan. 7, 1745, Tøndern, Den. died March 3, 1808, Kiel Danish entomologist. He studied at Uppsala University with Carolus Linnaeus and from 1775 taught not only natural history but also economics and finance at the University of Kiel. He advanced theories progressive for his time, particularly the view that new species and varieties could arise through hybridization and by environmental influence on anatomical structure and function. His taxonomic research was based on insect mouthparts rather than their wings

Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin

born March 20, 1770, Lauffen am Neckar, Württemberg died June 7, 1843, Tübingen German poet. He qualified for ordination but found himself more drawn to Greek mythology than to Christian dogma. In 1793 he was befriended by Friedrich Schiller, who helped him publish his early poetry. He produced works of passionate, expressive intensity, including his only novel, Hyperion (1797-99), the unfinished tragedy The Death of Empedocles, and a number of odes, elegies, and verse translations. In these works he naturalized the forms of Classical Greek verse in German and lamented the loss of an idealized Classical Greek world. His behaviour became erratic, and in 1805 he succumbed irretrievably to schizophrenia; he spent his last 36 years in a carpenter's house under the shadow of insanity. Little recognized in his lifetime, he was forgotten until the 20th century, when he came to be ranked among the finest of German lyric poets

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

Appointed professor of history at the University of Jena in 1789, he developed his epic masterpiece, the historical drama Wallenstein (1800). During a period spent formulating his views on aesthetic activity, he produced philosophical essays, exquisite reflective poems, and some of his most popular ballads. He spent his last years in ill health in Weimar, near his friend Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. His mature plays, including Maria Stuart (performed 1800) and Wilhelm Tell (1804), examine the inward freedom of the soul that enables the individual to rise above physical frailties and the pressure of material conditions

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

born Nov. 10, 1759, Marbach, Württemberg died May 9, 1805, Weimar, Saxe-Weimar German dramatist, poet, and literary theorist, one of the greatest figures in German literature. Schiller was educated at the direction of a domineering duke, whose tyranny he eventually fled to write. With his successful first play, The Robbers (1781), he took up the exploration of freedom, a central theme throughout his works. Don Carlos (1787), his first major poetic drama, helped establish blank verse as the recognized medium of German poetic drama. His jubilant "Ode to Joy" was later used in Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No

Johann Conrad Weiser

born Nov. 2, 1696, near Herrenberg, Württemberg died July 13, 1760, Womelsdorf, Pa. North American colonial Indian agent. He immigrated to New York in 1710 and lived briefly among the Iroquois before becoming a farmer and an Indian interpreter. In 1729 he moved to Pennsylvania, where he worked with the colony's Indian agent. He arranged agreements between Iroquois tribes and colonial governments that helped form a British-Indian alliance against the French

Johann David Ludwig Count Yorck von Wartenburg

born Sept. 26, 1759, Potsdam, Prussia died Oct. 4, 1830, Klein-ls, Silesia Prussian army commander. After serving with the Prussian army (1772-79) and Dutch army (1779-87), he rejoined the Prussian army and fought in Poland (1794) and later in the war against France (1806). Promoted to major general, he helped reorganize the army, developing the tactics of the infantry scout and the line of skirmishes. In 1812 he led the Prussian contingent of Napoleon's invading army into Russia. During the French retreat, he concluded an accord with Russia that opened the way for Prussia to join the Allied powers against Napoleon. He was made a count in 1814 and a field marshal in 1821

Johann Eck

orig. Johann Maier born Nov. 13, 1486, Egg, Swabia died Feb. 10, 1543, Ingolstadt, Bavaria German Roman Catholic theologian. He was ordained in 1508, became a doctor of theology in 1510, and began a lifelong career at the University of Ingolstadt. Initially friendly with Martin Luther, Eck assailed Luther's Ninety-five Theses as heretical. In 1519 he debated Luther and Andreas Karlstadt ( 1480-1541), and Leo X commissioned Eck to publish and enforce the papal bull condemning the Theses. Eck's treatise Enchiridion Against the Lutherans (1525) summarized contested Catholic beliefs, Protestant objections to them, and Catholic answers to the objections; it was Eck's most popular work and the best-known Catholic polemical handbook of the 16th century

Johann Faust

a German doctor and scholar of the early 16th century, who practised magic. A story developed about him that he had "sold his soul to the Devil" in exchange for knowledge and power. Many stories and pieces of music have been written about him, including the plays Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe and Faust by Goethe

Johann Faust

{i} Dr. Johann Georg Faust (c1480-c1541), German alchemist and legendary magician reputed to have sold his soul to the devil

Johann Friedrich Meckel

born Oct. 17, 1781, Halle, Prussia died Oct. 31, 1833, Halle German anatomist. He was the first to describe the embryonic cartilage (Meckel cartilage) that becomes part of the lower jaw in fishes, amphibians, and birds and also described a congenital pouch (Meckel diverticulum) of the small intestine. He wrote a treatise on pathological anatomy and an atlas of human abnormalities

Johann Friedrich Miescher

born Aug. 13, 1844, Basel, Switz. died Aug. 26, 1895, Davos Swiss biologist. In 1869 he discovered a substance containing both phosphorus and nitrogen in the nuclei of white blood cells found in pus. The substance, first named nuclein because it seemed to come from cell nuclei, became known as nucleic acid after Miescher separated it into a protein and an acid component. He also was one of the earliest researchers to propose that it is the carbon dioxide concentration (rather than the oxygen concentration) in the blood that regulates breathing

Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer

born Oct. 31, 1835, Berlin, Prussia died Aug. 20, 1917, Starnberg, near Munich, Ger. German research chemist. He synthesized indigo and formulated its structure, discovered the phthalein dyes, and investigated such chemical families as the polyacetylenes, oxonium salts, and uric-acid derivatives (discovering barbituric acid, parent compound of the barbiturates). He also made contributions to theoretical chemistry. He received the Nobel Prize in 1905

Johann Froben

or Johannes Frobenius born 1460, Hammelburg, Franconia died October 1527, Basel, Switz. German-born Swiss scholar and printer active in Basel. His first publication was a Latin Bible (1491). By 1515 he and three partners owned four presses, and later seven. His contributions to printing in Basel included popularizing roman type, introducing italic and Greek fonts, experimenting with cheaper and smaller books, and employing talented artists, such as Hans Holbein, the Younger, as illustrators. About 250 of his publications are known

Johann Georg Bodmer

born Dec. 6, 1786, Zürich, Switz. died May 30, 1864, Zürich Swiss inventor of machine tools and textile-making machinery. In 1824 he established a small factory in England to make textile machinery, and by 1833 he had a shop equipped with his own machine tools. Between 1839 and 1841 he patented more than 40 specialized machine tools that he then set up in an ingenious factory-type arrangement. A gear-making machine that cut teeth of predetermined pitch, form, and depth in a metal blank was especially noteworthy. Bodmer also patented various steam-engine devices and is credited with inventing the cylinder with opposed pistons

Johann Gottfried Galle

{i} (1812-1910 ) German astronomer who discovered Neptune in 1846 with Heinrich Louis d'Arrest

Johann Gottfried von Herder

born Aug. 25, 1744, Mohrungen, East Prussia died Dec. 18, 1803, Weimar, Saxe-Weimar German critic and philosopher. Trained in theology and literature, he initially worked as a teacher and preacher at Riga. As court preacher at Bückeburg, he produced works, including Plastik (1778) and Essay on the Origin of Language (1772), that made him the leading figure of the Sturm und Drang literary movement. In 1770 he met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who would be his associate for many years and with whom he would help lay the groundwork for German Romanticism. With Goethe's help, he received an appointment at Weimar in 1776; his Sporadic Papers (1785-97) and the unfinished Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man (1784-91), attempting to show that nature and history obey one system of laws, mark him as an innovator in the philosophy of history and an early proponent of the idea that a common culture, rather than political boundaries, defines a people. His later estrangement from Goethe resulted in a bitter enmity toward the whole Classical movement in German poetry and philosophy

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

born May 19, 1762, Rammenau, Upper Lusatia, Saxony died Jan. 27, 1814, Berlin German philosopher and patriot. Fichte's Science of Knowledge (1794), a reaction to the critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant and especially to Kant's Critique of Practical Reason (1788), was his most original and characteristic work. To demonstrate that practical reason is really the root of reason in its entirety, the absolute ground of all knowledge as well as of humanity altogether, he started from a supreme principle, the ego, which is independent and sovereign, so that all other knowledge is deducible from it. In his famous patriotic lectures Addresses to the German Nation (1807-08) he attempted to rally German nationalists against Napoleon. He is regarded as one of the great transcendental idealists. His son Immanuel Hermann von Fichte (1796-1879) was also a philosopher

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

{i} (1762-1814) German philosopher

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

born , Jan. 12, 1746, Zürich, Switz. died Feb. 17, 1827, Brugg Swiss educational reformer. Between 1805 and 1825 he directed the Yverdon Institute (near Neuchâtel), which drew pupils and educators (including Friedrich Froebel) from all over Europe. His teaching method emphasized group rather than individual recitation and focused on such participatory activities as drawing, writing, singing, physical exercise, model making, collecting, mapmaking, and field trips. Among his ideas, considered radically innovative at the time, were making allowances for individual differences, grouping students by ability rather than age, and encouraging formal teacher training

Johann Heinrich von Thünen

born June 24, 1783, Jever, Oldenburg died Sept. 22, 1850, Tellow, Mecklenburg German economist and agriculturalist. After carrying out research on his own estate into the relationship between the costs of commodity transportation and the location of production, he set forth his theories in The Isolated State (1826). He used an imaginary city, isolated in the middle of a fertile plain, to create a model of concentric zones of agricultural production. Heavy products and perishables would be produced close to the town, lighter and durable goods on the periphery; returns on the land would diminish as transport costs to the city increased. Thünen's model influenced many later writers on the subject

Johann Hermann Schein

born Jan. 20, 1586, Grünhain, Saxony died Nov. 19, 1630, Leipzig German composer. After singing as a boy in the chapel of the elector of Saxony, he studied music at the University of Leipzig. In 1616 he became cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, the post later held by Johann Sebastian Bach. In this capacity, he was an important teacher, became friends with Samuel Scheidt and Heinrich Schütz, and wrote sacred works that combined the vocal lyricism of Italian music with the Northern contrapuntal style. His Banchetto musicale (1617) is a collection of dances, perhaps the first in which dances are gathered into unified suites, with common thematic motifs. His sacred vocal works include Opella nova (1618-26) and the hymn collection Cantional (1627)

Johann Joachim Kändler

born 1706, Fischbach, Saxony died May 18, 1775, Meissen German Baroque sculptor. In 1731 he was engaged to reorganize the modeling department of the porcelain factory at Meissen; he held the position of chief modeler there from 1733 until his death. It was largely through Kändler's genius that Meissen porcelain gained world renown. Among his best-known works are his commedia dell'arte figurines, largely done between 1736 and 1744

Johann Joachim Winckelmann

born Dec. 9, 1717, Stendal, Prussia died June 8, 1768, Trieste, Austria German archaeologist and art historian. The son of a cobbler, he studied theology and medicine before he discovered Greek art. His essay Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks (1755) became a manifesto of the Greek ideal in education and art and was soon translated into several languages. After converting to Roman Catholicism, he moved to Rome (1755) and held important posts in the Vatican. There he wrote History of the Art of Antiquity (1764), which inaugurated the study of art history as a discipline and of archaeology as a humane science. His writings reawakened the popular taste for Classical art and were instrumental in generating the Neoclassical movement in the arts

Johann Kalb

born June 29, 1721, Hüttendorf, near Erlangen died Aug. 19, 1780, Camden, S.C., U.S. German army officer who fought in the American Revolution. He served in a German regiment of the French infantry from 1743. In 1768 the French sent him on a secret mission to the American colonies to determine their attitude toward Britain. In 1776 he obtained a commission in the Continental Army. He reached Philadelphia in July 1777 and was eventually appointed a major general by the Continental Congress. He became a strong admirer of Gen. George Washington and served with him at Valley Forge. In 1780 he joined Gen. Horatio Gates at Camden, S.C., in an abortive attack on British forces. After Gates was driven from the field, Kalb fought on and was mortally wounded

Johann Ludwig Tieck

born May 31, 1773, Berlin, Prussia died April 28, 1853, Berlin German writer and critic. He was educated at the universities of Halle, Göttingen, and Erlangen. His first works are associated with early Romanticism, the best appealing to the emotions rather than the intellect. Volksmärchen (1797) includes one of his best short novels, Blond Eckbert. This period culminated in the grotesque, lyrical plays Life and Death of St. Genevieve (1800) and Emperor Octavian (1804). Later his writing moved toward realism. While he was an adviser and critic at the Dresden theatre (1825-42), he became a great literary authority

Johann Müller

{i} (1436-1476) known as "Regiomontanus", German mathematician and astronomer who established the study of algebra and trigonometry in Germany

Johann Nepomuk Hummel

born Nov. 14, 1778, Pozsony, Hung. died Oct. 17, 1837, Weimar, Thuringia Austrian composer, pianist, and conductor. Hummel was a piano prodigy. Moving at age eight to Vienna, where his father was a conductor, he studied for two years with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. After five years of touring, he returned for further study and gave up public performance. He replaced Joseph Haydn as music director at the Esterházy palace but actually made his living teaching and composing for the theatre. In 1814 he recommenced performing with huge success, and he died wealthy. He composed a number of concertos and much chamber music

Johann Pachelbel

a German composer of Baroque music, famous especially for his Canon and Gigue in D major (1653-1706). (baptized Sept. 1, 1653, Nürnberg died March 3, 1706, Nürnberg) German composer and organist. Conservative musically, he was friendly with Dietrich Buxtehude and was the teacher of Johann Christoph Bach, who later gave lessons to his younger brother Johann Sebastian Bach. Though he wrote a huge amount of music, of which his organ chorale variations and Magnificat settings are especially remarkable, he is principally known today for a single piece, the extremely popular Canon in D Major, which he may not have written

Johann Sebastian Bach

a German musician, one of the most famous and admired European composers. He is especially famous for his organ music and his religious choral music (=for musicians and singers) , which is typical of the baroque style (1685-1750). born March 21, 1685, Eisenach, Thuringia, Ernestine Saxon Duchies died July 28, 1750, Leipzig German composer. Born to a musical family, he became a superbly well-rounded musician; from 1700 he held positions as singer, violinist, and organist. His first major appointment, in 1708, was as organist at the ducal court at Weimar. This was followed by a six-year stay (1717-23) as kapellmeister at the princely court of Köthen, which was in turn followed by his appointment as cantor at the great church of St. Thomas in Leipzig, where he would remain for the rest of his life. Imbued with the northern German contrapuntal style (see counterpoint) from early childhood, he encountered the lively Italian style, especially in the works of Antonio Vivaldi, about 1710, and much of his music embodies an immensely convincing melding of the two styles. At St. Thomas he wrote more than 200 church cantatas. His orchestral works include the six Brandenburg Concertos, four orchestral suites, and many harpsichord concertos, a genre he invented. His solo keyboard works include the great didactic set The Well-Tempered Clavier (1722 and 1742), the superb Goldberg Variations (1742), the massive but unfinished Art of the Fugue (1749), numerous suites, and many organ preludes and fugues. His surviving choral works include (in addition to the sacred cantatas) more than 30 secular cantatas, two monumental Passions, and the Mass in B Minor. His works, never widely known in his lifetime, went into near-total eclipse after his death, and only in the early 19th century were they revived, to enormous acclaim. He was perhaps the most accomplished organist and harpsichordist of his time. Today Bach is regarded as the greatest composer of the Baroque era, and, by many, as the greatest composer of all time

Johann Sebastian Bach

(1685-1750) German composer of classical music

Johann Stamitz

born June 19, 1717, Deutschbrod, Bohemia died March 27, 1757, Mannheim, Palatinate Bohemian-born German composer and violinist. He joined the elector's court in Mannheim 1741, and he soon became director of its orchestra, which he built into the finest in Europe. He wrote some 75 symphonies, in which he helped establish the four-movement form as the standard and introduced the orchestral crescendo to Germany from Italian music. He and his students (including his sons) made up what is called the "Mannheim School." His son Carl (1745-1801), also a composer and violinist, played in Mannheim, toured widely as a soloist, and wrote more than 50 symphonies

Johann Strauss

Johann Strauss (1804-1849, "the Elder"), Austrian violinist and composer; Johann Strauss (1825-1899, "the Younger", "the Waltz King"), Austrian composer famous for his many waltzes

Johann Strauss

an Austrian composer who wrote more than 400 waltzes including the very popular Blue Danube and Tales from the Vienna Woods (1825-99). born Oct. 25, 1825, Vienna, Austria died June 3, 1899, Vienna Austrian composer. His father, Johann Strauss the Elder, was a self-taught musician who established a musical dynasty in Vienna. A violinist, he played in a dance orchestra from 1819; when it split in two (1824), he took over the second group, for which he began to write waltzes, galops, polkas, and quadrilles, eventually publishing more than 250 works. As bandmaster of a local regiment, he also wrote marches, including the Radetzsky March. Johann the Younger left his family in 1842 and soon surpassed his father's popularity and productivity, becoming known as the "Waltz King." By inducing his brothers, Josef and Eduard, to take over his conducting duties, he gained more time to compose the symphonic waltzes for which he is best known, including The Blue Danube (1867) and Tales from the Vienna Woods (1868). His operettas include the popular Die Fledermaus (1874) and The Gypsy Baron (1885). Eduard's son Johann, a conductor and composer in Berlin, was the last of the dynasty

Johann Tserclaes count von Tilly

born February 1559, Tilly, Brabant, Spanish Netherlands died April 30, 1632, Ingolstadt, Bavaria Bavarian general in the Thirty Years' War. He gained military experience in the Spanish Army of Flanders fighting under Alessandro Farnese (1585) against the Dutch and in 1594 joined the emperor Rudolf II's army against the Turks. Appointed by Maximilian I of Bavaria to reorganize the Bavarian army (1610), Tilly created an efficient force that became the spearhead of the Catholic League in the Thirty Years' War. He led the League's forces to victories in the Battle of White Mountain (1620) and at Lutter (1626). In 1630 he added the imperial forces to his command. In 1631 he besieged the Protestant city of Magdeburg, but its destruction proved disastrous for him. Failing to stop the Swedish advance into Germany, he was defeated at Breitenfeld (1631) and was fatally wounded in a later battle

Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz

born June 19, 1717, Deutschbrod, Bohemia died March 27, 1757, Mannheim, Palatinate Bohemian-born German composer and violinist. He joined the elector's court in Mannheim 1741, and he soon became director of its orchestra, which he built into the finest in Europe. He wrote some 75 symphonies, in which he helped establish the four-movement form as the standard and introduced the orchestral crescendo to Germany from Italian music. He and his students (including his sons) made up what is called the "Mannheim School." His son Carl (1745-1801), also a composer and violinist, played in Mannheim, toured widely as a soloist, and wrote more than 50 symphonies

Johann Winckelmann

born Dec. 9, 1717, Stendal, Prussia died June 8, 1768, Trieste, Austria German archaeologist and art historian. The son of a cobbler, he studied theology and medicine before he discovered Greek art. His essay Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks (1755) became a manifesto of the Greek ideal in education and art and was soon translated into several languages. After converting to Roman Catholicism, he moved to Rome (1755) and held important posts in the Vatican. There he wrote History of the Art of Antiquity (1764), which inaugurated the study of art history as a discipline and of archaeology as a humane science. His writings reawakened the popular taste for Classical art and were instrumental in generating the Neoclassical movement in the arts

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

{i} (1749-1832) German poet novelist and dramatist, author of "Faust

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

a German poet and scientist, and one of the best known writers of plays and books of all time, famous especially for his play Faust (1749-1832). born Aug. 28, 1749, Frankfurt am Main died March 22, 1832, Weimar, Saxe-Weimar German poet, novelist, playwright, and natural philosopher. In 1773 Goethe provided the Sturm und Drang movement with its first major drama, Götz von Berlichingen, and in 1774 with its first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, an extraordinarily popular work in its time, in which he created the prototype of the Romantic hero. In 1775 he accepted an appointment at the ducal court at Weimar, where he would remain the rest of his life; his presence would establish Weimar as a literary and intellectual centre. His poetry includes lyrics in praise of natural beauty and ballads such as "The Elf King" (1782) that echo folk themes. Many early works were inspired by a series of passionate loves. Contact with classical Greek and Romantic culture during an Italian sojourn helped shape his plays, including Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787), Egmont (1788), and Torquato Tasso (1790), and the poems in Roman Elegies (1795). From 1794, Friedrich Schiller became his most important and influential friend. Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795-96) is often called the first bildungsroman; it was followed many years later by Wilhelm Meister's Travels (1821-29). His chief masterpiece, the philosophical drama Faust (Part I, 1808; Part II, 1832), concerns the struggle of the soul for knowledge, power, happiness, and salvation. Goethe also wrote extensively, if idiosyncratically, on botany, optics, and other scientific topics. In his late years he was celebrated as a sage and visited by world luminaries. The greatest figure of German Romanticism, he is regarded as a giant of world literature

Johann Wyss

a Swiss who wrote the very popular children's book Swiss Family Robinson (1743-1818)

Johann-Heinrich count von Bernstorff

born Nov. 14, 1862, London, Eng. died Oct. 6, 1939, Geneva, Switz. German diplomat. After entering the diplomatic service (1899), he represented Germany in London and Cairo before serving as ambassador to the U.S. (1908-17). During World War I he worked to facilitate mediation of the conflict with Woodrow Wilson but did not receive the support he expected from authorities in Berlin. He served as chairman of the German League of Nations Union until 1933, when he went into exile in Geneva

Bernard Johann Hermann Haitink

born March 4, 1929, Amsterdam, Neth. Dutch conductor. Originally a violinist, he first performed with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1956. From 1961 to 1988 he was its permanent conductor, and he left a wide-ranging recorded legacy. He also had a noteworthy opera career as head of the Glyndebourne (1978-88) and Covent Garden (from 1988) operas

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine

orig. Harry Heine born Dec. 13, 1797, Düsseldorf, Prussia died Feb. 17, 1856, Paris, France German poet. Born of Jewish parents, he converted to Protestantism to enter careers that he never actually pursued. He established his international literary reputation with The Book of Songs (1827), a collection of bittersweet love poems. His prose Pictures of Travel, 4 vol. (1826-31), was widely imitated. After 1831 he lived in Paris. His articles and studies on social and political matters, many critical of German conservatism, were censored there, and German spies watched him in Paris. His second verse collection, New Poems (1844), reflected his social engagement. His third, Romanzero (1851), written while suffering failing health and financial reverses, is notably bleak but has been greatly admired. He is regarded as one of Germany's greatest lyric poets, and many of his poems were set as songs by such composers as Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms

Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst

born Nov. 12, 1755, Bordenau, Hanover died June 28, 1813, Prague, Bohemia Prussian general. He joined the Hanoverian army in 1778 and served with distinction in Belgium against the French in the 1790s. An officer in the Prussian army from 1801, he taught at the war academy and became chief of staff in the war against Napoleon (1806). As head of the army reform commission (from 1807), he developed the modern general staff system and reorganized the Prussian army; with August von Gneisenau he devised the system of rapid military training and use of army reserves. After a forced retirement, he became chief of staff to Gebhard von Blücher (1813) and died of a wound received in the Battle of Lützen

Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann

born Nov. 15, 1862, Bad Salzbrunn, Silesia, Prussia died June 6, 1946, Agnetendorf, Ger. German playwright and poet. He studied sculpture before turning to literature in his early 20s. His first play, the starkly realistic social drama Before Dawn (1889), made him famous and signaled the end of highly stylized German drama. His naturalistic plays on themes of social reality and proletarian tragedy, including The Weavers (1892), The Beaver Coat (1893), and Drayman Henschel (1898), made him the most prominent German playwright of his era. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1912. In his novels, stories, epic poems, and later plays, he abandoned naturalism for mystical religiosity and mythical symbolism

Gregor Johann Mendel

{i} (1822-1884), Austrian monk and botanist who was known for his experiments with plant hybrids

Gregor Johann Mendel

an Austrian monk (=a member of a group of Christian men who live apart from other people) who studied the pea plant in order to find out how qualities are passed from parent plants to their children. Many years later his discoveries were used by scientists who were developing the new science of genetics (1822-84). born July 22, 1822, Heinzendorf, Austria died Jan. 6, 1884, Brünn, Austria-Hungary Austrian botanist and plant experimenter. He became an Augustinian monk in 1843 and later studied at the University of Vienna. In 1856, working in his monastery's garden, he began the experiments that led to his formulation of the basic principle of heredity. He crossed varieties of the garden pea that had maintained constant differences in such single alternative traits as tallness and dwarfishness, flower colour, and pod form. He theorized that the occurrence of the visible alternative traits of the plants, in the constant varieties and in their descendants, was due to the occurrence of paired elementary units of heredity, now known as genes. What was new in Mendel's interpretation of his data was his recognition that genes obey simple statistical laws. His system proved to be of general application and is one of the basic principles of biology. He achieved fame only after his death, through the work of Carl Erich Correns, Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg, and Hugo de Vries, who independently obtained similar results and found that both the experimental data and the general theory had been published 34 years previously

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein

born April 26, 1889, Vienna died April 29, 1951, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng. Austrian-born English philosopher, regarded by many as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. He was born into an immensely wealthy and cultivated family. In 1908 he went to Manchester, Eng., to study aeronautics. He soon developed an obsessive interest in the philosophy of logic and mathematics, and in 1911 he went to Cambridge to study logic with Bertrand Russell. Within a year he had learned all Russell had to teach; he then went to Norway, where he worked on logic in isolation in a wooden hut he built by the side of a fjord. There he developed in embryo what became known as the "picture theory" of meaning, a central tenet of which is that a proposition can express a fact by virtue of sharing with it a common structure, or "logical form." When World War I broke out he joined the Austrian army, winning several decorations for bravery while serving on the Russian front. During the war he worked on a manuscript that was later published as Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922). Believing that he had solved all the major problems of philosophy, he abandoned the subject after the war and spent the next 10 years as a schoolteacher and doing other odd jobs in a remote Austrian village. Meanwhile, the Tractatus had attracted the attention of philosophers in Cambridge and Vienna, including those of the Vienna Circle of logical positivists (see logical positivism), some of whose meetings Wittgenstein was persuaded to join. He returned to Cambridge in 1929. During the early 1930s his ideas changed rapidly, and he gradually abandoned the doctrines of the Tractatus; indeed, he began to conceive of philosophy in radically different terms, as not the construction of theories designed to answer philosophical questions but as the activity of clearing up conceptual confusions arising from inattention to or misunderstandings of ordinary uses of language. What became known as the works of the "later Wittgenstein" including Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics (1956), Philosophical Grammar (1974), Philosophical Remarks (1975), and especially Philosophical Investigations (1953) can be considered attempts to refine and definitively express this new approach. Though he worked with fierce energy and wrote prodigiously, he would allow none of his work from this period to be published in his lifetime. In 1939 he was appointed to the chair in philosophy at Cambridge previously held by G.E. Moore. Disliking professional philosophy, he resigned the post in 1947 to live in seclusion in Ireland and then with various friends. Diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1949, he continued working intensively until two days before his death. See also analytic philosophy

Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse

born March 15, 1830, Berlin, Prussia died April 2, 1914, Munich, Ger. German writer. An independent scholar, he led a circle of writers in Munich who sought to preserve traditional artistic values from the encroachment of political radicalism, materialism, and realism. His admired short stories and novellas were collected in numerous volumes; he also published novels, including Children of the World (1873) and Merlin (1892), and many unsuccessful plays. Among his best works are his translations of Giacomo Leopardi and other Italian and Spanish poets; many were set to music by Hugo Wolf. His popularity was already declining when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1910