Friedrich Leopold Baron von Hardenberg Baeyer Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Beilstein Friedrich Konrad Benz Karl Friedrich Bernhardi Friedrich von Bessel Friedrich Wilhelm Beust Friedrich Ferdinand count von Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht Brugmann Friedrich Karl Chrysander Karl Franz Friedrich Cohnheim Julius Friedrich Diez Friedrich Christian Dürrenmatt Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Engels Friedrich Flick Friedrich Friedrich Wilhelm Frege Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Friedrich Caspar David Froebel Friedrich Wilhelm August Friedrich Wilhelm Fröbel Gauss Carl Friedrich Johann Friedrich Carl Gauss Gentz Friedrich Goerdeler Karl Friedrich Gräfe Albrecht Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst von Hahnemann Christian Friedrich Samuel Georg Friedrich Händel Hayek Friedrich August von Hebbel Christian Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Henle Friedrich Gustav Jacob Hölderlin Johann Christian Friedrich Holstein Friedrich August von Jahn Friedrich Ludwig Kotzebue August Friedrich Ferdinand von Friedrich Kreisler List Georg Friedrich Löffler Friedrich August Johannes Ludwig Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Meckel Johann Friedrich Miescher Johann Friedrich Mörike Eduard Friedrich Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe Niemöller Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald Friedrich Wilhelm Paulus Friedrich Riemann Georg Friedrich Bernhard Savigny Friedrich Karl von Schelling Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schinkel Karl Friedrich Schlegel Friedrich von Schleiermacher Friedrich Ernst Daniel Schumacher Ernst Friedrich Stein Heinrich Friedrich Karl imperial baron vom und zum Struve Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Friedrich Weyerhaeuser Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig Karl Eitel Friedrich prince von Hohenzollern Sigmaringen Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr baron von Kekule von Stradonitz Friedrich August Friedrich August Kekule
born June 24, 1852, Frankfurt an der Oder, Prussia died April 9, 1915, Berlin, Ger. German bacteriologist. In 1884, with Edwin Klebs (1834-1913), he discovered the organism that causes diphtheria. Simultaneously with Émile Roux (1853-1933) and Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943), he indicated the existence of a diphtheria toxin. His demonstration that some animals are immune to diphtheria was basic to Emil von Behring's work in developing antitoxins. Löffler also discovered the cause of some swine diseases and identified, with Wilhelm Schütz, the organism that causes the horse disease glanders. With Paul Frosch he found that foot-and-mouth disease is caused by a virus (the first time a virus was found to be the agent of an animal disease) and developed a serum against it
orig. (Friedrich) August Kekule born Sept. 7, 1829, Darmstadt, Hesse died July 13, 1896, Bonn German chemist who laid the groundwork for modern structural theory in organic chemistry. His early training in architecture may have helped him conceive his theories. In 1858 he showed that carbon has a valence of four and that its atoms can link together to form long chains. He is said to have dreamed in 1865 of a benzene molecule as a snake biting its own tail and thus conceptualized the six-carbon benzene ring; the facts of organic chemistry known up to that time then fell into place. He also did valuable work on mercury compounds, unsaturated acids, and thio acids and wrote a four-volume textbook
orig. (Friedrich) August Kekule born Sept. 7, 1829, Darmstadt, Hesse died July 13, 1896, Bonn German chemist who laid the groundwork for modern structural theory in organic chemistry. His early training in architecture may have helped him conceive his theories. In 1858 he showed that carbon has a valence of four and that its atoms can link together to form long chains. He is said to have dreamed in 1865 of a benzene molecule as a snake biting its own tail and thus conceptualized the six-carbon benzene ring; the facts of organic chemistry known up to that time then fell into place. He also did valuable work on mercury compounds, unsaturated acids, and thio acids and wrote a four-volume textbook
born May 8, 1899, Vienna, Austria died March 23, 1992, Freiburg, Ger. Austrian-born British economist. He moved to London in 1931 and held positions at the University of London and the London School of Economics, becoming a British citizen in 1938. Later posts included a professorship at the University of Chicago (1950-62). Throughout his life Hayek criticized socialism, often contrasting it with a system of free markets. In his works he opposed the theories of John Maynard Keynes and argued that government intervention in the free market is destructive of individual values and could not prevent such economic ailments as inflation, unemployment, and recession. His books include The Road to Serfdom (1944), The Constitution of Liberty (1960), and The Political Order of a Free People (1979). His views have been highly influential among conservatives, including Margaret Thatcher. In 1974 he shared the Nobel Prize with Gunnar Myrdal
born April 24, 1837, Schwedt an der Oder, Pomerania died May 8, 1909, Berlin, Ger. German diplomat. A member of the German foreign office from 1876, he never became foreign minister but exercised power behind the scenes, earning the nickname "the Gray Eminence." He broke with Otto von Bismarck over his alignment with Russia, as Holstein advocated a firm alliance with Austria and Britain. After Bismarck's dismissal in 1890, Holstein advised against the renewal of the Reinsurance Treaty. He held important posts under Chancellors Leo, count von Caprivi, Chlodwig, prince zu Hohenlohe-Schillingfürst, and Bernhard, prince von Bülow, but he proved powerless to oppose the policies of Emperor William II and was dismissed in 1906
born March 15, 1794, Giessen, Hesse-Darmstadt died May 29, 1876, Bonn, Ger. German linguist, regarded as the founder of Romance philology. He began his career as a scholar of medieval Provençal poetry and taught literature at the University of Bonn from 1823 to the end of his life. Diez applied the methodology of comparative linguistics pioneered by Jacob Grimm and Franz Bopp to the Romance languages. In his Grammar of the Romance Languages (1836-44) and Etymological Dictionary of the Romance Languages (1853), he demonstrated the relationship of "Vulgar" or Spoken Latin to Classical Latin and the evolution of Romance languages from Spoken Latin into their modern forms
born July 8, 1826, Lübtheen, Mecklenburg died Sept. 3, 1901, Hamburg German musicologist. Trained as a schoolteacher, he soon became involved in music scholarship and published studies of folk song (1853). One of the founders of the discipline of musicology (with Philipp Spitta and Guido Adler), he wrote on a wide range of subjects, but his great project was the first edition of the complete works of George Frideric Handel, to which he devoted the years 1858-94
born Jan. 5, 1921, Konolfingen, near Bern, Switz. died Dec. 14, 1990, Neuchâtel Swiss playwright. His plays, showing the influence of Bertolt Brecht as well as the Theatre of the Absurd, were central to the post-1945 revival of the German theatre. In his first three plays, All as It Is Written (1947), The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi (1952), and An Angel Comes to Babylon (1953), he took comic liberties with historical facts to present parables about modern life. His play The Visit (1956) and the modern morality play The Physicists (1962) earned him international acclaim. After 1970 he wrote adaptations, detective novels, radio plays, and essays. His works have been translated into more than 50 languages
born Feb. 4, 1871, Heidelberg, Ger. died Feb. 28, 1925, Berlin German politician. A journeyman saddler and trade unionist, he became chairman of the German Social Democratic Party in 1913. Under his leadership, the Social Democratic movement gained increasing influence in German national politics. After revolution broke out in 1918, he formed a Socialist coalition government. He helped bring about the Weimar constitution and in 1919 was elected the first president of the Weimar Republic. Facing threats to the new government, he waged a civil war, assisted by the Freikorps, against Socialists and Communists and suppressed the Kapp Putsch. His authority was weakened in 1923 by the crisis over the Ruhr occupation, his party's withdrawal from the governing coalition, and Adolf Hitler's abortive Beer Hall Putsch. He died in office
a German political thinker and revolutionary who, together with Karl Marx, wrote The Communist Manifesto and developed the political system of Communism (1820-95). born Nov. 28, 1820, Barmen, Rhine Province, Prussia died Aug. 5, 1895, London, Eng. German socialist philosopher. Son of a factory owner, he eventually became a successful businessman himself, never allowing his criticism of capitalism to interfere with the profitable operations of his firm. As a young man, he developed an interest in the philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel as expounded by the Young Hegelians, and he became persuaded that the logical consequence of Hegelianism and dialectic was communism. In 1844 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England. With Karl Marx, whom he met in Cologne, he formed a permanent partnership to promote the socialist movement. After persuading the second Communist Congress to adopt their views, the two men were authorized to draft the Communist Manifesto (1848). After Marx's death (1883), Engels served as the foremost authority on Marx and Marxism. Aside from his own books, he completed volumes 2 and 3 of Das Kapital on the basis of Marx's uncompleted manuscripts and rough notes
born Nov. 21, 1768, Breslau, Silesia, Prussia died Feb. 12, 1834, Berlin German theologian, preacher, and classical philologist. A member of the clergy from 1796, he taught at the University of Berlin from 1810 to his death. In On Religion (1799), he contended that the Romantics were not as far from religion as they thought. In 1817 he helped unite Prussia's Lutheran and Reformed churches. His major work, The Christian Faith (1821-22), is a systematic interpretation of Christian dogmatics. His work influenced theology through the 19th and early 20th centuries; he is generally recognized as the founder of modern Protestant theology
born Jan. 13, 1809, Dresden, Saxony died Oct. 24, 1886, Schloss Altenberg, near Vienna, Austria-Hungary German statesman. A career diplomat in Saxony from 1830, he served as its foreign minister (1849-53) and its interior minister (1853-66). Often opposed to Otto von Bismarck, Beust was forced to resign in 1866. Saxony's ally, the Habsburg emperor Francis Joseph, then appointed him Austrian minister for foreign affairs (1866) and imperial chancellor (1867-71). As chancellor, Beust negotiated the Compromise of 1867 and helped restore the Habsburgs' international position. He later served as ambassador to England (1871-78) and France (1878-82)
born July 10, 1883, Ernsdorf, near Bonn, Ger. died July 20, 1972, near Lake Constance, Switzerland German industrialist. Before World War II he built an industrial empire that included iron-ore and coal mines, steel mills, trucks, airplanes, and munitions. He became Adolf Hitler's biggest industrial supplier, and at the Nürnberg trials he was convicted of using slave labour in his mines and plants. Though much of his empire was confiscated, he later amassed another fortune in coal and steel, and at the time of his death was probably West Germany's wealthiest man
or Friedrich Wilhelm Fröbel born April 21, 1782, Oberweissbach, Thuringia, Ernestine Saxony died June 21, 1852, Marienthal, near Bad Liebenstein, Thuringia German educator and founder of the kindergarten. Influenced by the theories of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, he founded an infant school in 1837 that he later called the Kindergarten, or "garden of children." He believed in "self-activity" and play as essential factors in child education, the teacher's role being not to drill or indoctrinate but rather to encourage self-expression through play. He greatly influenced modern techniques in preschool education, including the ideas of John Dewey
born May 2, 1764, Breslau, Silesia, Prussia died June 9, 1832, Vienna, Austria German political journalist. Strongly influenced by Edmund Burke, he published journals and pamphlets analyzing events from the viewpoint of a conservative liberal and compared the French Revolution unfavorably to the American Revolution. After serving in the Prussian civil service (1785-1803), he moved to Vienna, where he became from 1812 the propagandist and confidential adviser for Klemens, prince von Metternich. He served as secretary-general to the various congresses that convened after Napoleon's defeat
born April 15, 1793, Altona, Den. died Nov. 23, 1864, St. Petersburg, Russia German-born Russian astronomer. He left Germany for Russia in 1808 to avoid conscription in the Napoleonic armies; he subsequently joined the faculty at the University of Dorpat and became director of its observatory. The founder of the modern study of binary stars, he measured some 3,000 binaries in his survey of more than 120,000 stars. He was also among the first to measure stellar parallax. In 1835, at the request of Tsar Nicholas I, he went to Pulkovo to supervise construction of a new observatory, becoming its director in 1839. His son, Otto Struve (1819-1905), served as director of Pulkovo Observatory (1862-89); his grandson Gustav Wilhelm Ludwig Struve (1858-1920) was director of University of Kharkov observatory; Otto Struve was his great-grandson
born Jan. 14, 1892, Lippstadt, Ger. died March 6, 1984, Wiesbaden, W.Ger. German theologian. A war hero as a submarine commander in World War I, he became a minister in 1924. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, he protested their interference in church affairs and helped combat discrimination against Christians of Jewish background. As founder of the anti-Nazi Confessing Church, he worked to oppose Adolf Hitler. Arrested in 1937, he was interned until 1945. After the war he helped rebuild the Evangelical Church. Increasingly disillusioned with prospects for demilitarization, he became a controversial pacifist; for his efforts to extend friendship ties to Soviet-bloc countries, he received the Lenin Peace Prize (1967) and West Germany's Grand Cross of Merit (1971)
born July 15?, 1809, Fürth, Bavaria died May 13, 1885, Göttingen, Ger. German pathologist and anatomist. He published the first descriptions of the composition and distribution of the surface tissue of anatomical structures (epithelium) and of fine eye and brain structures. Henle embraced Girolamo Fracastoro's unpopular microorganism theory. His General Anatomy (1841) was the first systematic histology treatise. His Handbook of Rational Pathology (2 vol., 1846-53) described diseased organs in relation to their normal functions, opening the era of modern pathology
born March 18, 1813, Wesselburn, Schleswig-Holstein died Dec. 13, 1863, Vienna, Austria German poet and dramatist. After an early life marked by poverty, he became famous with the prose play Judith (1840), based on the biblical story. Among his later tragedies, Maria Magdalene (1843), portraying the lower middle class, and Gyges and His Ring (1856), probably his most mature and subtle work, are realistic psychological tragedies that make use of G.W.F. Hegel's concepts of history and moral values. The mythological trilogy Die Nibelungen (1862) grandiosely depicts the clash between heathen and Christian
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
born March 16, 1849, Wiesbaden, Nassau died June 29, 1919, Leipzig, Ger. German linguist. A professor of Sanskrit and comparative linguistics, he belonged to the Neogrammarian school, which asserted the inviolability of phonetic laws and adhered to strict research methodology. Among the best known of his 400 publications are the two volumes on sounds and forms that he contributed to the Outline of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-Germanic Languages (1886-93)
born Feb. 21, 1779, Frankfurt am Main died Oct. 25, 1861, Berlin, Prussia German jurist and legal historian. He was nobly born, and his privileged position enabled him to devote his life to scholarship. Teaching at the University of Berlin (1810-42), he helped found the influential "historical school" of jurisprudence. His six-volume History of Roman Law in the Middle Ages (1815-31) laid the foundation of the modern study of medieval law. He founded a system for establishing a modern German civil law with his eight-volume System of Modern Roman Law (1840-49), which also contained his system of international private law. A product of Romanticism, he regarded law as a reflection of a people's customs and spirit that could not be imposed artificially by means of rational, formal legislation
born Feb. 17, 1838, St. Petersburg, Russia died Oct. 18, 1906, St. Petersburg Russian chemist. From 1866 to his retirement he taught at St. Petersburg's Technical Institute. His Handbuch der organischen Chemie ("Handbook of Organic Chemistry"; 1st ed., 1880-83) fully described 15,000 organic compounds. The fourth edition (27 vol., 1937) is periodically supplemented, and remains indispensable for workers in organic chemistry
born Aug. 6, 1789, Reutlingen, Württemberg, Ger. died Nov. 30, 1846, Kufstein, Austria German-born U.S. economist. He first gained prominence as the founder of an association of German industrialists that favoured abolishing tariff barriers between the German states. Exiled in 1825 for his liberal views, he went to the U.S. In his Outlines of American Political Economy (1827) he maintained that a national economy in an early stage of industrialization required tariff protection to stimulate development. After becoming a U.S. citizen, he returned to Germany as U.S. consul at Baden (1831-34) and Leipzig (1834-37). His best-known work was The National System of Political Economy (1841). Financial and other difficulties eventually drove him to suicide
born Nov. 8, 1848, Wismar, Mecklenburg-Schwerin died July 26, 1925, Bad Kleinen, Ger. German mathematician and logician, inventor of modern mathematical logic and one of the founders of the analytic tradition in philosophy. He taught at the University of Jena from 1871 to 1917. His Begriffsschrift (1879, "Conceptscript"), was the first presentation of a system of mathematical logic in the modern sense. Using an original notation of quantifiers and variables, he was able to give formal expression to sentences containing multiple quantification, such as "Everybody loves someone"; this is impossible in the syllogistic derived from Aristotle, which had been considered complete until the time of Immanuel Kant (see predicate calculus). In the Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik he attempted to establish the doctrine later known as logicism. He also made significant contributions to the philosophy of language, including a highly influential theory of the distinction between sense and reference. Though Frege's work was admired by Bertrand Russell and the early Ludwig Wittgenstein, it was unknown to or ignored by most other philosophers and mathematicians during Frege's lifetime; its significance was not generally appreciated until the mid-20th century
born Aug. 11, 1778, Lanz, Brandenburg, Prussia died Oct. 15, 1852, Freyburg an der Unstrut, Prussian Saxony German educator who founded the Turnverein (gymnastic club) movement in Germany. As a teacher in Berlin from 1809, he began a program of outdoor exercise for students. He invented the parallel bars, rings, balance beam, horse, and horizontal bar, all of which have become standard equipment for gymnastics. In 1819 he came under suspicion for his fervent nationalism and strong influence on youth. He was arrested and imprisoned for almost a year; his gymnastic club closed, and a national ban was placed on gymnastics (lifted in 1842). He was awarded the Iron Cross for military bravery (1840) and served in the national parliament (1848-49)
born June 24, 1852, Frankfurt an der Oder, Prussia died April 9, 1915, Berlin, Ger. German bacteriologist. In 1884, with Edwin Klebs (1834-1913), he discovered the organism that causes diphtheria. Simultaneously with Émile Roux (1853-1933) and Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943), he indicated the existence of a diphtheria toxin. His demonstration that some animals are immune to diphtheria was basic to Emil von Behring's work in developing antitoxins. Löffler also discovered the cause of some swine diseases and identified, with Wilhelm Schütz, the organism that causes the horse disease glanders. With Paul Frosch he found that foot-and-mouth disease is caused by a virus (the first time a virus was found to be the agent of an animal disease) and developed a serum against it
a German philosopher whose most famous books are Thus Spake Zarathustra and The Antichrist. He wrote that 'God is dead', meaning that people no longer had to accept the values of the Christian religion. He believed that a new type of person would exist, the 'übermensch' or superman, who would be free to follow his own moral principles. (1844-1900). born Oct. 15, 1844, Röcken, Saxony, Prussia died Aug. 25, 1900, Weimar, Thuringian States German-Swiss philosopher and writer, one of the most influential of modern thinkers. The son of a Lutheran pastor, he studied at Bonn and Leipzig and at age 24 became professor of Classical philology at the University of Basel. He became close to the older Richard Wagner, in whose operas he saw the potential for the revival of Western civilization, but broke with Wagner angrily in 1876. His Birth of Tragedy (1872) contained major insights into ancient Greek drama; like Untimely Meditations (1873), it is dominated by a Romantic perspective also influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer. Mental and physical problems forced him to leave his position in 1878, and he spent 10 years attempting to recover his health in various resorts while continuing to write prolifically. His works from Human, All Too Human (1878) to The Gay Science (1882) extol reason and science, experiment with literary genres, and express his emancipation from his earlier Romanticism. His mature writings, particularly Beyond Good and Evil (1886), A Genealogy of Morals (1887), and Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-92), were preoccupied with the origin and function of values in human life. If, as he believed, life neither possesses nor lacks intrinsic value and yet is always being evaluated, then such evaluations can usefully be read as symptoms of the evaluator's condition. He fulminated against Christianity and announced the death of God. His major breakdown in 1889 marked the virtual end of his productive life. He was revered by Adolf Hitler for his dislike of democracy and his heroic ideal of the Übermensch (Superman), though the Nazis perverted Nietzsche's thought and ignored much in it that was hostile to their aims. His analyses of the root motives and values that underlie traditional Western religion, morality, and philosophy affected generations of theologians, philosophers, psychologists, poets, novelists, and playwrights
born Sept. 23, 1890, Breitenau, Ger. died Feb. 1, 1957, Dresden, E.Ger. German general in World War II. He became deputy chief of the German General Staff in World War II and commanded the German 6th Army in the Soviet Union. He was defeated in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, and the surrender of his army of 300,000 men ended Germany's offensive in Russia. While a prisoner, Paulus agitated against Adolf Hitler among the other German prisoners of war and later testified at the Nürnberg trials. After his release from prison (1953), he settled in East Germany
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
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
born Nov. 21, 1768, Breslau, Silesia, Prussia died Feb. 12, 1834, Berlin German theologian, preacher, and classical philologist. A member of the clergy from 1796, he taught at the University of Berlin from 1810 to his death. In On Religion (1799), he contended that the Romantics were not as far from religion as they thought. In 1817 he helped unite Prussia's Lutheran and Reformed churches. His major work, The Christian Faith (1821-22), is a systematic interpretation of Christian dogmatics. His work influenced theology through the 19th and early 20th centuries; he is generally recognized as the founder of modern Protestant theology
or Friedrich Wilhelm Fröbel born April 21, 1782, Oberweissbach, Thuringia, Ernestine Saxony died June 21, 1852, Marienthal, near Bad Liebenstein, Thuringia German educator and founder of the kindergarten. Influenced by the theories of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, he founded an infant school in 1837 that he later called the Kindergarten, or "garden of children." He believed in "self-activity" and play as essential factors in child education, the teacher's role being not to drill or indoctrinate but rather to encourage self-expression through play. He greatly influenced modern techniques in preschool education, including the ideas of John Dewey
born July 22, 1784, Minden, Brandenburg died March 17, 1846, Königsberg, Prussia German astronomer. He was the first to measure (by means of parallax) the distance to a star other than the Sun. One of his major discoveries was that the bright stars Sirius and Procyon make tiny motions explainable only by the existence of invisible companions disturbing their motions. His observation of tiny irregularities in the orbit of Uranus, which he concluded were caused by an unknown planet beyond, led to the discovery of Neptune. His mathematical functions for studying planetary motions became widely used in solving a wide range of differential equations
born Sept. 14, 1769, Berlin, Prussia died May 6, 1859, Berlin German naturalist and explorer. In 1792 he joined the mining department of the Prussian government, where he invented a safety lamp and established a technical school for miners. From 1799 he explored Central and South America, traveling in the Amazon jungles and the Andean highlands. During these journeys he discovered the connection between the Amazon and Orinoco river systems and surmised that altitude sickness was caused by lack of oxygen. He studied the oceanic current off the western coast of South America; it became known as the Humboldt Current (now the Peru Current). He returned to Europe in 1804. His research helped lay the foundation for comparative climatology, drew a connection between a region's geography and its flora and fauna, and added to an understanding of the development of the Earth's crust. In Paris he used his financial resources to help Louis Agassiz and others launch careers. In 1829 he traveled to Russia and Siberia and made geographic, geologic, and meteorologic observations of Central Asia. During the 1830s he investigated magnetic storms. The last 25 years of his life were spent writing Kosmos, an account of the structure of the universe as then known
born Jan. 27, 1775, Leonberg, Württemberg died Aug. 20, 1854, Bad Ragaz, Switz. German philosopher and educator. Inspired by Immanuel Kant, in his System of Transcendental Idealism (1800) he attempted to unite his concept of nature with the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. He held that art mediates between the natural and physical spheres when the natural (or unconscious) and spiritual (or conscious) productions are united in artistic creation. His view that the Absolute expresses itself in all beings as the unity of the subjective and the objective was criticized by G.W.F. Hegel. In Of Human Freedom (1809), he declared that mankind's freedom is real only if it is freedom for both good and evil, a position that forms the basis of his later philosophy. A major figure of post-Kantian idealism, Schelling had an important influence on Romanticism. See also Immanuel Kant; Kantianism
born Oct. 15, 1844, Röcken, Saxony, Prussia died Aug. 25, 1900, Weimar, Thuringian States German-Swiss philosopher and writer, one of the most influential of modern thinkers. The son of a Lutheran pastor, he studied at Bonn and Leipzig and at age 24 became professor of Classical philology at the University of Basel. He became close to the older Richard Wagner, in whose operas he saw the potential for the revival of Western civilization, but broke with Wagner angrily in 1876. His Birth of Tragedy (1872) contained major insights into ancient Greek drama; like Untimely Meditations (1873), it is dominated by a Romantic perspective also influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer. Mental and physical problems forced him to leave his position in 1878, and he spent 10 years attempting to recover his health in various resorts while continuing to write prolifically. His works from Human, All Too Human (1878) to The Gay Science (1882) extol reason and science, experiment with literary genres, and express his emancipation from his earlier Romanticism. His mature writings, particularly Beyond Good and Evil (1886), A Genealogy of Morals (1887), and Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-92), were preoccupied with the origin and function of values in human life. If, as he believed, life neither possesses nor lacks intrinsic value and yet is always being evaluated, then such evaluations can usefully be read as symptoms of the evaluator's condition. He fulminated against Christianity and announced the death of God. His major breakdown in 1889 marked the virtual end of his productive life. He was revered by Adolf Hitler for his dislike of democracy and his heroic ideal of the Übermensch (Superman), though the Nazis perverted Nietzsche's thought and ignored much in it that was hostile to their aims. His analyses of the root motives and values that underlie traditional Western religion, morality, and philosophy affected generations of theologians, philosophers, psychologists, poets, novelists, and playwrights
{i} Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philosopher who opposed Christianity and put forward the idea that "God is dead", conceiver of the idea of superman
born Sept. 2, 1853, Riga, Latvia died April 4, 1932, near Leipzig, Ger. Russian-German physical chemist. He moved to Germany in 1887. He wrote the influential Textbook of General Chemistry, 2 vol. (1885-87). With Jacobus H. van't Hoff in 1887 he founded the Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie, which became for many years the most important journal in the field. His work at the University of Leipzig (1887-1906) established it as a great school of physical chemistry. In 1888 he discovered Ostwald's law of dilution of an electrolyte. He gave the first modern definition of a catalyst in 1894 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1909 for his work on catalysis. His process for the conversion of ammonia to nitric acid proved of great industrial importance. He is regarded as one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry
born 1849, Estonia, Russian Empire died 1930 German soldier and military writer. He fought in the Franco-Prussian War and became commander of the Seventh Army corps in 1909. In 1911 he published Germany and the Next War, arguing that Germany had a right and responsibility to wage war to gain the power it deserved. The Allies later considered his book a contributing cause of World War I, in which Bernhardi served as a corps commander
born May 8, 1899, Vienna, Austria died March 23, 1992, Freiburg, Ger. Austrian-born British economist. He moved to London in 1931 and held positions at the University of London and the London School of Economics, becoming a British citizen in 1938. Later posts included a professorship at the University of Chicago (1950-62). Throughout his life Hayek criticized socialism, often contrasting it with a system of free markets. In his works he opposed the theories of John Maynard Keynes and argued that government intervention in the free market is destructive of individual values and could not prevent such economic ailments as inflation, unemployment, and recession. His books include The Road to Serfdom (1944), The Constitution of Liberty (1960), and The Political Order of a Free People (1979). His views have been highly influential among conservatives, including Margaret Thatcher. In 1974 he shared the Nobel Prize with Gunnar Myrdal
born April 24, 1837, Schwedt an der Oder, Pomerania died May 8, 1909, Berlin, Ger. German diplomat. A member of the German foreign office from 1876, he never became foreign minister but exercised power behind the scenes, earning the nickname "the Gray Eminence." He broke with Otto von Bismarck over his alignment with Russia, as Holstein advocated a firm alliance with Austria and Britain. After Bismarck's dismissal in 1890, Holstein advised against the renewal of the Reinsurance Treaty. He held important posts under Chancellors Leo, count von Caprivi, Chlodwig, prince zu Hohenlohe-Schillingfürst, and Bernhard, prince von Bülow, but he proved powerless to oppose the policies of Emperor William II and was dismissed in 1906
born March 10, 1772, Hannover, Hanover died Jan. 12, 1829, Dresden, Saxony German writer and critic. He contributed many of his projects and theories to journals such as Athenäum (1798-1800), the quarterly he and his brother August Wilhelm von Schlegel founded at Jena. His study of Sanskrit led him to publish Concerning the Language and Wisdom of India (1808), a pioneering attempt at comparative Indo-European linguistics and the starting point of the study of Indo-Aryan languages and comparative philology. His conception of a universal, historical, and comparative literary scholarship has been profoundly influential, and he is regarded as the originator of many of the philosophical ideas that inspired early German Romanticism
born May 22, 1828, Berlin, Prussia died July 20, 1870, Berlin German ophthalmologist. Using Hermann von Helmholtz's ophthalmoscope, he developed several operations for eye disorders, including iridectomy (removal of part of the iris) for glaucoma and lens extraction for cataract. He traced blindness and visual defects in some cerebral disorders to optic-nerve inflammation. Gräfe sign (diagnostic for Graves disease) is failure of the upper eyelid to follow the eyeball when looking downward. His writings include a Manual of Comprehensive Ophthalmology (7 vol., 1874-80). He is considered the founder of modern ophthalmology
born Dec. 3, 1883, Vienna died Sept. 15, 1945, Mittersill, near Salzburg, Austria Austrian composer. He learned piano and cello as a child and earned a doctorate in musicology at the University of Vienna, specializing in the music of the 15th-century Flemish composer Heinrich Isaac. In 1904 he and his friend Alban Berg began composition lessons with Arnold Schoenberg, and Webern was soon combining atonality with complex counterpoint in the manner of Isaac, producing works distinctive for their extreme brevity and delicacy. While Schoenberg was developing the 12-tone method (see serialism) of composition into the 1920s, Webern was independently moving in a similar direction. After Schoenberg presented the system in 1924, Webern adopted it, composing relatively extended pieces such as the Symphony (1928), Concerto (1934), and Variations for Piano (1936). He earned a living most of his life as a conductor. During Austria's occupation at the end of World War II, he was accidentally shot and killed by an American soldier. Though he was little appreciated during his lifetime, his works became highly influential internationally in the postwar decades
born May 3, 1761, Weimar, Saxony died March 23, 1819, Mannheim, Baden German playwright. He helped popularize poetic drama, which he infused with melodramatic sensationalism and sentimental philosophizing. Prolific (he wrote more than 200 plays) and facile, he is known for works such as the dramas The Stranger (1789) and The Indian Exiles (1790) and the comedies Der Wildfang (1798; "The Trapping of Game") and Die deutschen Kleinstädter (1803; "Small-Town Germans"). He was denounced by political radicals as a spy and stabbed to death
orig. Friedrich Leopold, Baron von Hardenberg born May 2, 1772, Oberwiederstedt, Prussian Saxony died March 25, 1801, Weissenfels, Saxony German Romantic poet and theorist. Born into a noble family, he took his pseudonym from a former family name. He studied law and then mining and in 1799 became a mine inspector. His beautiful Hymns to the Night (1800) expresses his grief on the death of his young fiancée. In his last years before his own death from tuberculosis at age 28, he drafted a philosophical system based on idealism and produced his most significant poetic work. His mythical romance Heinrich von Ofterdingen (1802) describes a young poet's mystical and romantic searchings
orig. Johann Friedrich Carl Gauss born April 30, 1777, Brunswick, Duchy of Brunswick died Feb. 23, 1855, Göttingen, Hanover German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. Born to poor parents, he was a prodigy of astounding depth. By his early teens he had already performed astonishing proofs. He published over 150 works and made such important contributions as the fundamental theorem of algebra (in his doctoral dissertation), the least squares method, Gauss-Jordan elimination (for solving matrix equations), and the bell curve, or Gaussian error curve (see normal distribution). Gauss made important contributions to physics and astronomy and pioneered the application of mathematics to gravitation, electricity, and magnetism. He also developed the fields of potential theory and real analysis. With Archimedes and Newton, he is one of the greatest mathematicians of all time
born Dec. 29, 1816, Witzenhausen, near Kassel, Hesse-Kassel died April 23, 1895, Leipzig, Ger. German physician. He invented devices to record arterial blood-pressure changes, measure blood flow, and separate gases from blood (which established their role in blood purification). He was the first to keep animal organs alive outside the body. His paper on urine secretion in 1844 hypothesized a filtering role for the kidney. Nearly 200 of Ludwig's students became prominent scientists, and he is regarded as the founder of the physicochemical school of physiology
born Nov. 18, 1786, Eutin, Holstein died June 5, 1826, London, Eng. German composer. Son of a musician and a theatre manager, and first cousin to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's wife, he was born with a deformed hip and was never strong. He took composition lessons with Michael Haydn (1737-1806) and with Abbé Vogler (1749-1814), who recommended him for a post in Breslau (1804-06). His operas began to have success, and he took over direction of the Prague Opera (1813-16), which he saved from ruin, but finding little time for composition, he resigned. Showing signs of the tuberculosis that would kill him, he began to compose more prolifically. Appointed kapellmeister for life in Dresden, he began work on his masterpiece, the opera The Freeshooter (1821), the premiere of which made him an international star. The libretto for his next opera, Euryanthe (1823), was so clumsy that its admirable music never succeeded, and his final opera, Oberon (1826), composed for London, was a success there but not elsewhere
born Sept. 5, 1774, Greifswald, Pomerania died May 7, 1840, Dresden, Saxony German painter. He studied at the Copenhagen Academy. After 1798 he settled in Dresden and began his career as a topographical draftsman in pencil and sepia wash. His first important oil painting, The Cross in the Mountains (1807-08), achieves an overwhelming sense of isolation. In 1824 he was appointed professor at the Dresden Academy. His vast, mysterious landscapes and seascapes, proclaiming human helplessness against the forces of nature, did much to establish the sublime as a primary focus of Romanticism. Interest in his work revived with the rise of Symbolism at the beginning of the 20th century
born March 18, 1813, Wesselburn, Schleswig-Holstein died Dec. 13, 1863, Vienna, Austria German poet and dramatist. After an early life marked by poverty, he became famous with the prose play Judith (1840), based on the biblical story. Among his later tragedies, Maria Magdalene (1843), portraying the lower middle class, and Gyges and His Ring (1856), probably his most mature and subtle work, are realistic psychological tragedies that make use of G.W.F. Hegel's concepts of history and moral values. The mythological trilogy Die Nibelungen (1862) grandiosely depicts the clash between heathen and Christian
born April 10, 1755, Meissen, Saxony died July 2, 1843, Paris, Fr. German physician, founder of homeopathy. Struck by the similarity of the symptoms quinine produced in the healthy body to those of the disorders it cured, he theorized that "likes are cured by likes" and proposed his doctrine that substances used this way are most effective in small doses. His chief work, Organon of Rational Medicine (1810), expounds his system. His Pure Pharmacology (6 vol., 1811) details the symptoms produced by testing a large number of drugs on healthy subjects
born Sept. 8, 1804, Ludwigsburg, Württemberg died June 4, 1875, Stuttgart German lyric poet. A clergyman, Mörike suffered all his life from psychosomatic illnesses and retired at age 39, supplementing his pension by lecturing on literature. His small literary output includes the novel Maler Nolten (1832), fairy tales, and Mozart on the Way to Prague (1856), a humorous examination of the problems of artists in a world uncongenial to art. His best works are his exquisite lyrics, notably the "Peregrina" poems, which immortalize a youthful love, and sonnets to a onetime betrothed; many were set to music by Hugo Wolf
born Aug. 16, 1911, Bonn, Ger. died Sept. 4, 1977, Romont, Switz. German-born British economist. After studying in England and the U.S., he settled in England in 1937. During World War II he worked on theories for full-employment policies and, under William H. Beveridge, plans for Britain's postwar welfare state. Between 1950 and 1970 he was an adviser to Britain's nationalized coal industry. After a visit to Burma in 1955, he came to believe that poor countries needed an "intermediate technology" adapted to the unique needs of each in order to develop. In the influential Small Is Beautiful (1973) he argued that capitalism brought higher living standards at the cost of deteriorating culture and that bigness especially large industries and large cities was unaffordable
born Sept. 17, 1826, Breselenz, Hanover died July 20, 1866, Selasca, Italy German mathematician. He studied at the Universities of Berlin and Göttingen and later taught principally at Göttingen. His dissertation (1851) was on function theory. He became convinced that mathematical theory could link magnetism, light, gravitation, and electricity and suggested field theories, in which the space surrounding electrical charges may be mathematically described. While continuing to develop unifying mathematical themes in the laws of physics, he created Riemannian geometry (or elliptic geometry), which proved essential to Albert Einstein's model of space-time in relativity theory. Riemann surfaces, Riemann integrals, and Riemann curvature, among other concepts, contributed to the understanding of curves and surfaces, as well as of calculus. With Carl Friedrich Gauss, Riemann helped establish Göttingen's reputation as a world leader in mathematical research. His work widely influenced geometry and analysis
born Aug. 6, 1789, Reutlingen, Württemberg, Ger. died Nov. 30, 1846, Kufstein, Austria German-born U.S. economist. He first gained prominence as the founder of an association of German industrialists that favoured abolishing tariff barriers between the German states. Exiled in 1825 for his liberal views, he went to the U.S. In his Outlines of American Political Economy (1827) he maintained that a national economy in an early stage of industrialization required tariff protection to stimulate development. After becoming a U.S. citizen, he returned to Germany as U.S. consul at Baden (1831-34) and Leipzig (1834-37). His best-known work was The National System of Political Economy (1841). Financial and other difficulties eventually drove him to suicide
a German philosopher who had great influence on European and US philosophy with books such as The Phenomenology of the Mind (1770-1831). born Aug. 27, 1770, Stuttgart, Württemberg died Nov. 14, 1831, Berlin German philosopher. After working as a tutor, he was headmaster of the gymnasium at Nürnberg (1808-16); he then taught principally at the University of Berlin (1818-31). His work, following on that of Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and F.W. Schelling, marks the pinnacle of post-Kantian German idealism. Inspired by Christian insights and possessing a fantastic fund of concrete knowledge, Hegel found a place for everything logical, natural, human, and divine in a dialectical scheme that repeatedly swung from thesis to antithesis and back again to a higher and richer synthesis. His panoramic system engaged philosophy in the consideration of all the problems of history and culture, none of which could any longer be deemed foreign to its competence. At the same time, it deprived all the implicated elements and problems of their autonomy, reducing them to symbolic manifestations of the one process, that of the Absolute Spirit's quest for and conquest of its own self. His influence has been as fertile in the critical reactions he precipitated as in his positive impact. His principal works are Phenomenology of Mind (1807), Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences (1817), and Philosophy of Right (1821). He is regarded as the last of the great philosophical system builders. See also Hegelianism
born Oct. 26, 1757, Nassau an der Lahn, Nassau died June 29, 1831, Schloss Cappenberg, Westphalia Prussian statesman. Born into the imperial nobility, he entered the civil service in 1780. As minister of economic affairs (1804-07) and chief minister (1807-08) to Frederick William III, he introduced wide-ranging reforms in administration, taxation, and the civil service that modernized the Prussian government. He abolished serfdom, reformed the laws on land ownership, and helped reorganize the military. Anticipating war with France, he was forced to resign under pressure from Napoleon (1808) and fled to Austria. As an adviser to Tsar Alexander I (1812-15), he negotiated the Russo-Prussian Treaty of Kalisz (1813) that formed the last European coalition against Napoleon
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
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
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
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
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
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
born July 20, 1839, Demmin, Prussia died Aug. 15, 1884, Leipzig German pioneer of experimental pathology. While assisting Rudolf Virchow, he confirmed that inflammation results from passage of leukocytes through capillary walls into tissues and that pus is mainly debris from their disintegration. His induction of tuberculosis in a rabbit's eye led to Robert Koch's discovery of the tuberculosis bacillus. His Lectures on General Pathology (2 vol., 1877-80) far outlasted contemporary texts. His method of freezing tissue for thin slicing for microscopic examination is a standard clinical procedure
born July 8, 1826, Lübtheen, Mecklenburg died Sept. 3, 1901, Hamburg German musicologist. Trained as a schoolteacher, he soon became involved in music scholarship and published studies of folk song (1853). One of the founders of the discipline of musicology (with Philipp Spitta and Guido Adler), he wrote on a wide range of subjects, but his great project was the first edition of the complete works of George Frideric Handel, to which he devoted the years 1858-94
born Nov. 25, 1844, Karlsruhe, Baden died April 4, 1929, Ladenburg, Ger. German mechanical engineer who designed and built the first practical automobile powered by an internal-combustion engine. The original car, his three-wheeled Motorwagen, first ran in 1885. Benz's company produced its first four-wheeled car in 1893 and the first of its series of racing cars in 1899. Benz left the company in 1906 to form another group with his sons. In 1926 the Benz company merged with the company started by Gottlieb Daimler
born July 31, 1884, Schneidemühl, Ger. died Feb. 2, 1945, Berlin German politician. He served as second mayor of Königsberg (1920-30) and mayor of Leipzig (1930-37). A member of the rightist German National People's Party, he had to resign as mayor of Leipzig when his relations with the Nazi Party deteriorated. He collaborated with conservative generals led by Ludwig Beck against Hitler, after whose overthrow Goerdeler was to become chancellor. When the July Plot failed in 1944, he went into hiding, but was soon arrested by the Gestapo in Poland and hanged
born March 13, 1781, near Brandenburg, Brandenburg died Oct. 9, 1841, Berlin German architect and painter. As state architect of Prussia (from 1815), he executed many commissions for Frederick William III and other royal family members. He based his work on the revival of various historical styles. His mausoleum for Queen Louise (1810) and the brick and terra-cotta Werdersche Kirche, Berlin (1821-30), are among the earliest Gothic Revival designs in Europe. Other works include the Greek Revival Schauspielhaus (1818) and Altes Museum (1822-30), both in Berlin. In 1830 Schinkel became director of the Prussian Office of Public Works; his work as a city planner resulted in new boulevards and squares in Berlin. His Romantic-Classical creations in architecture, landscape painting, and other related arts such as stage sets and ironwork made him the leading arbiter of national aesthetic taste in his lifetime
orig. Karl Eitel Friedrich, prince von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen born April 20, 1839, Sigmaringen, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen died Oct. 10 1914, Sinaia, Rom. King of Romania (1881-1914). Originally a German prince, he became prince of Romania in 1866, and when Romania gained full independence from the Ottoman Empire he was crowned its first king. He brought notable military and economic development along Western lines, but his neglect of festering rural problems led to the bloody peasant rebellion of 1907