Who are Germany's top ten famous people?

Answer 1

) Konrad Adenauer: (1876-1967) He was mayor of Cologne from 1917 until 1922. After the war he reassumed his position at the age of 69. Four years later he became the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic. He lead the rebuilding of West Germany and helped turn the nation into an economic powerhouse. He died at the age of 91 on April 19, 1967.

2) Martin Luther:A philosopher and Augustinian monk who challenged the Catholic church and helped create the Protestant church. He nailed his 95 Theses against the practice of selling indulgences to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. His translation of the bible is still used today. He died on February 2, 1546 in Eisleben and was laid to rest in the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

3) Karl Marx: Born in Trier Germany in 1818. He studied Law and after his father died he sought out a position as a journalist to make a living. He began attending socialist meetings and focussed his writing on criticizing the government. After threats of arrest he moved to France. While there he developed a friendship with Friedrich Engels and the two decided to form a partnership. They were deported from France and took up residence in Belgium. Together they published the Communist Manifesto. Marx and his family lived in great poverty until his death in March 1883.

4) Hans and Sophie Scholl : The Scholls' were siblings who helped to organize and lead the German resistence group called the White Rose. With other brave college friends, they secretly printed and disseminated a series of leaflets exposing the aims and evils of the Nazi government and calling on Germans to engage in passive resistence. They were captured by the Gestapo and found guilty. They were executed by Guillotine the same day. The other key members of the group were also beheaded later that summer.

5) Willy Brandt : He was born in Lübeck Germany in December 1913 as Herbert Ernst Frahm. He actively campaigned against Hitler and the Nazi Party. He fled to Norway in 1933 where he assumed his alias. In 1938 he was expatriated. Post-war, Brandt returned to Germany and resumed his activity in the SPD. His citizenship was restored and he became mayor of Berlin in 1957. In 1969 he became the fourth Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and is famed for his foreign policy. In 1974 he resigned because it was discovered that his personal assistant had been a spy for East Germany.

6) Johann Sebastian Bach : (1685 -1750) Born and raised in Thuringia. At the age of 9 he lost both of his parents. As a young man he studied music and worked at various musical jobs being apt at several instruments. He married his second cousin, Maria Barbara Bach and fathered seven children. After her death he married Anna Magdalena Wilcke and had 13 more children. He eventually reached his fame as a renowned virtuoso organist and was in constant demand as a teacher. He died in Leipzig in 1750 and is buried at St. John's cemetery.

7) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : (1749-1832). German novelist, poet, playwright, and scientist. Born in Frankfurt on August 28, 1749. Made important discoveries in connection with plant and animal life. During the French Revolution he supported freedom and progress but wanted to preserve the bourgeois way of life. He died on March 22, 1832 and is buried in a masusoleum in the ducal cemetery. The Geothe House stands in the town a statue of him is outside the National Theatre.

8) Johannes Gutenberg : (1400 approx-1468). German printer and pioneer in the use of movable type. His name does not appear on any of the works attributed to him. He used hand-set type cast in molds to print multiple copies of manuscripts. Whereas scribes copied manuscripts by hand before Gutenberg's invention, copying became mechanized and much faster thereafter. The invention of movable type printing facilitated an easier exchange of ideas throughout Europe and is credited with spreading the ideas of the Renaissance.

9) Otto Von Bismarck : (April 1,1815 - July 30, 1989). He was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia (1862-1890); he unified Germany with a series of wars and became the first Chancellor (1871-1890) of the German Empire. In foreign policy he devoted himself to keeping peace among the European powers of France, Austria, Germany and Russia. His belief was that Germany 's central location in Europe would cause it to be devastated in case of any war.

10) Albert Einstein : Born 14 March 1879 in Ulm, Einstein was educated in Switzerland. In 1894, he failed an examination that would have allowed him to study for a diploma as an electrical engineer. He ended up graduating in 1900 as a teacher of mathematics and physics, but had difficulty finding a position. He instead worked as a patent clerk but in 1905 he received his doctorate from the University of Zurich and by 1909 was revered in the field. He had relinquished his German citizenship as a young man, but moved back to Germany in 1914. He left again for a short visit to the US, just before the Nazis assumed power and never returned, renouncing his citizenship. He died 18 April 1855 in Princeton, New Jersey .