Famous People in German History
Read about some of Germany's celebrated figures in history.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of the most significant theologians of the twentieth century. His involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent execution by hanging in April 1945, 23 days before the Nazis' surrender, aged 39. His view of Christianity's role in the secular world has become very influential.
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Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894) was the first to send and receive radio waves. As a professor of physics at Karlsruhe Polytechnic, Hertz produced electromagnetic waves in the laboratory and measured their wavelength and velocity.
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Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) was a German painter, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg. His watercolours mark him as one of the first European landscape artists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium.
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Queen Louise of Prussia influenced her contemporaries and modern Germany probably more than any other woman. She was often called the “Queen of Hearts” because she impressed those around her with her charm, charisma and cheerful, friendly nature. The royal couple’s comparatively simple, down-to-earth way of life and their caring relationships as spouses and parents were the reason for the Queen’s popularity, particularly among the middle class. This popularity and Louise’s premature death in 1810 at the age of 34 soon led to cult-like adulation of the Queen that continues to the present day.
Queen Louise of Prussia
Fairy tales have a long tradition in Germany. One of the best-known and best-loved storytellers to this day is Jacob Grimm. Together with his brother Wilhelm, they began their career by intensively researching Germany’s wealth of myths and legends.
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Herbert Eiden of the Department of History at the University of Essex on England’s dynastic connections with continental Europe - and especially with the German nobility. Richard, Duke of Cornwall, was elected King of Germany in 1257.
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