List of German inventors and discoverers

This is a list of German inventors and discoverers. The following list comprises people from Germany or German-speaking Europe, and also people of predominantly German heritage, in alphabetical order of the surname.


For the list containing items and ideas invented and/or discovered by Germans, see list of German inventions and discoveries.

Existing:  A B C D E F G H  I   J  K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
See also Notes References External links

A

  • Ernst Abbe: Invented the first refractometer, and many other devices. Donated his shares in the company Carl Zeiss to form Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung, still in existence today.
  • Franz Carl Achard: Developed a process to produce sugar from sugar beet. Built the first factory for the process in 1802.
  • Robert Adler: Invented a better television remote control.
  • Konrad Adenauer: Invented soya sausage (1916; "Kölner Wurst")[1] and, together with Jean and Josef Oebel, [coarse] wholemeal bread (1917; Kölner Brot).[2]
  • Georgius Agricola: Named "the father of mineralogy".
  • Wilhelm Albert: Invented the wire rope 1834.
  • Kurt Alder: Discovery of the Diels–Alder reaction, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1950.
  • Richard Altmann: Discovery of the Mitochondrion
  • Alois Alzheimer: Psychiatrist who discovered Alzheimer´s disease, a degeneration of the brain in old age.
  • Momme Andresen (1857-1951): industrial research chemist who made inventions relating to photography
  • Ottomar Anschütz: in 1883 he patented a camera with an internal roller blind shutter mechanism, just in front of the photographic plate. Thus the focal-plane shutter in modern recognizable form was born.
  • Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe: Invented the gyrocompass in 1907.
  • Manfred von Ardenne: Self-taught researcher, applied physicist and inventor. 600 patents in fields including television and radio, electron microscopy, medical technology, nuclear technology, and plasma physics.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander: catalogued all stars brighter than approximately magnitude 9.5 and north of -2 degrees in the Bonner Durchmusterung, the first large-scale modern star catalogue.
  • Leo Arons: Mercury-vapor lamp together with Peter Cooper Hewitt.
  • Leopold Auerbach: Discovery of Plexus myentericus Auerbachi, or Auerbach's plexus.
  • Max Abraham: Physicist. Worked as Max Planck's assistant for three years. Developed theories on electrons.

B

Martin Behaim's Globe 1493
Carl Benz
Ludwig Bölkow, instrumental in the development of the Me 262

C

Carl von Clausewitz, father of modern military theory.

D

Gottlieb Daimler, co-founder of Mercedes-Benz

E

Albert Einstein in 1921, the year he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics
  • Paul Ehrlich: Scientist in the fields of hematology, immunology, and chemotherapy, and Nobel laureate. Developed an effective treatment against syphilis.
  • Albert Einstein: Theoretical physicist, key 20th century scientist and cultural icon.
  • Ludwig Elsbett: Developed new concepts for Diesel engines which drastically enhanced efficiency.
  • Douglas Engelbart: German American inventor of the computer mouse.
  • Evaristo Conrado Engelberg: Inventor in 1885 of a machine used to remove the husks from rice and coffee, the Engelberg huller.
  • Friedrich Engels: He invented together with Karl Marx the economic and sociopolitical worldview Marxism.
  • Hugo Erdmann: Chemist who discovered, together with his doctoral advisor Jacob Volhard, the Volhard-Erdmann cyclization. In 1898 he was the first who coined the term noble gas (the original noun is Edelgas in German).[5]
  • Hugo Erfurt: Ingrain wallpaper
  • Gerhard Ertl: German physicist who laid the foundation of modern surface chemistry, which has helped explain how fuel cells produce energy without pollution, how catalytic converters clean up car exhausts and even why iron rusts, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. Nobel laureate as of 2007.
  • Leonhard Euler: Swiss mathematician and physicist. One of the most influential mathematicians of the 18th century.
  • Emil Erlenmeyer: German chemist known for contributing to the early development of the theory of structure, formulating the Erlenmeyer rule, and designing the Erlenmeyer flask or the conical flask, a type of chemical flask, which is named after him.

F

Werner Forssmann (1904 - 1979)
Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787 - 1826)

G

Fagus Factory, designed by Walter Gropius and Adolf Mayer
  • Johann Galle: astronomer, discovery of planet Neptune
  • Hermann Ganswindt: Inventor and spaceflight scientist, whose inventions (such as the dirigible, the helicopter, and the internal combustion engine) are thought to have been ahead of his time.
  • Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss: German mathematician and physical scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics. Sometimes referred to as "the Prince of Mathematicians".
  • Hans Geiger: Inventor of the Geiger–Müller counter in 1928. It detects the emission of nuclear radiation through the ionization produced in a low-pressure gas in a Geiger–Müller tube. Further improved by Walther Müller.
  • Heinrich Geißler: Inventor of the Geissler tube.
  • Reinhard Genzel: Astrophysicist, he and his group were the first to track the motions of stars at the centre of the Milky Way and show that they were orbiting a very massive object, probably a supermassive black hole.
  • Walter Gerlach: Physicist who co-discovered spin quantization in a magnetic field, the Stern–Gerlach effect.
  • Edmund Germer: Inventor of the neon lamp (Neonlampe).
  • Max Giese: Inventor of the first concrete pump in 1928.
  • Heinrich Göbel: Inventor of Hemmer for Sewing Machines, 1865,[6] Vacuum Pump (Improvement of the Geissler-System of vacuum pumps, 1881[7] and Electric Incandescent Lamp (sockets to connect the filament of carbon and the conducting wires), 1882[8]
  • Kurt Gödel: Important discoveries in math and logic, such as the incompleteness theorems
Johannes Gutenberg in a 16th-century copper engraving

H

Otto Hahn, the first man to split the atomic nucleus
  • Fritz Haber: German chemist and Nobel laureate who pioneered synthetic ammonia and chemical warfare.
  • Theodor W. Hänsch: Physicist, developed laser-based precision spectroscopy further to determine optical frequency extremely accurately. Nobel laureate in 2005.
  • Otto Hahn: German chemist and Nobel laureate who pioneered the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. Considered to be "the father of nuclear chemistry" and the "founder of the atomic age". Discovered many isotopes, Protactinium and nuclear fission.
  • Samuel Hahnemann: Physician, best known for creating a system of alternative medicine called homeopathy.
  • Harald zur Hausen: Virologist, discovered the role of papilloma viruses in the development of cervical cancer. His research made the development of a vaccine against papilloma possible, which will drastically reduce cervical cancer in future. Nobel laureate as of 2008.
  • Werner Heisenberg: Theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to quantum mechanics. Discovered a particle's position and velocity cannot be known at the same time. Discovered atomic nuclei are made of protons and neutrons.
  • Wolfgang Helfrich: Co-inventor of Twisted nematic field effect.
  • Rudolf Hell: Inventor of the first fax machine (Hellschreiber).
  • Richard Hellmann: Hellmann's (Blue Ribbon) Mayonnaise, 1905.
  • Hermann von Helmholtz: Discovered the principle of conservation of energy.
  • Peter Henlein: Inventor of the portable watch.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel (William Herschel): Discovered the planet Uranus and infrared radiation among other things.
  • Heinrich Hertz: Physicist, Discoverer of electromagnetic/radio waves.
  • Otto Herzog: First use of the Carabiner in mountain climbing which substantially enhanced security for mountaineers.
  • Victor Francis Hess: Discovered Cosmic rays. Also won the Nobel Prize.
  • David Hilbert: Influential mathematician who discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in math.
  • Albert Hofmann: German-Swiss; Discovered the chemical properties of chitin and lysergic acid diethylamide.
  • Wilhelm Hofmeister: Discovery of the Alternation of generations
  • Felix Hoffmann: Isolated acetylsalicylic acid, a painkiller marketed under the name Aspirin (Bayer), 1897. In some English speaking countries marketed under the name disprin.
  • Herman Hollerith: a German American statistician who developed a mechanical tabulator based on punched cards
  • Gottlob Honold: Inventor of the spark plug and the modern internal combustion engine, as well as headlights.
  • Horten brothers: Designed some of the most advanced aircraft of the 1930s and '40s, including the world's first jet-powered flying wing, the Horten Ho 229.
  • Christian Hülsmeyer: German inventor of the Telemobilskop, a radio-based detector of remote objects; a 1904 precursor of radar.
  • Alexander von Humboldt: Naturalist and explorer. His quantitative work on botanical geography was foundational to the field of biogeography.
  • Wilhelm von Humboldt: Originator of the linguistic relativity hypothesis.
  • Erich Huzenlaub: Huzenlaub Process for parboiling
  • Johannes Heidenhain: Invented the Metallur process. This lead-sulfide copying process made it possible for the first time to make exact copies of an original grating on a metal surface for industrial use. By 1943, Heidenhain was producing linear scales with accuracy of ± 15 µm and circular scale disks with accuracy of ± 3 angular seconds.
  • Karl Andreas Hofmann: German inorganic chemist who is best known for his discovery of a family of clathrates which consist of a 2-D metal cyanide sheet, with every second metal also bound axially to two other ligands. These materials have been named 'Hofmann clathrates' in his honour.

I

J

K

Monument to Robert Koch on his name square in Berlin.

L

Me 163 Replica designed by Alexander Lippisch.
  • Albert Ladenburg: isolated hyoscine
  • Eugen Langen: Entrepreneur, engineer and inventor, involved in the development of the petrol engine and the Wuppertal monorail.
  • Paul Langerhans: Islets of Langerhans, Langerhans cells
  • Max von Laue: Discoveries regarding the diffraction of X-rays in crystals.
  • Ernst Lecher: He is remembered for developing an apparatus— "Lecher lines"—to measure the wavelength and frequency of electromagnetic waves.
  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Philosopher known for discovering the mathematical field of calculus and coherently laying down its basic operations in 1684. The modern binary number system, the basis for binary code, was invented by Gottfried Leibniz in 1679 and appears in his article Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire.
  • Emil Lerp: inventor of transportable gasoline chainsaw, 1927
  • Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: German scientist credited with the development of the electrophorus. he is remembered for his posthumously published notebooks, which he himself called Sudelbücher, a description modeled on the English bookkeeping term "scrapbooks", and for his discovery of the strange tree-like electrical discharge patterns now called Lichtenberg figures.
  • Justus von Liebig: German chemist who made contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry.
  • Otto Lilienthal: Father of Aviation and first successful aviator. Main discovery was the properties and shape of the wing.
  • Carl von Linde: Engineer who, among other things, developed refrigeration and gas separation technologies.
  • Alexander Lippisch: Pioneer of aerodynamics, his most famous design is the Messerschmitt Me 163.
  • Ernst Litfaß: free-standing cylindrical advertising column.
  • Friedrich Loeffler: discovered the organism causing diphtheria (Corynebacterium diphtheriae) and the cause of foot-and-mouth disease (Aphthovirus). His description of the diphtheria bacillus, published in 1884.
  • Johann Benedict Listing: German mathematician who was a doctoral student under Carl Friedrich Gauss, he first introduced the term "topology", in a famous article published in 1847, although he had used the term in correspondence some years earlier. He (independently) discovered the properties of the half-twisted strip at the same time (1858) as August Ferdinand Möbius, and went further in exploring the properties of strips with higher-order twists (paradromic rings). He discovered topological invariants which came to be called Listing numbers. He also framed the Listing's law.
  • Hans Luedtke: German organist, musicologist and inventor who developed “Oskalyd” extended organs and keyboards with hexagonal keys arranged like honeycombs.

M

N

Walther Nernst, Nobel laureate
  • Thomas Nast: The German American "Father of the American Cartoon".
  • Walther Nernst: Inventor of the Nernst lamp and Nobel laureate 1920 in Chemistry.
  • Karl Nessler: Inventor of the permanent wave.
  • Paul Gottlieb Nipkow: Technician and inventor, the "spiritual father" of the core element of first generation television technology.
  • Emmy Noether: Mathematician. Groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics (Noether's theorem). Considered by many as the most influential woman in the history of mathematics.

O

P

  • Wolfgang Paul: Physicist. Co-developed the non-magnetic quadrupole mass filter which laid the foundation for what we now call an ion trap. Shared the Nobel Prize in 1989.
  • Hans von Pechmann: Chemist, renowned for his discovery of diazomethane in 1894. Pechmann condensation and Pechmann pyrazole synthesis.
  • Rudolf Peierls: nuclear physicist.
  • Julius Richard Petri: Bacteriologist who is generally credited with inventing the Petri dish while working as assistant to Robert Koch.
  • Emil Pfeiffer: Discovery of Infectious mononucleosis
  • Fritz Pfleumer: Inventor of magnetic tape for recording sound. He built the world's first practical tape recorder, called Magnetophon K1.
  • Joseph Pilates: inventor of the physical fitness system named after him: Pilates
  • Max Planck: Physicist, Scientist. He is considered to be the founder of the quantum theory, and one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century.
  • Robert Wichard Pohl: In 1938, together with Rudolf Hilsch, built first functioning solid-state amplifier using salt as the semiconductor.
  • Ludwig Prandtl: First to explain the boundary layer and its importance for drag and streamlining in aircraft in 1904. He established and headed the Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt in Göttingen, now Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization. During his tenure the first wind tunnel in Germany was built here, thereby establishing a specific design for wind tunnels (Göttingen type).
  • Johann Friedrich Pfaff: One of Germany's most eminent mathematicians during the 19th century. He studied mathematical series and integral calculus, and is noted for his work on partial differential equations of the first order (Pfaffian systems as they are now called) which became part of the theory of differential forms.
  • Julius Plücker: Framed the Plücker formula. He made fundamental contributions to the field of analytical geometry and was a pioneer in the investigations of cathode rays that led eventually to the discovery of the electron. He also vastly extended the study of Lamé curves.
  • Harald Popp: Inventor and audio engineer; father of audio compression format MPEG Audio Layer 3, more commonly known as MP3.

Q

R

Paul Reuter aged 53 years (1869) by artist Rudolf Lehmann

S

Hand mit Ringen: print of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen's first "medical" x-ray, of his wife's hand, taken on 22 December 1895 and presented to Professor Ludwig Zehnder of the Physik Institut, University of Freiburg, on 1 January 1896
Borosilicate glass as used in chemical labs - Type 3.3 according to (DIN ISO 3585)

T

U

  • Dietrich "Diedrich" Uhlhorn: Engineer, mechanic and inventor, who invented the first mechanical tachometer (1817), between 1817 and 1830 inventor of the Presse Monétaire (level coin press known as Uhlhorn Press) which bears his name.

V

  • Abraham Vater: Professor of anatomy; Ampulla of Vater.
  • Richard Vetter: Developed the most fuel efficient condensing boiler for heating systems in 1980. Used in many houses in Europe.
  • Rudolf Virchow: "Father of modern pathology"; numerous discoveries in the area of medicine.
  • Hans Vogt: Invented sound-on-film (idea 1905) together with Jo Engl and Joseph Massolle, first sound-on-film for the public on 17 September 1922 in Filmtheater Alhambra, Berlin, Germany.
  • Woldemar Voigt (often: Waldemar Voigt): Physicist, who taught at the Georg August University of Göttingen. He worked on crystal physics, thermodynamics and electro-optics. He discovered the Voigt effect in 1898.
  • Waldemar Voigt (aerospace engineer): Chief designer at Messerschmitt's Oberammergau offices and pioneer of the Me 163 and Me 264, project leader of the development of Me P. 1101, Me P. 1106, Me P. 1110, Me P. 1111, Me P. 1112 and Me P. 1116.[13]
  • Jacob Volhard: Chemist who discovered, together with his student Hugo Erdmann, the Volhard–Erdmann cyclization.

W

Wankel engine, type DKM54 (1957)

X

Konrad Zuse's Z1; replica in the German Museum of Technology in Berlin

Y

Z

See also

Notes

  1. Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger (1770-1829), known as the "Flying Tailor of Ulm", started with flight experiments in Ulm, Germany, in the early 19th century. He gained experience in downhill gliding with a maneuverable airworthy semi-rigid hang-glider and then attempted to cross the Danube River at Ulm's Eagle's Bastion on 31 May 1811. The tricky local winds caused him to crash and he was rescued by fishermen, making him the first survivor of a water immersion accident of a heavier-than-air manned "flight machine". Though he failed in his attempt to be the first man to fly, Berblinger can be regarded as one of the significant aviation pioneers who applied the "heavier than air" principle and paved the way for the more effective glide-flights of Otto Lilienthal (1891) and the Wright Brothers (1902). Less known are Berblinger's significant contributions to the construction of artificial limbs for medical use, as well as the spring-application in aviation. His invention of a special mechanical joint was also used for the juncture of the wings of his "flying machine". Because of his worthwhile contributions to medicine and flight, in 1993 the German Academy of Aviation Medicine named an annual award for young scientists in the field of aerospace medicine in his honor.

References

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  3. John M. Barry, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (New York: Penguin Books, 2005) 70.
  4. "Blattnerphone", Orbem.co.uk, retrieved 07 February 2014
  5. Renouf, Edward (1901-02-15). "Noble gases". Science. 13 (320): 268–270. Bibcode:1901Sci....13..268R. doi:10.1126/science.13.320.268.
  6. "Retrieving Patent from PAT2PDF.org - Free PDF copies of patents: Download and print!". Pat2pdf.org. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  7. "Retrieving Patent from PAT2PDF.org - Free PDF copies of patents: Download and print!". Pat2pdf.org. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
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  9. "Wilhelm Schickard invented a calculating machine, - Computing History". www.computinghistory.org.uk. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  10. "Things that Count - Early Evolution of the Modern Calculator". metastudies.net. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  11. "Christian Friedrich Schönbein". Epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  12. Androulakis, Ioannis. "How coins were minted in the past". Fleur-de-coin.com. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  13. Boyne, Walter J. (1980). Messerschmitt Me 262 : arrow to the future. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-87474-276-3.
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