The first Jewish population in the region to be later known as Germany came with the Romans to the city now known as Cologne. A "Golden Age" in the first millennium saw the emergence of the

Ashkenazi Jews Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

, while the persecution and expulsion that followed the

Crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

s led to the creation of

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

and an overall shift eastwards. A change of status in the late Renaissance Era, combined with the Jewish Enlightenment, the

Haskalah The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...

, meant that by the 1920s Germany had one of the most integrated Jewish populations in Europe, contributing prominently to German culture and society. During

The Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europ ...

many Jews fled Germany to other countries for refuge, and the majority of the remaining population were killed. The following is a list of some famous Jews (by religion or descent) from Germany proper.

Historical figures

Politicians

* Fischel Arnheim, politician *

Ludwig Bamberger Ludwig Bamberger (22 July 1823 – 14 March 1899) was a German Jewish economist, politician, revolutionary and writer. Early life Bamberger was born into the wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish Bamberger family in Mainz. After studying at Giessen, Hei ...

, politician * Daniel Cohn-Bendit, member of European Parliament, student leader in 1968 * Wilhelm Dröscher, SPD politician * Kurt Eisner, Bavarian prime minister * , Mayor of Berlin from 1931 to 1933, (converted to Christianity) * Heinrich von Friedberg, jurist, statesman (converted to Christianity) * Karl Rudolf Friedenthal, Prussian politician (converted to Christianity) * Clement Freud, German-born British MP *

Rudolf Hilferding Rudolf Hilferding (10 August 1877 – 11 February 1941) was an Austrian-born Marxist economist, socialist theorist,International Institute of Social History, ''Rodolf Hilferding Papers''. http://www.iisg.nl/archives/en/files/h/10751012.php poli ...

, Finance Minister in 1923 and from 1928 to 1929 Malcolm Charles Sawyer, Philip Arestis
''A Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists''
*

Alex Himelfarb Alexander Himelfarb (born July 3, 1947) is a former senior Canadian civil servant and sometime academic. Early life and family Born in Germany, he was raised and educated in Toronto. He received a Ph.D. in sociology from University of Toron ...

, ambassador *

Helmut Schmidt Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Before becoming Ch ...

Chancellor of West Germany The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ger ...

(1974–1982) *

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...

, U.S. Secretary of State,

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

(1973) *

Ludwig Landmann Ludwig Landmann (18 May 1868 – 5 March 1945) was a liberal German politician of the Weimar Republic. Landmann belonged first to the National Social party, then the Progressive People's Party, and finally, after the German revolution of 1918, ...

, mayor of Frankfurt/Main * Eduard Lasker, co-founder of the National Liberal Party *

Eugen Leviné Eugen Leviné (russian: Евгений Левине; 10 May 1883 – 5 June 1919), also known as Dr. Eugen Leviné, was a German communist revolutionary and one of the leaders of the short-lived Second Bavarian Soviet Republic. Backgroun ...

, Bavarian prime minister *

Jutta Oesterle-Schwerin Jutta Oesterle-Schwerin (25 February 1941 in Jerusalem) is a German politician, representative of the Social Democratic Party and later in life of Alliance '90/The Greens. She is the sister of Israeli historian Tom Segev. Life Born and raised ...

, Member of parliament, Green party, Feminist party *

Eduard von Simson Martin Sigismund Eduard von Simson (10 November 1810 – 2 May 1899) was a German jurist and distinguished liberal politician of the Kingdom of Prussia and German Empire, who served as President of the Frankfurt Parliament as well as the first Pr ...

, President of the Reichstag, President of the Reichsgericht *

Walther Rathenau Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, writer and liberal politician. During the First World War of 1914–1918 he was involved in the organization of the German war economy. After the war, Rathenau s ...

, Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic * Herbert Weichmann, Mayor of Hamburg 1965–1971, president of the German Bundesrat (Federal upper house) *

Marina Weisband Marina Weisband (born 4 October 1987 in Kyiv) is a German politician. From May 2011 until April 2012 she was a member of the senior leadership of the Pirate Party Germany. In 2018 she joined the Green Party of Germany. Life and career Weisband ...

, Ukrainian-born former Pirate Party Germany politician * Jeanette Wolff, West Berlin politician *

Walter Wolfgang Walter Jakob Wolfgang (23 June 1923 – 28 May 2019) was a German-born British socialist and peace activist. Up to the time of his death, he was Vice-President of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Vice Chair oLabour CND a caucus of CND m ...

, German-born politician

Activists

* Hedwig Dohm-Schleh, feminist, author *

Nahum Goldmann Nahum Goldmann ( he, נחום גולדמן) (July 10, 1895 – August 29, 1982) was a leading Zionist. He was a founder of the World Jewish Congress and its president from 1951 to 1978, and was also president of the World Zionist Organization from ...

, president of World Jewish Congress * Amalie Nacken (1855–1940) was a Munich-based

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

Josel of Rosheim Josel of Rosheim (alternatively: Joselin, Joselmann, Yoselmann, german: Josel von Rosheim, he, יוסף בן גרשון מרוסהים ''Joseph ben Gershon mi-Rosheim'', or ''Joseph ben Gershon Loanz''; c. 1480 – March, 1554) was the great advoca ...

, court Jew and Jewish advocateJewish Encyclopedia *

Paul Spiegel Paul Spiegel (31 December 1937, in Warendorf, Germany – 30 April 2006, in Düsseldorf, Germany) was leader of the Central Council of Jews in Germany (Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland) and the main spokesman of the German Jews. He was widely ...

, leader of the Central Council of Jews in Germany * Sidonie Werner (1860–1932), women's rights activist

Religious figures

Rabbis

* Aaron ben Benjamin Wolf, Chief Rabbi of Berlin (1709) * Aaron Moses ben Mordecai of East Prussia *

Abraham Auerbach Abraham Auerbach (middle of the 1700s – November 3, 1846) was a German rabbi. A descendant of an old rabbinical family, he was destined from his childhood for the rabbinate, and was educated first by his grandfather at Worms, and later by hi ...

(mid 1700s – November 3, 1846), Alsatian-born rabbi and liturgical poet. Fled France for Germany after imprisonment during the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First French Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public Capital punishment, executions took pl ...

. *

Ahron Daum Ahron Daum ( he, אהרן דאום; January 6, 1951 – June 27, 2018) was an Israeli-born Modern-Orthodox rabbi, educator, author, and former chief rabbi of Frankfurt am Main from 1987 to 1993. From 1995 until his death in 2018, he was a lecture ...

, Chief Rabbi of Frankfurt am Main *

Abraham Geiger Abraham Geiger (Hebrew: ''ʼAvrāhām Gayger''; 24 May 181023 October 1874) was a German rabbi and scholar, considered the founding father of Reform Judaism. Emphasizing Judaism's constant development along history and universalist traits, Gei ...

, founding father of Reform Judaism *

Samson Raphael Hirsch Samson Raphael Hirsch (; June 20, 1808 – December 31, 1888) was a German Orthodox rabbi best known as the intellectual founder of the ''Torah im Derech Eretz'' school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Occasionally termed ''neo-Orthodoxy'', hi ...

, intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism *

Immanuel Jakobovits Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits (8 February 192131 October 1999) was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1967 to 1991. Prior to this, he had served as Chief Rabbi of Ireland and as rabbi of the Fi ...

, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain * Elijah Loans, rabbi of Fulda, Hanau, Friedberg, and Worms * Seligmann Meyer, rabbi of

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the ...

Leopold Zunz Leopold Zunz ( he, יום טוב צונץ—''Yom Tov Tzuntz'', yi, ליפמן צונץ—''Lipmann Zunz''; 10 August 1794 – 17 March 1886) was the founder of academic Judaic Studies (''Wissenschaft des Judentums''), the critical investigation ...

(10 August 1794 – 17 March 1886), founder of academic Jewish studies

Reform

* Levi Herzfeld, 19th-century proponent of moderate reform

Other

Ridley Haim Herschell Ridley Haim Herschell (7 April 1807 – 14 April 1864) was a Polish-born British minister who converted from Judaism to evangelical Christianity. He was a founder of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Jews (1842) and ...

, missionary * Joseph Wolff, missionary

Scientific figures

Natural scientists

Adolf von Baeyer Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (; 31 October 1835 – 20 August 1917) was a German chemist who synthesised indigo and developed a nomenclature for cyclic compounds (that was subsequently extended and adopted as part of the IUPAC org ...

, industrial chemist,

(1905) (Jewish mother) * Norbert Berkowitz, physicist *

Hans Bethe Hans Albrecht Bethe (; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005) was a German-American theoretical physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics, and solid-state physics, and who won the 1967 Nobel ...

, nuclear physics,

(1967) (Jewish mother) * Sir

Walter Bodmer Sir Walter Fred Bodmer (born 10 January 1936) is a German-born British human geneticist. Early life Bodmer was born in Frankfurt, Germany. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and went on to study the Mathematical Tripos at the U ...

, medical researcher *

Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a ...

, quantum mechanics, Nobel Prize (1954) (converted to Christianity) * Heinrich Caro, industrial chemist * Nikodem Caro, industrial chemist *

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...

, theoretical physics, Nobel Prize (1921) *

Erwin Finlay-Freundlich Erwin Finlay-Freundlich FRSE FRAS (; 29 May 1885 – 24 July 1964) was a German astronomer, a pupil of Felix Klein. Freundlich was a working associate of Albert Einstein and introduced experiments for which the general theory of relativity could ...

, astronomer *

James Franck James Franck (; 26 August 1882 – 21 May 1964) was a German physicist who won the 1925 Nobel Prize for Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom". He completed his doctorate i ...

, quantum physics, Nobel Prize (1925) * Adolph Frank, industrial chemist *

Herbert Fröhlich Herbert Fröhlich (9 December 1905 – 23 January 1991) FRS was a German-born British physicist. Career In 1927, Fröhlich entered Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich to study physics, and received his doctorate under Arnold Sommerfeld ...

, physicist * Eugen Glueckauf, chemist, expert on atomic energy *

Hans Goldschmidt Johannes Wilhelm "Hans" Goldschmidt (18 January 1861 – 21 May 1923) was a German chemist notable as the discoverer of the Thermite reaction. He was also co-owner of the Chemische Fabrik Th. Goldschmidt, as of 1911 Th. Goldschmidt AG (later to be ...

, industrial chemist *

Fritz Haber Fritz Haber (; 9 December 186829 January 1934) was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber–Bosch process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydroge ...

, developed the

Haber process The Haber process, also called the Haber–Bosch process, is an artificial nitrogen fixation process and is the main industrial procedure for the production of ammonia today. It is named after its inventors, the German chemists Fritz Haber and ...

, Nobel Prize (1918) *

Walter Heitler Walter Heinrich Heitler (; 2 January 1904 – 15 November 1981) was a German physicist who made contributions to quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory. He brought chemistry under quantum mechanics through his theory of valence bo ...

, chemist *

Arthur Korn Arthur Korn (20 May 1870 – 21 December/22 December 1945) was a German physicist, mathematician and inventor. He was involved in the development of the fax machine, specifically the transmission of photographs or telephotography, known as the ...

, physicist * Ernst Ising, statistical mechanics *

Albert Ladenburg Albert Ladenburg (July 2, 1842August 15, 1911) was a German chemist. Early life and education Ladenburg was a member of the well-known Jewish in Mannheim. He was educated at a Realgymnasium at Mannheim and then, after the age of 15, at the t ...

, chemist *

Fritz London Fritz Wolfgang London (March 7, 1900 – March 30, 1954) was a German physicist and professor at Duke University. His fundamental contributions to the theories of chemical bonding and of intermolecular forces ( London dispersion forces) are today ...

, quantum mechanics *

Leonard Mandel Leonard Mandel (May 9, 1927 – February 9, 2001) was an American physicist who contributed to the development of theoretical and experimental modern optics and is widely considered one of the founding fathers of the field of quantum optics. With ...

, quantum optics *

Kurt Mendelssohn Kurt Alfred Georg Mendelssohn FRS (7 January 1906, Berlin-Schoeneberg – 18 September 1980) was a German-born British medical physicist, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 1951. Family life He was the only child of Ernst Moritz Mendelsso ...

, German-born British medical physicist *

Viktor Meyer Viktor Meyer (8 September 18488 August 1897) was a German chemist and significant contributor to both organic and inorganic chemistry. He is best known for inventing an apparatus for determining vapour densities, the Viktor Meyer apparatus, and ...

, organic chemist (converted to Christianity) *

Leonor Michaelis Leonor Michaelis (16 January 1875 – 8 October 1949) was a German biochemist, physical chemist, and physician, known for his work with Maud Menten on enzyme kinetics in 1913, as well as for work on enzyme inhibition, pH and quinones. Ear ...

, biochemist *

Albert A. Michelson Albert Abraham Michelson FFRS HFRSE (surname pronunciation anglicized as "Michael-son", December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was a German-born American physicist of Polish/Jewish origin, known for his work on measuring the speed of light and esp ...

, measured speed of light, Nobel Prize (1907) (Jewish father) * Ludwig Mond, chemist and industrialist * Sir

Rudolf Peierls Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, (; ; 5 June 1907 – 19 September 1995) was a German-born British physicist who played a major role in Tube Alloys, Britain's nuclear weapon programme, as well as the subsequent Manhattan Project, the combined Allie ...

, solid state theory * Arno Penzias, co-discoverer of

CMB In Big Bang cosmology the cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR) is electromagnetic radiation that is a remnant from an early stage of the universe, also known as "relic radiation". The CMB is faint cosmic background radiation filling all space ...

, Nobel Prize (1978) * Alfred Philippson, geologist * John Charles Polanyi, chemist, Nobel Prize (born Berlin) * Ernst Pringsheim, spectrometry, black-body radiation *

Michael Rossmann Michael G. Rossmann (30 July 1930 – 14 May 2019) was a German-American physicist, microbiologist, and Hanley Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences at Purdue University who led a team of researchers to be the first to map the structure ...

, physicist and microbiologist (Jewish mother) *

Rudolf Schoenheimer Rudolf Schoenheimer (May 10, 1898 – September 11, 1941) was a German-American biochemist who developed the technique of Isotopic labeling, isotope labelling/''tagging'' of biomolecules, enabling detailed study of metabolism. This work revealed ...

, biochemist *

Arthur Schuster Sir Franz Arthur Friedrich Schuster (12 September 1851 – 14 October 1934) was a German-born British physicist known for his work in spectroscopy, electrochemistry, optics, X-radiography and the application of harmonic analysis to physics. ...

, spectroscopist *

Karl Schwarzschild Karl Schwarzschild (; 9 October 1873 – 11 May 1916) was a German physicist and astronomer. Schwarzschild provided the first exact solution to the Einstein field equations of general relativity, for the limited case of a single spherical non-r ...

, physicist and astronomer (converted to Christianity) * Franz Simon, physicist, separation of Uranium 235 *

Jack Steinberger Jack Steinberger (born Hans Jakob Steinberger; May 25, 1921December 12, 2020) was a German-born American physicist noted for his work with neutrinos, the subatomic particles considered to be elementary constituents of matter. He was a recipient ...

, particle physics, Nobel Prize (1988) *

Otto Stern :''Otto Stern was also the pen name of German women's rights activist Louise Otto-Peters (1819–1895)''. Otto Stern (; 17 February 1888 – 17 August 1969) was a German-American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. He was the second most ...

, experimental physicist, Nobel Prize (1943) *

Moritz Traube Moritz Traube (12 February 1826 in Ratibor, Province of Silesia, Prussia (now Racibórz, Poland) – 28 June 1894 in Berlin, German Empire) was a German chemist (physiological chemistry) and universal private scholar. Traube worked on chemical ...

, biochemist *

Wilhelm Traube Wilhelm Traube (10 January 1866 – 28 September 1942) was a German chemist. Biography Traube was born at Ratibor (Racibórz) in Prussian Silesia, a son of the famous private scholar Moritz Traube. After studying law for a short time, he ...

, chemist, caffeine/purine synthesis *

Otto Wallach Otto Wallach (; 27 March 1847 – 26 February 1931) was a German chemist and recipient of the 1910 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on alicyclic compounds. Biography Wallach was born in Königsberg, the son of a Prussian civil servant. Hi ...

, chemist, Nobel Prize (1910) (converted to Christianity) *

Richard Willstätter Richard Martin Willstätter FRS(For) HFRSE (, 13 August 1872 – 3 August 1942) was a German organic chemist whose study of the structure of plant pigments, chlorophyll included, won him the 1915 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Willstätter invente ...

, chemist, Nobel Prize (1915)

Physicians and medical researchers

* Adolph Baginsky, pediatrician, diphtheria researcher *

Alfred Bielschowsky Alfred Bielschowsky (December 11, 1871 – April 5, 1940) was a German ophthalmologist. His specialty was physiology and pathology of the eye, particularly in regards to research of eye movement, space perception and diagnosis of oculomotor anomal ...

, ophthalmologist *

Max Bielschowsky Max Israel Bielschowsky (20 February 1869 – 15 August 1940) was a German neuropathologist born in Breslau. After receiving his medical doctorate from the University of Munich in 1893, he worked with Ludwig Edinger (1855–1918) at the S ...

, neuropathologist * Konrad Bloch, biochemist,

(1964) *

Marcus Elieser Bloch Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723–1799) was a German physician and naturalist who is best known for his contribution to ichthyology through his multi-volume catalog of plates illustrating the fishes of the world. Brought up in a Hebrew-speaking Jewish ...

, physician * Gustav Born, professor of pharmacology * Edith Bulbring, professor of pharmacy (Jewish mother) * Sir

Ernst Chain Sir Ernst Boris Chain (19 June 1906 – 12 August 1979) was a German-born British biochemist best known for being a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on penicillin. Life and career Chain was born in B ...

, developed

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from '' Penicillium'' moulds, principally '' P. chrysogenum'' and '' P. rubens''. Most penicillins in clinical use are synthesised by P. chrysogenum usin ...

, Nobel Prize (1945) *

Ferdinand Cohn Ferdinand Julius Cohn (24 January 1828 – 25 June 1898) was a German biologist. He is one of the founders of modern bacteriology and microbiology. Ferdinand J. Cohn was born in the Jewish quarter of Breslau in the Prussian Province of Sil ...

, pioneer in microbiology *

Julius Friedrich Cohnheim Julius Friedrich Cohnheim (20 July 1839 – 15 August 1884) was a German-Jewish pathologist. Biography Cohnheim was born at Demmin, Pomerania. He studied at the universities of Würzburg, Marburg, Greifswald, and Berlin, receiving his doctoral deg ...

, pathologist *

Paul Ehrlich Paul Ehrlich (; 14 March 1854 – 20 August 1915) was a Nobel Prize-winning German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy. Among his foremost achievements were finding a cure ...

, developed magic bullet concept, Nobel Prize (1908) *

Arthur Eichengrün Arthur Eichengrün (13 August 1867 – 23 December 1949) was a German Jewish chemist, materials scientist, and inventor. He is known for developing the highly successful anti-gonorrhea drug Protargol, the standard treatment for 50 years until th ...

, possible inventor of aspirin * Wilhelm Feldberg, biologist * Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat, biochemist * Hermann Friedberg, physician * Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch, geneticist * Ernst Gräfenberg, obstetrician, the

intrauterine device An intrauterine device (IUD), also known as intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD or ICD) or coil, is a small, often T-shaped birth control device that is inserted into the uterus to prevent pregnancy. IUDs are one form of long-acting revers ...

, the

G-spot The G-spot, also called the Gräfenberg spot (for German gynecologist Ernst Gräfenberg), is characterized as an erogenous area of the vagina that, when stimulated, may lead to strong sexual arousal, powerful orgasms and potential female ejacu ...

Martin Gumpert Early life Gumpert was born on 13 November 1897 in Berlin to his parents Ely, a doctor, and Elise. In 1923 he married Charlotte Blaschko, also a doctor, who died of tuberculosis in 1933. The couple had a daughter, Nina, who was born in around 19 ...

, physician, writer *

Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle (; 9 July 1809 – 13 May 1885) was a German physician, pathologist, and anatomist. He is credited with the discovery of the loop of Henle in the kidney. His essay, "On Miasma and Contagia," was an early argument for ...

, physician (converted to Christianity) * Sir

Bernard Katz Sir Bernard Katz, FRS (; 26 March 1911 – 20 April 2003) was a German-born British physician and biophysicist, noted for his work on nerve physiology. He shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1970 with Julius Axelrod and Ulf ...

, biophysicist, Nobel Prize (1970) * Hans Kornberg, biochemist researcher *

Hans Kosterlitz Hans Walter Kosterlitz FRS (27 April 1903 – 26 October 1996) was a German-born British biochemist. Biography Hans Walter Kosterlitz was born on 27 April 1903 in Berlin. He was the elder son of Bernhard Kosterlitz, a physician, and Selma ...

, discovered

endorphins Endorphins (contracted from endogenous morphine) are chemical signals in the brain that block the perception of pain and increase feelings of wellbeing. They are produced and stored in an area of the brain known as the pituitary gland. Hist ...

* Sir

Hans Adolf Krebs Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, FRS (, ; 25 August 1900 – 22 November 1981) was a German-born British biologist, physician and biochemist. He was a pioneer scientist in the study of cellular respiration, a biochemical process in living cells that ex ...

, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1953) * Rudolph Lennhoff, developed the open air cure for tuberculosis * Fritz Lipmann, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1953) *

Jacques Loeb Jacques Loeb (; ; April 7, 1859 – February 11, 1924) was a German-born American physiologist and biologist. Biography Jacques Loeb, firstborn son of a Jewish family from the German Eifel region, was educated at the universities of Berlin, Munic ...

, physiologist *

Otto Loewi Otto Loewi (; 3 June 1873 – 25 December 1961) was a German-born pharmacologist and psychobiologist who discovered the role of acetylcholine as an endogenous neurotransmitter. For his discovery he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or M ...

, pharmacologist, Nobel Prize (1936) * Elisabeth Mann, biologist (Jewish mother) *

Otto Meyerhof Otto Fritz Meyerhof (; April 12, 1884 – October 6, 1951) was a German physician and biochemist who won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Biography Otto Fritz Meyerhof was born in Hannover, at Theaterplatz 16A (now:Rathenaustrasse ...

, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1922) (Jewish father) *

Oskar Minkowski Oskar Minkowski (; 13 January 1858 – 18 July 1931) was a German physician and physiologist who held a professorship at the University of Breslau and is most famous for his research on diabetes. He was the brother of the mathematician Hermann ...

, physiologist *

Albert Neisser Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser (22 January 1855, Schweidnitz – 30 July 1916, Breslau) was a German physician who discovered the causative agent ( pathogen) of gonorrhea, a strain of bacteria that was named in his honour (''Neisseria gonorrh ...

, physician, discovered the cause of

gonorrhea Gonorrhea, colloquially known as the clap, is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the bacterium ''Neisseria gonorrhoeae''. Infection may involve the genitals, mouth, or rectum. Infected men may experience pain or burning with u ...

(Jewish father) *

Emin Pasha 185px, Schnitzer in 1875 Mehmed Emin Pasha (born Isaak Eduard Schnitzer, baptized Eduard Carl Oscar Theodor Schnitzer; March 28, 1840 – October 23, 1892) was an Ottoman physician of German Jewish origin, naturalist, and governor of the Egyp ...

, physician, naturalist, explorer *

Nathanael Pringsheim Nathanael Pringsheim (30 November 1823 – 6 October 1894) was a German botanist. Biography Nathanael Pringsheim was born at Landsberg, Prussian Silesia, and studied at the universities of Breslau, Leipzig, and Berlin successively. He graduat ...

, botanist * Ottomar Rosenbach, physician *

Moritz Heinrich Romberg Moritz Heinrich Romberg (11 November 1795 – 16 June 1873) was a German physician and neurologist, born in Meiningen, who published his classic textbook in sections between 1840 and 1846; Edward Henry Sieveking translated it into English in 185 ...

, physician, innovative author in neuroscience * Selma Schwester, longtime head nurse at Shaare Zedek Hospital, Jerusalem * Karl Stern, Canadian neurologist, psychiatrist, author * Rahel Straus (1880–1963), medical doctor and feminist * Ludwig Traube (1818-1876), medical doctor, introduced regular tracking of vital signs (respiration, temperature, pulse) * Moshe Wallach, founder and director, Shaare Zedek Hospital,

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

* Carl Warburg, doctor of medicine and clinical pharmacologist. * Otto Heinrich Warburg, physiologist, Nobel Prize (1931) (Jewish father) * Karl Weigert, pathologist

Mathematicians

* Felix Bernstein, set theory (converted to Christianity) *

Maurice Block Maurice Block (german: link=no, Moritz Block); 18 February 18169 January 1901) was a German-French statistician and economist. Block was born in Berlin of Jewish parents. He studied at the University of Bonn and the University of Heidelberg and ...

, statistician *

Richard Brauer Richard Dagobert Brauer (February 10, 1901 – April 17, 1977) was a leading German and American mathematician. He worked mainly in abstract algebra, but made important contributions to number theory. He was the founder of modular represent ...

, modular representation theory *

Paul Cohn Paul Moritz Cohn FRS (8 January 1924 – 20 April 2006) was Astor Professor of Mathematics at University College London, 1986–1989, and author of many textbooks on algebra. His work was mostly in the area of algebra, especially non-commutat ...

, algebraist *

Richard Courant Richard Courant (January 8, 1888 – January 27, 1972) was a German American mathematician. He is best known by the general public for the book '' What is Mathematics?'', co-written with Herbert Robbins. His research focused on the areas of r ...

, mathematical analysis and applied mathematics *

Max Dehn Max Wilhelm Dehn (November 13, 1878 – June 27, 1952) was a German mathematician most famous for his work in geometry, topology and geometric group theory. Born to a Jewish family in Germany, Dehn's early life and career took place in Germany. ...

, topology * Paul Epstein, number theory * Adolf Fraenkel, set theory * Hans Freudenthal, algebraic topology * Friedrich Hartogs, mathematician *

Felix Hausdorff Felix Hausdorff ( , ; November 8, 1868 – January 26, 1942) was a German mathematician who is considered to be one of the founders of modern topology and who contributed significantly to set theory, descriptive set theory, measure theory, an ...

, topology *

Heinz Hopf Heinz Hopf (19 November 1894 – 3 June 1971) was a German mathematician who worked on the fields of topology and geometry. Early life and education Hopf was born in Gräbschen, Germany (now , part of Wrocław, Poland), the son of Eliza ...

, topology (Jewish father) *

Adolf Hurwitz Adolf Hurwitz (; 26 March 1859 – 18 November 1919) was a German mathematician who worked on algebra, analysis, geometry and number theory. Early life He was born in Hildesheim, then part of the Kingdom of Hanover, to a Jewish family and died ...

, mathematician * Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, analysis *

Leopold Kronecker Leopold Kronecker (; 7 December 1823 – 29 December 1891) was a German mathematician who worked on number theory, algebra and logic. He criticized Georg Cantor's work on set theory, and was quoted by as having said, "'" ("God made the integers, ...

, number theory *

Edmund Landau Edmund Georg Hermann Landau (14 February 1877 – 19 February 1938) was a German mathematician who worked in the fields of number theory and complex analysis. Biography Edmund Landau was born to a Jewish family in Berlin. His father was Leopol ...

, number theory * Rudolf Lipschitz, mathematician *

Kurt Mahler Kurt Mahler FRS (26 July 1903, Krefeld, Germany – 25 February 1988, Canberra, Australia) was a German mathematician who worked in the fields of transcendental number theory, diophantine approximation, ''p''-adic analysis, and the geometry of ...

, mathematician *

Hermann Minkowski Hermann Minkowski (; ; 22 June 1864 – 12 January 1909) was a German mathematician and professor at Königsberg, Zürich and Göttingen. He created and developed the geometry of numbers and used geometrical methods to solve problems in number t ...

, geometrical theory of numbers * Claus Moser, Statistician *

Leonard Nelson Leonard Nelson (; ; 11 July 1882 – 29 October 1927), sometimes spelt Leonhard, was a German mathematician, critical philosopher, and socialist. He was part of the neo-Friesian school (named after post-Kantian philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fr ...

, mathematician, philosopher (converted to Christianity) *

Bernhard Neumann Bernhard Hermann Neumann (15 October 1909 – 21 October 2002) was a German-born British-Australian mathematician, who was a leader in the study of group theory. Early life and education After gaining a D.Phil. from Friedrich-Wilhelms Universit ...

, mathematician *

Emmy Noether Amalie Emmy NoetherEmmy is the '' Rufname'', the second of two official given names, intended for daily use. Cf. for example the résumé submitted by Noether to Erlangen University in 1907 (Erlangen University archive, ''Promotionsakt Emmy Noeth ...

, algebra and theoretical physics *

Alfred Pringsheim Alfred Pringsheim (2 September 1850 – 25 June 1941) was a German mathematician and patron of the arts. He was born in Ohlau, Prussian Silesia (now Oława, Poland) and died in Zürich, Switzerland. Family and academic career Pringsheim came ...

, analysis, theory of functions * Richard Rado, combinatorics *

Robert Remak Robert Remak (26 July 1815 – 29 August 1865) was a Jewish Polish-German embryologist, physiologist, and neurologist, born in Poznań, Posen, Prussia, who discovered that the origin of cells was by the Cell division, division of pre-existing cel ...

, group theory *

Abraham Robinson Abraham Robinson (born Robinsohn; October 6, 1918 – April 11, 1974) was a mathematician who is most widely known for development of nonstandard analysis, a mathematically rigorous system whereby infinitesimal and infinite numbers were reincorp ...

, nonstandard analysis * Arthur Moritz Schönflies, mathematician *

Issai Schur Issai Schur (10 January 1875 – 10 January 1941) was a Russian mathematician who worked in Germany for most of his life. He studied at the University of Berlin. He obtained his doctorate in 1901, became lecturer in 1903 and, after a stay at ...

, mathematician * Reinhold Strassmann, mathematician *

Otto Toeplitz Otto Toeplitz (1 August 1881 – 15 February 1940) was a German mathematician working in functional analysis., reprinted in Life and work Toeplitz was born to a Jewish family of mathematicians. Both his father and grandfather were ''Gymnas ...

, linear algebra and functional analysis

Technical scientists

* Ralph Baer, inventor of the

games console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a ...

Emile Berliner Emile Berliner (May 20, 1851 – August 3, 1929) originally Emil Berliner, was a German-American inventor. He is best known for inventing the lateral-cut flat disc record (called a "gramophone record" in British and American English) used with a ...

, inventor of the

gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

Emanuel Goldberg Emanuel Goldberg ( he, עמנואל גולדברג; yi, עמנואל גאָלדבערג; russian: Эмануэль Гольдберг) (born: 31 August 1881; died: 13 September 1970) was an Israeli physicist and inventor. He was born in Moscow a ...

(1881–1970, from Russia, but published in German), pioneered

Microdot A microdot is text or an image substantially reduced in size to prevent detection by unintended recipients. Microdots are normally circular and around in diameter but can be made into different shapes and sizes and made from various materials su ...

s and microfilm retrieval technology *

Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Julius Edgar Lilienfeld (April 18, 1882 – August 28, 1963) was an Austro-Hungarian, and later American (where he moved in 1921) physicist and electrical engineer, who was credited with the first patent on the field-effect (FET) (1925). Be ...

, electrical engineer *

Siegfried Marcus Siegfried Samuel Marcus (; 18 September 1831 – 1 July 1898) was a German inventor. Marcus was born of Jewish descent in Malchin, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He made the first petrol-powered vehicle in 1864, while living ...

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

pioneer * Michael O. Rabin, computer algorithms,

Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in compu ...

(1976) * Reinhold Rudenberg, electrical engineer and inventor, *

Adolf Schallamach Adolf Schallamach (1905–1997) was a scientist at the British Rubber Producers' Research Association noted for pioneering understanding of the mechanisms of rubber friction. He was one of only two electrical engineers ever to win the Charles Good ...

, pioneered understanding of friction and wear phenomena in rubber *

Joseph Weizenbaum Joseph Weizenbaum (8 January 1923 – 5 March 2008) was a German American computer scientist and a professor at MIT. The Weizenbaum Award is named after him. He is considered one of the fathers of modern artificial intelligence. Life and caree ...

, AI critic,

ELIZA ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1966 at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum. Created to demonstrate the superficiality of communication between humans and machines, ...

Psychologists

Karl Abraham Karl Abraham (; 3 May 1877 – 25 December 1925) was an influential German psychoanalyst, and a collaborator of Sigmund Freud, who called him his 'best pupil'. Life Abraham was born in Bremen, Germany. His parents were Nathan Abraham, a Jewis ...

, psychoanalyst * Rudolf Arnheim, perception theorist *

Erik Erikson Erik Homburger Erikson (born Erik Salomonsen; 15 June 1902 – 12 May 1994) was a German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychological development of human beings. He coined the phrase identity ...

, developmental psychologist (Jewish mother) *

Erich Fromm Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the U ...

, psychologist and humanistic philosopher * Erika Fromm, psychologist and co-founder of hypnoanalysis. *

Benedict Friedlaender Benedict Friedlaender (8 July 1866 – 21 June 1908; first name occasionally spelled Benedikt) was a German Jewish sexologist, sociologist, economist, volcanologist, and physicist. Friedlaender was born in Berlin as the son of Carl Friedla ...

, sexologist *

Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Frieda Fromm-Reichmann ( Reichmann; October 23, 1889 in Karlsruhe, Germany – April 28, 1957 in Rockville, Maryland) was a German psychiatrist and contemporary of Sigmund Freud who immigrated to America during World War II. She was a pioneer ...

, psychoanalyst *

Kurt Goldstein Kurt Goldstein (November 6, 1878 – September 19, 1965) was a German neurologist and psychiatrist who created a holistic theory of the organism. Educated in medicine, Goldstein studied under Carl Wernicke and Ludwig Edinger where he focused on ne ...

, Gestalt-influenced neurologist *

Max Hamilton Max Hamilton (12 April 1912 – 9 September 1988) was born at Offenbach am Main, Germany. He migrated to England with his family (named Himmelschein) in 1914, aged years. He was educated at the Central Foundation Boys' School in Cowper Street a ...

, psychiatrist *

Magnus Hirschfeld Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician and sexologist. Hirschfeld was educated in philosophy, philology and medicine. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Com ...

, sexologist * Kurt Koffka, Gestalt psychologist *

Kurt Lewin Kurt Lewin ( ; 9 September 1890 – 12 February 1947) was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. During his professional career Lewin applied hi ...

, social psychologist *

Hugo Münsterberg Hugo Münsterberg (; June 1, 1863 – December 16, 1916) was a German-American psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in applied psychology, extending his research and theories to industrial/organizational (I/O), legal, medical, clinical, educ ...

, industrial psychologist * Ulric Neisser, cognitive psychologist (Jewish father) * Erich Neumann, analytical psychologist *

Fritz Perls Friedrich Salomon Perls (July 8, 1893 – March 14, 1970), better known as Fritz Perls, was a German-born psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. Perls coined the term "Gestalt therapy" to identify the form of psychotherapy that he de ...

, psychotherapist * Harvey (née Heinz) Schloesser, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst *

Otto Selz Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded fro ...

, cognitive psychologist * William Stern, the

Intelligence Quotient An intelligence quotient (IQ) is a total score derived from a set of standardized tests or subtests designed to assess human intelligence. The abbreviation "IQ" was coined by the psychologist William Stern for the German term ''Intelligen ...

Max Wertheimer Max Wertheimer (April 15, 1880 – October 12, 1943) was an Austro-Hungarian psychologist who was one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, along with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. He is known for his book, ''Productive Thinking'', an ...

, Gestalt psychologist

Academic figures

Philosophers

Theodor Adorno Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor. List of people with the given name Theodor * Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher * Theodor Aman, Romanian painter * Theodor Blue ...

(1903–1969), philosopher (Jewish father) *

Ernst Bloch Ernst Simon Bloch (; July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977; pseudonyms: Karl Jahraus, Jakob Knerz) was a German Marxist philosopher. Bloch was influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as by apocalyptic and religious thinkers ...

, philosopher * Constantin Brunner, philosopher *

Ernst Cassirer Ernst Alfred Cassirer ( , ; July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he initially followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic philosophy of science. A ...

, philosopher *

Hermann Cohen Hermann Cohen (4 July 1842 – 4 April 1918) was a German Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century ...

, philosopher *

Friedrich Dessauer Friedrich Dessauer (19 July 1881 – 16 February 1963) was a physicist, a philosopher, a socially engaged entrepreneur and a journalist. Friedrich Dessauer was born in Aschaffenburg, Germany. As a young man he was fascinated by new discove ...

, philosopher *

Max Dessoir Maximilian Dessoir (8 February 1867 – 19 July 1947) was a German philosopher, psychologist and theorist of aesthetics. Career Dessoir was born in Berlin, into a German Jewish family, his parents being Ludwig Dessoir (1810-1874), "Germany's m ...

, philosopher * Julius Frauenstädt, philosopher *

Kurt Grelling Kurt Grelling (2 March 1886 – September 1942) was a German logician and philosopher, member of the Berlin Circle. Life and work Kurt Grelling was born on 2 March 1886 in Berlin. His father, the Doctor of Jurisprudence Richard Grelling, ...

, philosopher *

Richard Hönigswald Richard Hönigswald (18 July 1875 in Magyar-Óvár in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (the present Mosonmagyaróvár in Hungary) – 11 June 1947 in New Haven, Connecticut) was a well-known philosopher belonging to the wider circle of neo-Kantianis ...

(Jewish father) *

Max Horkheimer Max Horkheimer (; ; 14 February 1895 – 7 July 1973) was a German philosopher and sociologist who was famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the Frankfurt School of social research. Horkheimer addressed authoritarianism, militari ...

(1895–1973), philosopher and sociologist *

Edmund Husserl , thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations) , thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view , thesis1_year = 1883 , thesis2_title ...

, philosopher (converted to Christianity) *

Hans Jonas Hans Jonas (; ; 10 May 1903 – 5 February 1993) was a German-born American Jewish philosopher, from 1955 to 1976 the Alvin Johnson Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City. Biography Jonas was born ...

, philosopher * Horace Kallen, philosopher * Adolf Lasson, philosopher *

Theodor Lessing Karl Theodor Richard Lessing (8 February 1872, Hanover – 31 August 1933, Marienbad) was a German Jewish philosopher. He is known for opposing the rise of Hindenburg as president of the Weimar Republic and for his classic on Jewish self-hatr ...

, philosopher, writer * Karl Löwith, philosopher *

Salomon Maimon Salomon Maimon (; ; lt, Salomonas Maimonas; he, שלמה בן יהושע מימון‎; 1753 – 22 November 1800) was a philosopher born of Lithuanian Jewish parentage in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, present-day Belarus. Some of his work w ...

, philosopher *

Fritz Mauthner Fritz Mauthner (22 November 1849 – 29 June 1923) was an Austrian novelist, theatre critic and satirist. He was an exponent of philosophical scepticism derived from a critique of human knowledge and of philosophy of language. Mauthner was b ...

, author and philosopher *

Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the '' Haskalah'', or ...

, philosopher, scholar * Helmuth Plessner, philosopher (Jewish father) *

Hans Reichenbach Hans Reichenbach (September 26, 1891 – April 9, 1953) was a leading philosopher of science, educator, and proponent of logical empiricism. He was influential in the areas of science, education, and of logical empiricism. He founded the ''Ges ...

, philosopher (Jewish father) *

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (July 6, 1888 – February 24, 1973) was a historian and social philosopher, whose work spanned the disciplines of history, theology, sociology, linguistics and beyond. Born in Berlin, Germany into a non-observant Jewish ...

, philosopher (Jewish father) *

Max Scheler Max Ferdinand Scheler (; 22 August 1874 – 19 May 1928) was a German philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. Considered in his lifetime one of the most prominent German philosophers,Davis, Za ...

, philosopher (Jewish mother) *

Edith Stein Edith Stein (religious name Saint Teresia Benedicta a Cruce ; also known as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross or Saint Edith Stein; 12 October 1891 – 9 August 1942) was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Christianity and became a D ...

, philosopher, martyr and saint of the Catholic Church * Kurt Sternberg, philosopher *

Richard Rudolf Walzer Richard Rudolf Walzer, FBA (14 July 1900 in Berlin – 16 April 1975 in Oxford) was a German-born British scholar of Greek philosophy and of Arabic philosophy. ''Education:'' Werner-Siemens-Realgymnasium, Berlin-Schöneberg; Frederick Willia ...

, philosopher ( Jewish Year Book 1975 p. 214)

Economists

Robert Aumann Robert John Aumann (Hebrew name: , Yisrael Aumann; born June 8, 1930) is an Israeli-American mathematician, and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. He is a professor at the Center for the Study of Rationality in the Hebrew ...

, Nobel Prize for Economics *

Richard Ehrenberg Richard Ehrenberg (5 February 1857 – 17 December 1921) was a German economist. He taught at Rostock University from 1899 to 1921. Literary works * ''Hamburg und Antwerpen seit 300 Jahren'', 1889 * ''Hamburg und England im Zeitalter der Kön ...

, economist (converted to Christianity) * Ludwig Lachmann, economist *

Emil Lederer Emil Lederer (22 July 1882 – 29 May 1939) was a Bohemian-born German economist and sociologist. Purged from his position at Humboldt University of Berlin in 1933 for being Jewish, Lederer fled into exile. He helped establish the "University ...

, economist *

Robert Liefmann Robert Liefmann (4 February 1874 – 21 March 1941) was a German economist. He was a professor at Freiburg University. Literary works *''Kartell Kartell is an Italian company that makes and sells plastic contemporary furniture. It is headq ...

, economist * Adolph Lowe, economist *

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialism, revolutionary socialist, Marxism, Marxist philosopher and anti-war movement, anti-war activist. Succ ...

, economist, co-founder of the KPD * Peretz Naftali, economist, editor, later Israeli finance minister * Sigbert Prais, economist (JYB 2005 p. 215) *

Reinhard Selten Reinhard Justus Reginald Selten (; 5 October 1930 – 23 August 2016) was a German economist, who won the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (shared with John Harsanyi and John Nash). He is also well known for his work in bou ...

, Nobel prize (1994) * Hans Singer, economist

Social Scientists

Reinhard Bendix Reinhard Bendix (February 25, 1916 – February 28, 1991) was a German-American sociologist. Life and career Born in Berlin, Germany, in 1916, he briefly belonged to Neu Beginnen and Hashomer Hatzair, groups that resisted the Nazis. In 19 ...

, sociologist *

Eduard Bernstein Eduard Bernstein (; 6 January 1850 – 18 December 1932) was a German social democratic Marxist theorist and politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Bernstein had held close association to Karl Marx and Friedr ...

, founder of

evolutionary socialism Eduard Bernstein (; 6 January 1850 – 18 December 1932) was a German social democratic Marxist theorist and politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Bernstein had held close association to Karl Marx and Friedric ...

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...

, cultural anthropologist *

Lewis A. Coser Lewis Alfred Coser (27 November 1913 in Berlin – 8 July 2003 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was a German-American sociologist, serving as the 66th president of the American Sociological Association in 1975. Biography Born in Berlin as Ludwig ...

, sociologist *

Norbert Elias Norbert Elias (; 22 June 1897 – 1 August 1990) was a German sociologist who later became a British citizen. He is especially famous for his theory of civilizing/decivilizing processes. Biography Elias was born on 22 June 1897 in Bresla ...

, sociologist *

Amitai Etzioni Amitai Etzioni (; Werner Falk; born 4 January 1929) is a German-born Israeli-American sociologist, best known for his work on socioeconomics and communitarianism. He founded the Communitarian Network, a non-profit, non-partisan organization ...

, sociologist *

Shelomo Dov Goitein Shelomo Dov Goitein (April 3, 1900 – February 6, 1985) was a German-Jewish ethnographer, historian and Arabist known for his research on Jewish life in the Islamic Middle Ages, and particularly on the Cairo Geniza. Biography Shelomo Dov (Frit ...

, Arabist *

Moses Hess Moses (Moritz) Hess (21 January 1812 – 6 April 1875) was a German-Jewish philosopher, early communist and Zionist thinker. His socialist theories led to disagreements with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. He is considered a pioneer of Labor ...

, socialist *

Eugene Kamenka Eugene Kamenka (4 March 1928 – 19 January 1994) was an Australian political philosopher and Marxist scholar. Biography Kamenka was born in Cologne in 1928 and migrated to Australia with his parents in 1937. He was educated at the Sydney ...

, sociologist * Siegfried Kracauer, sociologist and film critic *

Ferdinand Lassalle Ferdinand Lassalle (; 11 April 1825 – 31 August 1864) was a Prussian-German jurist, philosopher, socialist and political activist best remembered as the initiator of the social democratic movement in Germany. "Lassalle was the first man in G ...

, founder of first German worker's party *

Karl Mannheim Karl Mannheim (born Károly Manheim, 27 March 1893 – 9 January 1947) was an influential Hungarian sociologist during the first half of the 20th century. He is a key figure in classical sociology, as well as one of the founders of the sociolo ...

, sociologist *

Herbert Marcuse Herbert Marcuse (; ; July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German-American philosopher, social critic, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Humboldt University ...

, sociologist,

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights ...

figurehead *

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

, founder of

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

(parents converted to Protestantism) *

Franz Oppenheimer Franz Oppenheimer (March 30, 1864 – September 30, 1943) was a German Jewish sociologist and political economist, who published also in the area of the fundamental sociology of the state. Life and career After studying medicine in Freiburg and ...

, sociologist and economist * Leo Loewenthal, sociologist *

Georg Simmel Georg Simmel (; ; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic. Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approac ...

, sociologist * Georg Steindorff, Egyptologist (Jewish father) * Jacob Taubes, theologist *

Louis Wirth Louis Wirth (August 28, 1897 – May 3, 1952) was an American sociologist and member of the Chicago school of sociology. His interests included city life, minority group behavior, and mass media, and he is recognised as one of the leading urban ...

, sociologist

Historians

* Ernst Bernheim, historian * Bernhard Brilling (1906-1987), Historian and archivist of German Jewry *

Walter Cahn Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...

, art historian * Colin Eisler, art historian * Geoffrey Rudolph Elton (son of Victor Ehrenberg) *

Richard Ettinghausen Richard Ettinghausen (February 5, 1906 – April 2, 1979) Princeton, New Jersey was a German-American historian of Islamic art and chief curator of the Freer Gallery. Education Ettinghausen was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He received hi ...

, art historian *

Henry Friedlander Henry Egon Friedlander (24 September 1930 – 17 October 2012) was a German-American Jewish historian of the Holocaust who was noted for his arguments in favor of broadening the scope of casualties of the Holocaust. Born in Berlin, Germany, to a ...

, historian *

Peter Gay Peter Joachim Gay (né Fröhlich; June 20, 1923 – May 12, 2015) was a German-American historian, educator, and author. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and former director of the New York Public Library's Center for Sc ...

, historian *

Heinrich Graetz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (now Książ Wielko ...

, historian * George W. F. Hallgarten, historian *

Eric Hobsbawm Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. A life-long Marxist, his socio-political convictions influenced the character of his work. ...

, historian * Isaak Markus Jost, historian *

Ernst Kantorowicz Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz (May 3, 1895 – September 9, 1963) was a German historian of medieval political and intellectual history and art, known for his 1927 book ''Frederick the Second, Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite'' on Holy Roman Emperor Freder ...

, historian of medieval political and intellectual history *

Richard Krautheimer Richard Krautheimer (6 July 1897 in Fürth (Franconia), Germany – 1 November 1994 in Rome, Italy) was a 20th-century art historian, architectural historian, Baroque scholar, and Byzantinist. Biography Krautheimer was born in Germany in 1897 ...

, historian * Arno Lustiger, historian *

Lothar Machtan Lothar Machtan (born 4 October 1949) is a German historian, writer, as well as professor of Modern and Current History at the University of Bremen. Early life Born in Gelsenkirchen, Machtan studied history and political sciences at Heidelberg Uni ...

Golo Mann Golo Mann (born Angelus Gottfried Thomas Mann; 27 March 1909 – 7 April 1994) was a popular German historian and essayist. Having completed a doctorate in philosophy under Karl Jaspers at Heidelberg, in 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany. He followe ...

, historian (Jewish mother) * George Mosse, historian *

Erwin Panofsky Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 in Hannover – March 14, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a German-Jewish art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime. Panofsky's work represents a high ...

, art historian *

Otto Rahn Otto Wilhelm Rahn (18 February 1904 – 13 March 1939) was a German writer, medievalist, Ariosophist, and an officer of the SS and researcher into the Grail myths. He was born in Michelstadt, Germany, and died in Söll ( Kufstein, Tyrol) i ...

, historian of legends about the holy grail *

Hans Rothfels Hans Rothfels (12 April 1891 – 22 June 1976) was a German nationalist conservative historian. He supported an idea of authoritarian German state, dominance of Germany over Europe and was hostile to Germany's eastern neighbours. After his appli ...

, historian *

Fritz Stern Fritz Richard Stern (February 2, 1926 – May 18, 2016) was a German-born American historian of German history, Jewish history and historiography. He was a University Professor and a provost at New York's Columbia University. His work focused ...

, historian *

Aby Warburg Aby Moritz Warburg, better known as Aby Warburg, (June 13, 1866 – October 26, 1929) was a German art historian and cultural theorist who founded the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (Library for Cultural Studies), a private library, ...

, art historian * Rudolf Wittkower, architectural and art historian *

Michael Wolffsohn Michael Wolffsohn (born 17 May 1947) is a German historian. Wolffsohn was born in Tel Aviv, in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine and today is Israel. His parents were German Jews who fled in 1939. In 1954, the Wolffsohns moved to ...

, historian

Jurists

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...

, political theorist * Jacob Friedrich Behrend, jurist * David Daube, Professor of Law * Heinrich Dernburg, jurist * Victor Ehrenberg, jurist (converted to Christianity) * Hugo Haase, jurist * Sir

Otto Kahn-Freund Sir Otto Kahn-Freund QC (17 November 1900 – 16 August 1979) was a scholar of labour law and comparative law. He was a professor at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford. Biography Kahn-Freund was born in Frankfurt am M ...

, Professor of LawBritish

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

Hermann Kantorowicz Hermann Ulrich Kantorowicz (18 November 1877, Posen, German Empire – 12 February 1940, Cambridge) was a German jurist. He was a professor at Freiburg University (1923-1929), and a Visiting Professor, Columbia University (1927), as well as at ...

, jurist * Walter Kaskel, jurist *

Robert Kempner Robert Max Wasilii Kempner (17 October 1899 – 15 August 1993) was a German lawyer who played a prominent role during the Weimar Republic and who later served as assistant U.S. chief counsel during the International Military Tribunal at Nurembe ...

, jurist * Paul Laband, jurist, b. Breslau * Otto Lenel, jurist * Franz Neumann, legal theorist * Arthur Nussbaum, jurist * Joseph Süss Oppenheimer, financial planner and court Jew * Gabriel Riesser, deputy speaker of Frankfurt Assembly in 1848, first Jewish judge in Hamburg *

Rudolf Schlesinger Rudolf Berthold Schlesinger (1909 – November 10, 1996) was a German American legal scholar known for his contributions to the study of comparative law, a discipline that examines the differences and similarities among the legal systems of natio ...

, jurist * Georg Schwarzenberger, jurist *

Hugo Sinzheimer Hugo Sinzheimer (12 April 1875 – 16 September 1945) was a German legal scholar, and author of the Weimar Constitution. He was a leading proponent of the concept of social law. Biography Sinzheimer was one of the first academics specialisin ...

, legal scholar *

Sigmund Zeisler Sigmund Zeisler (1860-1931) was a German-Jewish U.S. attorney born in Austria and known for his defense of radicals in Chicago in the 1880s. His wife was the famed concert pianist Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler. Childhood, marriage and legal educ ...

, jurist

Linguists and philologists

* Paulus Aemilius, professor of Hebrew *

Theodor Benfey :''This is about the German philologist. For Theodor Benfey (born 1925) who developed a spiral periodic table of the elements in 1964, see Otto Theodor Benfey.'' Theodor Benfey (; 28 January 1809, in Nörten near Göttingen26 June 1881, in Göttin ...

, linguist (converted to Christianity) * Eduard Fraenkel, philologist * Wilhelm Freund, philologist *

Ludwig Friedländer Ludwig Henrich Friedlaender (16 July 1824 – 16 December 1909) was a German philologist. He was one of the preeminent scholars of Ancient Rome of his time and is known for his research on Roman daily life and customs. He was a professor at Alb ...

, philologist *

Julius Fürst Julius Fürst (; 12 May 1805, Żerków, South Prussia – 9 February 1873, Leipzig), born Joseph Alsari, was a Jewish German orientalist and the son of noted maggid, teacher, and Hebrew grammarian Jacob Alsari. Fürst was a distinguished scho ...

, orientalist * Theodor Goldstücker, linguist * Moshe Goshen-Gottstein, linguist *

Victor Klemperer Victor Klemperer (9 October 188111 February 1960) was a German scholar who also became known as a diarist. His journals, published in Germany in 1995, detailed his life under the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the Germa ...

, linguist and diarist *

Siegbert Salomon Prawer Siegbert Salomon Prawer (15 February 1925 – 5 April 2012) was Taylor Professor of the German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. Life and works Prawer was born on 15 February 1925 in Cologne, Germany, to Jewish parents ...

, Professor of German *

Chaim Menachem Rabin Chaim Menachem Rabin ( he, חיים מנחם רבין; 1915–1996) was a German, then British, and finally Israeli professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages. Chaim Rabin was born in Giessen, Germany, 22 November 1915, the son of Israel and Mart ...

, linguist *

Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States. Sap ...

, anthropologist-linguist * Ernest Simon, professor of Chinese *

Heymann Steinthal Heymann or Hermann Steinthal (16 May 1823 – 14 March 1899) was a German philologist and philosopher. He studied philology and philosophy at the University of Berlin, and was in 1850 appointed ''Privatdozent'' of philology and mythology at tha ...

, linguist

Educationalists

* Lewis Elton, educationalist *

Kurt Hahn Kurt Matthias Robert Martin Hahn (5 June 1886, Berlin – 14 December 1974, Hermannsberg) was a German educator. He was decisive in founding, among other organizations and initiatives, Stiftung Louisenlund, Schule Schloss Salem, Gordonsto ...

, educationalist * Henriette May (1862–1928), German Jewish educator and women's activist

Entertainment

Showbusiness

Hugo Egon Balder Hugo Egon Balder (born Egon Hugo Balder; 22 March 1950) is a German television presenter, producer, and comedian. Early life Balder was born in West Berlin to Egon Friedrich Balder (1904–1970) and Gerda Balder (née Schure; 1910–1997). Ger ...

, comedian, producer (Jewish mother), * Mark Bellinghaus, actor, artist, writer, activist (Jewish mother), *

Ludwig Berger Ludwig Berger may refer to: * Ludwig Berger (composer) (1777–1839), German composer * Ludwig Berger (director) Ludwig Berger (born Ludwig Bamberger; 6 January 1892 – 18 May 1969) was a German-Jewish film director, screenwriter and thea ...

, director *

Lotte Berk Lieselotte "Lotte" Berk (13 January 1913 – 4 November 2003) was a German-born dancer and teacher, who lived in England from 1938. In 1959, she developed her own method of exercise, drawing on ballet moves and positions, that concentrated on the i ...

, dancer and health guru *

Christian Berkel Christian Berkel (born 28 October 1957) is a German actor. He is known for his appearances in '' Downfall'' (2004), '' Valkyrie'' (2008), ''Inglourious Basterds'' (2009) and ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' (2015). Life and career Berkel was born on ...

, actor *

Kurt Bernhardt Curtis Bernhardt (15 April 1899 – 22 February 1981) was a Jewish film director born in Worms, Germany, under the name Kurt Bernhardt. He trained as an actor in Germany, and performed on the stage, before starting as a film director in 1924, w ...

, director * Ludwig Blattner: film producer and studio owner, developer of the first magnetic

tape recorder An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...

. * Artur Brauner, film producer * Friedrich Dalsheim, director * Michael Degen, actor * Ernst Dohm, actor, editor * Hedwig Pringsheim, Hedwig Dohm-Pringsheim, actress * E.A. Dupont, director * Michel Friedman, TV personality * Kurt Gerron, stage actor and film director * Dora Gerson, actress, cabaret singer * Therese Giehse, actress Pepermill * Lou Jacobs, clown * Ludwig Karl Koch, broadcaster and sound recordist * Werner Klemperer, Movie, TV Hogan's Heroes and Broadway actor, violinist * Carl Laemmle, film producer * Robert Lembke, journalist and well-known TV show host (Jewish father) * Ernst Lubitsch, director * Jeanine Meerapfel, film director and screenwriter * Max Ophüls, film director * Richard Oswald, director * Ferdinand Eduard Pahnecke, actor * Lilli Palmer, actress * Luise Rainer, actress * Hans Rosenthal, one of Germany's most popular TV personalities in history * Susan Sideropoulos, actress * Robert Siodmak, director * Ruth Westheimer (born 1928), German-American sex therapist, talk show host, author, Doctor of Education, Holocaust survivor, and former Haganah sniper. * Konrad Wolf, film director * Peter Zadek, theatre director

Musicians

* Samuel Adler (composer), Samuel Adler, composer * Haim Alexander, composer * Tzvi Avni, composer * Paul Ben-Haim, composer * Julius Benedict, composer * Herman Berlinski, American composer, organist, pianist, musicologist and choir conductor * Wolf Biermann, singer/songwriter (Jewish father) * Yehezkel Braun, Israeli composer * Manfred Bukofzer, musicologist * Paul Dessau, composer * Abel Ehrlich, Israeli composer * Alfred Einstein, musicologist * Hanns Eisler, German-born composer (Jewish father) * Lukas Foss, composer and conductor * Alexander Goehr, composer * Walter Goehr, conductor * Berthold Goldschmidt, composer * Bernard Greenhouse, cellist * Nina Hagen, German-Jewish origin from her father's side, Punk Rock Singer, she was considered an opera prodigy by the time she was nine. Her paternal grandfather died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. * George Henschel, singer and conductor * Alfred Hertz, conductor * André Herzberg, musician (Pankow (German band), Pankow) * Ferdinand Hiller, composer, conductor and pianist * Gerard Hoffnung, musicologist * Friedrich Hollaender, Friedrich Holländer, composer * Salomon Jadassohn, composer * Leon Jessel, composer * Robert Kahn (composer), Robert Kahn, composer * Otto Klemperer, conductor * Robert Lachmann, musicologist * Ludwig Lenel, organist and composer * Hermann Levi, conductor * Alfred Lion and Frank Wulff, founders of Blue Note Records * Edward Lowinsky, musicologist * Gustav Mahler, composer * Michael Mann (scholar), Michael Mann, musician (Jewish mother) * Arnold Mendelssohn, organist * Felix Mendelssohn, composer and conductor (Jewish ancestry but raised Lutheran) * Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, composer * Giacomo Meyerbeer, composer * Ben-Zion Orgad, Israeli composer * Menahem Pressler, pianist * André Previn, conductor * Franz Reizenstein, pianist, composer * Curt Sachs, musicologist, co-founder of modern organology * Kurt Sanderling, conductor * Adolf Martin Schlesinger, music publisher * Arnold Schoenberg, composer * Heinrich Sontheim, tenor * William Steinberg, conductor * Erich Walter Sternberg, composer * Josef Tal, composer * Ilia Trilling, synagogue composer * Ignatz Waghalter, composer and conductor * Bruno Walter, conductor (Jewish father) * Franz Waxman, film composer * Kurt Weill, composer * Indira Weiss, singer and actress * Hans Winterberg, composer * Stefan Wolpe, composer * Alec Empire, member of Atari Teenage Riot * Hilde Zadek, soprano * Aron Liedtke, music producer * Hans Zimmer, film score composer and record producer

Artists

* Anni Albers, textile designer * Frank Auerbach, painter * Eduard Bendemann, painter * Martin Bloch, British painter * Erwin Blumenfeld, photographer * Alfred Eisenstaedt, photographer * Benno Elkan, sculptor * James Ingo Freed, architect * Gisèle Freund, photographer * Eva Hesse, materials artist * Erich Kahn, painter, expressionist * Eugen Kaufmann, architect * Hugo Lederer (1871–1940) sculptor * Ludwig Levy, architect * Max Liebermann, painter * Wilhelm Löwith, artist * Peter Max, pop artist * Ludwig Meidner, painter * Erich Mendelsohn, architect * Helmut Newton, photographer (Jewish father) * Felix Nussbaum, painter * Meret Oppenheim, surrealist *

, art historian * Martin Erich Philipp, artist * Hans Schleger, designer * Charlotte Salomon, artist * Erich Salomon, news photographer * Erna Weill, sculptor * Victor Weisz, ''Vicky'', cartoonist

Other

* Josef Ganz, car designer *

, car designer * Edmund Rumpler, Austro-German car designer * Jacqueline van Maarsen, Jacqueline Van Maarsen, author and best friend of diarist Anne Frank * Hannah Pick-Goslar, Hanneli Goslar, friend of diarist Anne Frank and holocaust survivor * Sanne Ledermann, friend of diarist Anne frank and holocaust victim

Writers

* Erich Auerbach, literature critic * Berthold Auerbach, author and poet * Julius Bab, dramatist and theater critic * Jurek Becker, writer * Maxim Biller, writer * Ludwig Börne, satirist * Otto Brahm, literary critic * Henryk Broder, journalist * Walter Benjamin (1892–1940), literary critic and philosopher * Emil Carlebach, writer, dissident * Joseph Derenbourg, orientalist, father of Hartwig Derenbourg * Hilde Domin, poet * Lion Feuchtwanger, novelist * Hubert Fichte, author (Jewish father) * Anne Frank, diarist * Karen Gershon (1923–1993), poet * Friedrich Gundolf, literary man * Glückel of Hameln, 18th-century Yiddish diarist * Maximilian Harden, journalist * Heinrich Heine, poet (converted to Protestantism for job prospects) * Stefan Heym, novelist, politician * Wolfgang Hildesheimer * Edgar Hilsenrath, novelist * Daniel Hoffmann (writer), Daniel Hoffmann, writer and philologist (German Studies) * Barbara Honigmann, writer * Heinrich Eduard Jacob, writer and journalist * Siegfried Jacobsohn, journalist and theater critic * Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, novelist and screenwriter * Wladimir Kaminer, short story writer * Judith Kerr, children's writer *

, writer * Else Lasker-Schüler, writer, poet and artist (converted to Protestantism for job prospects) * Claire Loewenfeld, writer and herbalist * Hugo Lubliner, dramatist. * Emil Ludwig, writer * Gila Lustiger, author * Erika Mann, writer, actress (Jewish mother) * Klaus Mann, writer (Jewish mother) * Monika Mann, writer (Jewish mother) * Liselotte Marshall, novelist * Julius Mosen, born ''Moses'' * Erich Mühsam, anarchist poet * Henning Pawel, children's author, writer * Solomon Perel, author * Marcel Reich-Ranicki, literary critic * H. A. Rey and Margret Rey, creators of Curious George * Renate Rubinstein (Jewish father) * Nelly Sachs, poet, Nobel Prize (1966) * Anna Seghers, novelist * Oskar Seidlin, writer * Rafael Seligmann, writer * Süßkind von Trimberg, medieval writer, minnesinger * Kurt Tucholsky, writer (converted to Protestantism) * Samuel Ullman, poet * Rahel Varnhagen, writer and saloniste (converted to Christianity) * Moritz Callmann Wahl * Jakob Wassermann, novelist * Trude Weiss-Rosmarin * Jeanette Wohl * Victoria Wolff (1903–1992), German born American writer and screenwriter * Friedrich Wolf (writer), Friedrich Wolf, writer, physician * Carl Zuckmayer, playwright (Jewish mother) * Arnold Zweig, writer * Stefan Zweig, novelist, playwright and journalist, best known for his autobiographies * Hedwig Lachmann, author, translator and poet

Entrepreneurs

:''See also Court Jews'' * Alfred Beit, financier * Sir Ernest Cassel, banker * Maurice de Hirsch, banker * Robert Mayer (philanthropist), Sir Robert Mayer, German-born businessman and philanthropist * Israel Jacob (philanthropist) (1729–1803) * Marcus Goldman (1821–1904), German-born banker, co-founder of Goldman Sachs * Abraham Kuhn (banker), Abraham Kuhn and Solomon Loeb, founders of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. * Henry Lehman (1822–1855), Emanuel Lehman (1827–1907) and Mayer Lehman (1830–1897), German-born bankers, co-founders of former bank Lehman Brothers * Joseph Mendelssohn (1770–1848), founder of former bank Mendelssohn & Co. * Salomon Oppenheim (1772–1828), founder of bank Sal. Oppenheim * Ernest Oppenheimer (1880–1957), diamond and gold mining entrepreneur and financier who controlled De Beers and founded the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa * Emil Rathenau (1838–1915), founder of AEG * Adolf Rosenberger, co-founder of Porsche * Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777–1836), founder of British company N M Rothschild & Sons * Hermann Tietz (1837–1907), founder of Hertie, a department store * Leopold Ullstein (1826–1899), founder of publishing company Ullstein Verlag * Moses Marcus Warburg and Gerson Warburg, co-founder of M. M. Warburg & Co., German bank * Georg Wertheim (1857–1939), founder of former Wertheim (department store), Wertheim, a department store * Stef Wertheimer "77-year-old German-born Stef Wertheimer" * Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, founder of Harland and Wolff

Sports

* Alon Abelski, football player * Rudi Ball, ice hockey player, right wing, Olympic bronze, world runner-up, bronze * Gretel Bergmann, high jumper * Hans Berliner, world postal chess championJewish Chess Players
/ref> * Barney Dreyfuss, co-founder of the World Series * Alfred Flatow, 3 time Olympic gymnastics champion (parallel bars, team parallel bars, team horizontal bar), silver (horizontal bar) * Gustav Flatow, Gustav Felix Flatow, 2 time Olympic gymnastics champion (team parallel bars, team horizontal bar) * Gottfried Fuchs, soccer player, (German national team) * Ludwig Guttmann, founder of the Paralympics * Lilli Henoch, world records (discus, shot put, and 4x100-m relay); shot by the Nazis in Latvia * Fredy Hirsch, sport teacher * Julius Hirsch, footballer, German champion, killed during the Holocaust * Bernhard Horwitz, chess player * Herbert Klein (swimmer), Herbert Klein, swimmer, Olympic bronze (200-m breaststroke); 3 world records * Emanuel Lasker, world chess champion * Henry Laskau, racewalker, won 42 national titles; Pan American champion; 4x Maccabiah champion * Helene Mayer, foil fencer (Jewish father), Olympic champion * Sarah Poewe, swimmer (Jewish mother), Olympic bronze (4x100 medley relay) * Ellen Preis (Ellen Müller-Preis) (1912–2007), German-born Austrian Olympic champion foil fencer * Daniel Prenn, tennis player, highest world ranking # 6 * Eugen Sandow, bodybuilding pioneer * Anton Shynder, football player * Siegbert Tarrasch, chess player

Military

Literature

* Walter Tetzlaff, ed. "2000 Kurzbiographien bedeutender deutscher Juden des 20. Jahrhunderts" (Lindhorst: Askania, 1982).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:German Jews German Jews, Lists of Jews by country Lists of German people, Jews Lists of people by ethnicity, Jews,German