Bertha Benz (May 3, 1849 – May 5, 1944) was a German automotive pioneer. She was the business partner and wife of automobile inventor Karl Benz. In 1888, she was the first person to drive an automobile over a long distance. In doing so, she brought the Benz Patent-Motorwagen worldwide attention and got the company its first sales. Two years before … [Read more...]

Here are seven German female inventors whose innovations, both large and small, have improved our world in various ways. Caroline Lucretia Herschel Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848) was the first woman to receive full recognition in the world of astronomy. Between 1786 and 1797, she discovered eight comets and 14 nebulae. She received many … [Read more...]

German Socialist Luise Zietz proposed the establishment of an annual International Woman's Day and was seconded by fellow socialist and later communist leader Clara Zetkin, supported by Käte Duncker, although no date was specified at that conference. Delegates (100 women from 17 countries) agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights … [Read more...]

Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, also known as "the baron of lies" (born May 11, 1720, Bodenwerder, Hanover - died February 22, 1797, Bodenwerder), initially served as a page to Prince Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig, and later as a cornet, lieutenant and cavalry captain with a Russian regiment in two Turkish wars. In 1760 he … [Read more...]

Georg Cantor was an outstanding violinist, but an even more outstanding mathematician. He was born on March 3, 1845,  in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he lived until he was eleven. Thereafter, the family moved to Germany, and Cantor received his remaining education at Darmstradt, Zürich, Berlin and (almost inevitably) Göttingen before marrying … [Read more...]

Carl Friedrich Gauss, original name Johann Friedrich Carl Gauss, (born April 30, 1777, Brunswick - died February 23, 1855, Göttingen, Hanover), German mathematician, generally regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time for his contributions to number theory, geometry, probability theory, geodesy, planetary astronomy, the theory of … [Read more...]

When you think of great humanitarians who left an indelible mark on history, Albert Schweitzer - Nobel Peace Prize Winner - stands tall. A towering figure in both the intellectual and humanitarian worlds, Schweitzer's legacy stretches from the academic halls of Europe to the dense forests of Africa. This article explores his life, achievements, and … [Read more...]

Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (born on August 16, 1832 –  died on August 31, 1920) was a German physician, physiologist and philosopher widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology". Wundt, who noted psychology as a science apart from philosophy and biology, was the first person ever to call himself a psychologist. Wundt was born at … [Read more...]

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (March 27, 1845 - Feb. 10, 1923) was a German physicist who was a recipient of the first Nobel Prize for Physics, in 1901, for his discovery of X-rays, which heralded the age of modern physics and revolutionized diagnostic medicine. Röntgen studied at the Polytechnic in Zürich and then was professor of physics at the … [Read more...]

Aloysius Alzheimer (June 14, 1864 – December 19, 1915), known as Alois Alzheimer, was a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and a colleague of Emil Kraepelin. Alzheimer is credited with identifying the first published case of "presenile dementia", which Kraepelin would later identify as Alzheimer's disease. From his youth Alois Alzheimer … [Read more...]