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...]

Albert Schweitzer was an Alsatian-German theologian, philosopher, organist, and mission doctor in equatorial Africa, whose goal was the Brotherhood of Nations. A Lutheran, Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of Jesus as depicted by historical-critical methodology current at this time, as well as the traditional Christian view. His … [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...]

Heinrich Hertz (born on February 22, 1857 in Hamburg – died on January 1, 1894 in Bonn) was a German scientist and physicist who became the first scientist to prove that electromagnetic waves did indeed have an existence and in so doing he proved what had only been a theory first put forwards by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. His … [Read more...]

Robert Heinrich Hermann Koch (born on December 11, 1843 in Clausthal – died on May 27, 1910 in Baden-Baden) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the founder of modern bacteriology, he identified the specific causative agents of tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax and gave experimental support for the concept of infectious disease. Germany … [Read more...]

Robert Schumann (born in Zwickau on June 8, 1810 – died in Bonn on July 29, 1856) was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that … [Read more...]