52.5167° N, 13.3817° E
BERLIN
Most Famous People Born in Berlin, Germany
- Notable people
- 15,664
- Peak decade
- 1930s
- Median birth year
- 1921
- Most distinctive
- Author 3.6×
A city where the 20th century happened twice. Berlin's notables are heavily clustered between the 1880s and the 1930s, then again from the 1960s onward — a shape that maps almost exactly onto Weimar collapse, division, and reunification. Authors, academics, chemists, physicists, and mathematicians dominate the older half; the younger half tilts toward actors, painters, and the film and historian trades of a rebuilt European capital.
One face per century — the most globally famous figure born in Berlin during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1930s with 1,548 notable births.
What Berlin Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Actor is Berlin's biggest profession — 12% of all notables (1,953).
Berlin over-indexes on author — 3.6× the global rate.
Berlin under-produces football — only 0.2× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Berlin's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Film & TV
- Writing
- Politics & Law
- Science
- Sports
- Art & Design
- Other
- Field: Chemist Clear ×
Adolf von Baeyer
1835 - 1917
John Polanyi
Born 1929
Georg Wittig
1897 - 1987
Adolf Windaus
1876 - 1959
Viktor Meyer
1848 - 1897
Andreas Sigismund Marggraf
1709 - 1782
Franz Karl Achard
1753 - 1821
Heinrich Rose
1795 - 1864
Carl Theodore Liebermann
1842 - 1914
Hans Goldschmidt
1861 - 1923
Walter Noddack
1893 - 1960
Wilhelm Heinrich Heintz
1817 - 1880
Heinrich Biltz
1865 - 1943
Wilhelm Biltz
1877 - 1943
Alexander Mitscherlich (chemist)
1836 - 1918
Bruno Tesch
1890 - 1946
Karl Friedrich August Rammelsberg
1813 - 1899
Richard Wolffenstein (chemist)
1864 - 1926
Herbert Freundlich
1880 - 1941
John Prausnitz
Born 1928
Eugen Bamberger
1857 - 1932
Karl Wilhelm Rosenmund
1884 - 1965
Siegmund Gabriel
1851 - 1924
Valentin Rose (pharmacologist)
1762 - 1807
Julius Bredt
1855 - 1937
Jörg Steinbach
Born 1956
Otto Berg (scientist)
1873 - 1939
Hans-Joachim Born
1909 - 1987
Wilhelm Nils Fresenius
1913 - 2004
Otto Westphal (Chemiker)
1913 - 2004
Eduard Simon
1789 - 1856
Wilhelm Liebermann von Wahlendorf
1863 - 1939
Richard Felix Marchand
1813 - 1850
Kurt Mislow
1923 - 2017
Willibald Gebhardt
1861 - 1921
Theodor Weyl
1851 - 1913
Theodor Goldschmidt
1817 - 1875
Stefan Hecht
Born 1974
Manfred Baerns
Born 1934
Franz Oppenheim
1852 - 1929
Erich Pietsch
1902 - 1979
Carl Blumenreuter
1881 - 1969
Friedrich Liebau
1926 - 2011
Karl-Hermann Geib
1908 - 1949
Oscar Hinsberg
1857 - 1939
Fritz Weigert
1876 - 1947
Alexander Schönberg
1892 - 1985
André Bandrauk
Born 1941
Walter Hückel
1895 - 1973
Curt Abel-Musgrave
1860 - 1938
Peter Karlson
1918 - 2001
Hellmuth Fischer
1902 - 1976
Hans Alterthum
1890 - 1955
Friedrich Quincke
1865 - 1934
Paul Günther (Physikochemiker)
1892 - 1969
Gerhard Schmidt (crystallographer)
1919 - 1971
Cornelius Weiss
1933 - 2020
Gretel Adorno
1902 - 1993
Georg Kalischer
1873 - 1938
John Eggert
1891 - 1973
Rolf Landsberg
1920 - 2003
Hans Beyer
1905 - 1971
Carl Oppenheimer
1874 - 1941
Wolfgang Schirmer
1920 - 2005
Robert Schwarz (Chemiker)
1887 - 1963
Lutz Friedjan Tietze
Born 1942
Margarete Traube
1856 - 1912
Ernst Telschow
1889 - 1988
Alfred Oppenheim (chemist)
1878 - 1943
Kurt Starke
1911 - 2000
Michael Albeck
Born 1934
Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy der Jüngere
1879 - 1956
Fritz Melchers
Born 1936
Hans-Werner Wanzlick
1917 - 1988
Eckehard Dehmlow
Born 1933
Klaus Roth (Chemiker)
Born 1945
Georg Merling
1856 - 1939
Georg-Maria Schwab
1899 - 1984
Hans-Werner Schütt
Born 1937
Christoph Janiak
Born 1961
Karl Goldschmidt
1857 - 1926
Walter Julius Viktor Schoeller
1880 - 1965
Bernhard Lepsius
1854 - 1934
Heindirk tom Dieck
Born 1939
Gerhard Wegner (Chemiker)
Born 1940
Dieter Hoppe
Born 1941
Robert Pfleger (Chemiker)
1906 - 1971
Klaus J. Vetter
1916 - 1974
Walther Jaenicke
1921 - 2010
Rolf Haase
1918 - 1997
Matthias Gaestel
Born 1958
Walther Roth
1873 - 1950
Erik Liebreich
1884 - 1946
Dieter Wöhrle
Born 1939
Rudolf Fischer (Chemiker)
1881 - 1957
Carl Ludwig Reimer
1856 - 1921
Ulrich Schindewolf
1927 - 2018
Wolfgang Sucrow
1931 - 1989
Hans-Ulrich Moritz
Born 1952
Wilhelm Pritzkow
1928 - 2013
Bernhard Prager
1867 - 1934
Dirk Steinborn
Born 1946
Harry Kloepfer
1897 - 1973
Karl-Ludwig Kompa
Born 1938
Carl Wilhelm Bergemann
1804 - 1884
Georg Oskar Harnapp
1903 - 1980
Walter Caro (Chemiker)
1909 - 1988
Helmar Schubert
Born 1939
Dankmar Schultz-Hencke
1857 - 1913
Rudolf Oetker
1889 - 1916
Jürgen Engel (Biophysiker)
Born 1935
Martin Klessinger
Born 1934
Paul Jeserich
1854 - 1927
Hermann Wattenberg
1901 - 1944
Sven Doye
Born 1967
Else Hirschberg
1892 - 1942
Alfred Coehn
1863 - 1938
Ludwig Werner Haase
1903 - 1980
Reimar Leschber
Born 1929
Ernst Trommsdorff
1905 - 1996
Thomas Drescher (Pädagoge)
Born 1968
Carl Friedheim
1858 - 1909
Richard Joseph Meyer
1865 - 1939
Hans Fürst (Chemiker)
1909 - 2001
Max Dennstedt
1852 - 1931
Theo Goldschmidt
1883 - 1965
Walter Meidinger
1900 - 1965
Hermann Grossmann (Chemiker)
1877 - 1939
Lesser Blum
1934 - 2016
John Callomon
1928 - 2010
Werner Grosch (Chemiker)
Born 1934
Hans Liebermann
1876 - 1938
Alfred Bertheim
1879 - 1914
Fritz Preuss
Born 1935
Hans Singer (Chemiker)
1921 - 1979
Erich Groschuff
1874 - 1921
Erich Baer
1901 - 1975
Michael Angrick
Born 1952
Konrad Georg Weil
1927 - 2009
Fritz Beck (Chemiker)
1931 - 2009
Matthias Tamm
Born 1967
Wilhelm Connstein
Born 1870
Herbert Grunze
1923 - 1998
Christoph Grundmann
1908 - 2003
Arthur Schleede
1892 - 1977
Friedrich Willy Hinrichsen
1877 - 1914
Max Trénel
1889 - 1966
Ivan Levinstein
1845 - 1916
Wilhelm Neumann (Toxikologe)
1898 - 1965
Arthur Traube
1878 - 1948
Joachim Rudolph (Chemiker)
1936 - 1993
William Moffitt
1925 - 1958
Herbert Rein
1899 - 1955
Manfred Zeidler (Chemiker)
1935 - 2016
Friedrich Wilhelm Schütze
1840 - 1880
Reinhart Blochmann
1848 - 1920
Kurt Oppenheim
1886 - 1947
Dieter Sellmann
1941 - 2003
Peter Lietz
Born 1933
Erich Bénary
1881 - 1941
Karsten Peter Thiessen
Born 1936
Arnd Iloff
1910 - 2001
Dietrich Moderhack
Born 1940
Gerhard Ritter (Chemiker)
1902 - 1977
Johannes Willenbrink
1930 - 2008
Leonhard Mamlock
1878 - 1923
Martin Trömel
1934 - 2017