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: Physicist Clear ×
Moritz Schlick
1882 - 1936
Rudolf Peierls
1907 - 1995
Heinrich Gustav Magnus
1802 - 1870
Willy Ley
1906 - 1969
Erich Hückel
1896 - 1980
Rainer Weiss
Born 1932
Walther Meissner
1882 - 1974
Gerald Holton
Born 1922
Paul Peter Ewald
1888 - 1985
Walther Kossel
1888 - 1956
Werner Israel
Born 1931
Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann
1826 - 1899
Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky
1919 - 2007
Peter Hirsch
Born 1925
Max Jammer
1915 - 2010
Francis Simon
1893 - 1956
Fay Ajzenberg-Selove
1926 - 2012
Kurt Mendelssohn
1906 - 1980
Paul Richard Heinrich Blasius
1883 - 1970
Erwin Wilhelm Müller
1911 - 1977
Georg Adolf Erman
1806 - 1877
Friedwardt Winterberg
Born 1929
Peter Bergmann
1915 - 2002
Walther Bauersfeld
1879 - 1959
Hans W. Liepmann
1914 - 2009
Hans Reissner
1874 - 1967
Leonard Mandel
1927 - 2001
Berta Karlik
1904 - 1990
Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert
1769 - 1824
Günter Nimtz
Born 1936
Carl Hellmuth Hertz
1920 - 1990
Benedict Friedlaender
1866 - 1908
Jean Zinn-Justin
Born 1943
Werner E. Reichardt
1924 - 1992
Adolf Slaby
1849 - 1913
Eugen Merzbacher
1921 - 2013
Heinz Barwich
1911 - 1966
Ernst Gehrcke
1878 - 1960
Leo Arons
1860 - 1919
Gustav Karsten
1820 - 1900
Paul Erman
1764 - 1851
Paul Gerber
1854 - 1909
Ernest J. Sternglass
1923 - 2015
Marcello Pirani
1880 - 1968
Hermann Knoblauch
1820 - 1895
Elsa Neumann
1872 - 1902
Hermann Brück
1905 - 2000
Werner Hartmann (physicist)
1912 - 1988
Werner Döring
1911 - 2006
Walter Tollmien
1900 - 1968
Franz Ollendorff
1900 - 1981
Michel Ter-Pogossian
1925 - 1996
Peter Pringsheim
1881 - 1963
Axel Stoll
1948 - 2014
Hans-Joachim Queisser
Born 1931
Ewald Wollny
1846 - 1901
Peter Theophil Riess
1805 - 1883
Ernst W. Hamburger
1933 - 2018
Fritz Reiche
1883 - 1969
Henry H. Barschall
1915 - 1997
Anton Oberbeck
1846 - 1900
Erich Kretschmann
1887 - 1973
Carsten Bresch
1921 - 2020
Harald Friedrich
1947 - 2017
Arnold Flammersfeld
1913 - 2001
Rudolph Franz
1826 - 1902
Hellmut Fritzsche
1927 - 2018
Horst-Joachim Lüdecke
Born 1943
Wilhelm von Beetz
1822 - 1886
Claus Jönsson
Born 1930
Robert Graham (physicist)
Born 1942
Ernst Ruhmer
1878 - 1913
Wolfgang Krätschmer
Born 1942
Hartmut Kallmann
1896 - 1978
Fritz Lange (Physiker)
1899 - 1987
Fritz-Rudolf Güntsch
1925 - 2012
Peter Skalicky
Born 1941
Karl Friedrich Alexander
1925 - 2017
Ernst-Joachim Gießmann
1919 - 2004
Horst Meyer (physicist)
1926 - 2016
Walter Boas
1904 - 1982
Pierre Radványi
Born 1926
Isolde Hausser
1889 - 1951
Hans Schimank
1888 - 1979
Hans Otto Kneser
1901 - 1985
Horst Rollnik
1931 - 2011
Alfred Kalähne
1874 - 1946
Henning Stahlberg
Born 1965
Hans-Karl von Willisen
1906 - 1966
Ernst Lamla
1888 - 1986
Dieter B. Herrmann
Born 1939
Hans Rosenberg (Physiker)
1879 - 1940
Gustav Ernst Robert Schulze
1911 - 1974
Eugen Brodhun
1860 - 1938
Hauke Trinks
1943 - 2016
Hildegard Stücklen
1891 - 1963
Otto Klemperer (physicist)
1899 - 1987
Dieter Hoffmann (Historiker)
Born 1948
Gerhard Hettner
1892 - 1968
Friedrich Hermann Busse
Born 1936
Conrad Dieterici
1858 - 1929
Karl Wolfgang Boer
1926 - 2018
Marion Asche
1935 - 2013
Florian Scheck
Born 1936
Friedrich-Wilhelm Gundlach
1912 - 1994
Jost Lemmerich
1929 - 2018
Martin Lambeck
1934 - 2020
Helmut Satz
Born 1936
Tord Robert Riemann
Born 1951
Karl Lanius
1927 - 2010
Helmut Rechenberg
1937 - 2016
Frank Pobell
Born 1937
Klaus Dransfeld
Born 1926
Joachim Heintze
1926 - 2012
Matthias Scheffler
Born 1951
Peter Wegener
1917 - 2008
Klaus-Werner Benz
Born 1938
Freda Wuesthoff
1896 - 1956
Klaus Zweiling
1900 - 1968
Helmut W. Schulz
1912 - 2006
Hermann Kümmel
1922 - 2012
Peter Giese
1931 - 2005
Joachim Auth
1930 - 2011
Ludwig Glaser (Physiker)
1889 - 1945
Friedrich Poske (Pädagoge)
1852 - 1925
Robert Schrader
1939 - 2015
Horst Kant
Born 1946
Wilfried Kugel
Born 1949
James Moser
1852 - 1908
Hans Joachim Eichler
Born 1940
Walter König (Physiker)
1859 - 1936
Immanuel Estermann
1900 - 1973
Klaus Geiger (Physiker)
1921 - 2013
Olaf Kübler (Physiker)
Born 1944
Marius Grundmann
Born 1964
Hugo Mosler
1875 - 1956
Horst Weber (Physiker)
Born 1935
Friedrich Möglich
1902 - 1957
Siegmund Brandt
1936 - 2016
Peter Theodore Landsberg
1922 - 2010
Heinz Bilz
1926 - 1986
Bruno Lange
1903 - 1969
Klaus Bethge
1931 - 2016
Brigitte Eckstein
1926 - 2007
Heinz Schmellenmeier
1909 - 1994
Ekkehart Kröner
1919 - 2000
Arnulf Schlüter
1922 - 2011
Fritz Schröter (Physiker)
1886 - 1973
Jürgen Meyer-ter-Vehn
Born 1940
Werner Kroebel
1904 - 2001
Hans Boersch
1909 - 1986
Hans Baerwald (Physiker)
1880 - 1946
Julius Dub
1817 - 1873
Ludwig Moser (Physiker)
1805 - 1880
Renate Chasman
1932 - 1977
Arno Brasch
1910 - 1963
Paul Glan
1846 - 1898
Ulrich Stille
1910 - 1976
Jörg Neugebauer (Physiker)
Born 1963
Ernest Hirschlaff Hutten
1908 - 1996
Joachim Heberlein
1939 - 2014
Gustav-Adolf Voss
1929 - 2013
Louis Ferdinand Albrecht Müller
1813 - 1891
Wolfgang Junge
Born 1940
Erhard Wielandt
Born 1940
Gerald Grawert
1930 - 2005
Jürgen Nührenberg
Born 1942
Günter Grieger
1931 - 2012
Wilhelm von Meyeren (Physiker)
1905 - 1983
Oskar Heimstädt
1879 - 1944
Bernhard Mühlschlegel
1925 - 2007
Fritz Coester (Physiker)
1921 - 2020
Adolf Koepsel
1856 - 1933
Hans Fränz
1899 - 1976
Heinz-Detlef Kronfeldt
1949 - 2015
Robert Lüdtge
1845 - 1880
Thomas Pruschke
1959 - 2016
Jürgen Bernhardt
Born 1938
Walter Schallreuter
1895 - 1975
Jürgen Schneider (Physiker)
1931 - 2012
Tobias Kippenberg
Born 1976
Hans-Jürgen Mikeska
Born 1937
Gerhard Kehrberg
Born 1949
Steven Moszkowski
Born 1927
Reinhard Morgenstern
Born 1942