51.2310° N, 6.7725° E

DUSSELDORF

Most Famous People Born in Dusseldorf, Germany

Notable people
2,294
Peak decade
1960s
Median birth year
1936
Most distinctive
Painter 3.9×

A Rhenish art academy city whose bench is thick with painters — more than ten per cent of all notables, a share matched by very few cities in the dataset. Düsseldorf's distinctive shelves beyond that are authors, academics, sculptors, economists, and historians, and its most famous son is Heinrich Heine. The Kunstakademie is the engine that produced Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter (who taught there), and a generation of photographers; Jürgen Habermas and Wim Wenders grew up here too.

Through the Centuries

One face per century — the most globally famous figure born in Dusseldorf during each.

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1960s with 303 notable births.

What Dusseldorf Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Painter is Dusseldorf's biggest profession — 10% of all notables (234).

Dusseldorf over-indexes on painter3.9× the global rate.

Dusseldorf under-produces football — only 0.4× the global rate.

  1. Painter234
  2. Actor189
  3. Politician176
  4. Football110
  5. Writer98
  6. Academic81
  7. Author74
  8. Lawyer51
  1. Painter2343.9×
  2. Author743.7×
  3. Academic813.5×
  4. Sculptor453.0×
  5. Economist242.5×
  6. Historian502.1×
  7. Architect402.0×
  8. Artist431.8×
  1. Football1100.4×
  2. Singer290.6×
  3. Politician1760.7×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Dusseldorf's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

155016001650170017501800185019001950
  • Art & Design
  • Writing
  • Politics & Law
  • Sports
  • Film & TV
  • Science
  • Other
All2,294
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Showing 13 of 2,294 notable people

0001 POET

Heinrich Heine

1797 - 1856

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0053 PAINTER

Peter von Hess

1792 - 1871

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0135 PAINTER

Heinrich Maria von Hess

1798 - 1863

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0391 TEACHER

Ludwig Schopen

1799 - 1867

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0829 POLITICIAN

Léandre Desmaisières

1794 - 1864

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1123 PAINTER

Dietrich Monten

1799 - 1843

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1235 PHYSICIAN

Peter Joseph Neunzig

1797 - 1877

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1528 ARCHIVIST

Johann Ferdinand Huschberg

1792 - 1852

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1628 ENTREPRENEUR

Johann Wilhelm Zanders (Papierfabrikant, 1795) –

1795 - 1831

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1641 POLITICIAN

Joseph von Fuchsius

1793 - 1854

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1756 PAINTER

Gerhard Sippmann

1790 - 1866

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1802 CARTOGRAPHER

Josef Arnz

1792 - 1841

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2082 ARCHITECT

Anton Schnitzler

1796 - 1873

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