49.0159° N, 8.4031° E

KARLSRUHE

Most Famous People Born in Karlsruhe, Germany

Notable people
1,427
Peak decade
1960s
Median birth year
1920
Most distinctive
Author 4.6×

A baroque grand-ducal city founded in 1715 around the fan-shaped palace of the Margraves of Baden-Durlach. Karlsruhe's distinctive professions are academic authors, chemists, engineers, judges, and architects — the trades of a Residenzstadt that grew into a 19th-century technical university town and never lost the official-document register. Karl Benz built the first automobile here in 1885, and Oliver Kahn and a deep column of other Bundesliga footballers came out of the local Karlsruher SC academy.

Through the Decades

One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Karlsruhe during each.

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1960s with 165 notable births.

What Karlsruhe Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Politician is Karlsruhe's biggest profession — 10% of all notables (136).

Karlsruhe over-indexes on author4.6× the global rate.

Karlsruhe under-produces singer — only 0.6× the global rate.

  1. Politician136
  2. Football98
  3. Actor69
  4. Painter63
  5. Author56
  6. Academic56
  7. Writer44
  8. Lawyer38
  1. Author564.6×
  2. Academic563.9×
  3. Chemist173.4×
  4. Judge233.4×
  5. Engineer232.6×
  6. Historian372.5×
  7. Architect312.5×
  8. Officer212.2×
  1. Singer170.6×
  2. Football980.6×

Profession Mix Over Time

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

160016501700175018001850190019502000
  • Science
  • Politics & Law
  • Writing
  • Sports
  • Art & Design
  • Film & TV
  • Other
All1,427
Sort By

Showing 44 of 1,427 notable people

0003 ENGINEER

Karl Benz

1844 - 1929

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0008 BIOLOGIST

Friedrich Ratzel

1844 - 1904

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0050 PAINTER

Ferdinand Keller (painter)

1842 - 1922

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0078 OPHTHALMOLOGIST

Theodor Leber

1840 - 1917

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0096 ANTHROPOLOGIST

Otto Ammon

1842 - 1916

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0150 POLITICIAN

Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein

1842 - 1912

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0242 PAINTER

Albert Lang

1847 - 1933

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0539 SCULPTOR

Hermann Volz (Bildhauer)

1847 - 1941

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0588 POLITICIAN

Arthur von Brauer

1845 - 1925

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0605 ARCHITECT

Gustav Ziegler (Architekt)

1847 - 1908

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0633 LAWYER

Charles Silent

1842 - 1918

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0642 WRITER

Theodor Haas (Philatelist)

1848 - 1911

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0733 AUTHOR

Anna Ettlinger

1841 - 1934

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0739 COMPOSER

Karl Feininger

1844 - 1922

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0835 PAINTER

Hermann Eichfeld

1845 - 1917

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0871 HISTORIAN

Karl Hartfelder

1848 - 1893

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0927 POLITICIAN

Julius A. Lebkuecher

1844 - 1913

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0957 CHAMBERLAIN

Leopold von Freystedt

1840 - 1917

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1016 PAINTER

Ludwig Dittweiler

1844 - 1891

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1020 POLITICIAN

Eugen Holtzmann

1848 - 1901

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1052 POLITICIAN

Emil von Kessler (Politiker)

1841 - 1895

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1060 BASEBALL

Marty Swandell

1841 - 1906

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1074 WRITER

Eugen von Jagemann

1849 - 1926

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1104 MILITAR

Hermann Fichter

1845 - 1912

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1157 PHARMACIST

Otto Widmann

1841 - 1933

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1162 GENERALMAJOR

Ferdinand Roeder von Diersburg

1848 - 1926

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1189 JUDGE

Karl Lauck

1840 - 1906

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1199 SCHWESTER

Anna Lauter

1847 - 1926

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1204 BANK

Robert Koelle

1844 - 1926

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1215 LAWYER

Max Boeckh

1843 - 1913

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1218 ACTOR

Bertha Bayer-Braun

1847 - 1909

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1221 ACTOR

Louise Kachel-Bender

1847 - 1916

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1223 POLITICIAN

Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein (Politiker, 1848)

1848 - 1920

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1224 HISTORIAN

Karl Christ (Heimatforscher)

1841 - 1927

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1248 POLITICIAN

Florian J. Ries

Born 1843

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1298 STADTRAT

Leopold Ettlinger (Kaufmann)

1844 - 1912

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1303 VETERAN

Luther Kaltenbach

1843 - 1922

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1313 COACH

Adolph F. Bechdolt

1846 - 1938

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1351 LAWYER

Adolf Föhrenbach

1845 - 1928

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1358 LAWYER

Wilhelm Holtzmann

1847 - 1914

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1367 LAWYER

Julius Lacher

1845 - 1919

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1383 POLITICIAN

Mel Vogel

Born 1848

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1395 POLITICIAN

Karl Friedrich Otto Schuster

1846 - 1927

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1410 STADTRAT

Wilhelm Schüssele

1840 - 1905

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