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 author — 4.6× 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
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Officer21
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Showing 21 of 1,427 notable people

0015 OFFICER

Walther von Reichenau

1884 - 1942

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0086 OFFICER

Berthold von Deimling

1853 - 1944

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0122 OFFICER

Alois Schönburg-Hartenstein

1858 - 1944

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0238 OFFICER

Leopold von Edelsheim-Gyulai

1826 - 1893

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0443 OFFICER

Martin Weiss (Nazi official)

1903 - 1984

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0448 OFFICER

Karl-Friedrich Schweickhard

1883 - 1968

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0670 OFFICER

Erich Blankenhorn

1878 - 1963

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0714 OFFICER

Rudolf Bleidorn

1864 - 1937

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0734 OFFICER

Gustav Stoffleth

1881 - 1954

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0768 OFFICER

Heino von Rantzau

1894 - 1946

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0842 OFFICER

Wilhelm Pleikard Ludwig von Gemmingen

1823 - 1903

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0953 OFFICER

Hartmut Bühl

Born 1940

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1094 OFFICER

Helmut Bauer

1920 - 1967

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1236 OFFICER

Max von Seubert

1837 - 1914

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1254 OFFICER

Alfred Eidel

1910 - 1944

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1284 OFFICER

Reinhard Burst

1907 - 1998

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1324 OFFICER

Emil Nagel

1853 - 1933

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1337 OFFICER

Karl August Ludwig von La Chevallerie

1813 - 1884

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1355 OFFICER

Wolfgang Weese

1890 - 1961

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1360 OFFICER

Friedrich Arnold

1919 - 2006

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1397 OFFICER

Maximilian von Bodman

1873 - 1953

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