47.3744° N, 8.5411° E
ZURICH
Most Famous People Born in Zurich, Switzerland
- Notable people
- 2,462
- Peak decade
- 1940s
- Median birth year
- 1941
- Most distinctive
- Author 3.5×
A Reformed Swiss city with a disproportionately large academic-and-letters bench. Zurich's distinctive professions are authors, academics, architects, artists, and physicists — the trades of a German-language university town that runs from Gottfried Keller through Max Frisch on the literary side and Einstein and Pauli on the scientific. Pestalozzi, Rorschach, and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross all belong to this bench, and nearly eighty per cent of the names were born after 1900.
One face per century — the most globally famous figure born in Zurich during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1940s with 264 notable births.
What Zurich Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Politician is Zurich's biggest profession — 7% of all notables (164).
Zurich over-indexes on author — 3.5× the global rate.
Zurich under-produces football — only 0.4× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Zurich's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Writing
- Sports
- Art & Design
- Science
- Film & TV
- Music
- Other
- Filtered to 1880s Clear ×
Hermann Rorschach
1885 - 1922
Walter H. Schottky
1886 - 1976
Victor Goldschmidt
1888 - 1947
Gottlieb Duttweiler
1888 - 1962
Toni Wolff
1888 - 1953
Robert Julius Trumpler
1886 - 1956
Emil Hegetschweiler
1887 - 1959
Jakob Bührer
1882 - 1975
Gustav Ammann
1885 - 1955
Paul Bodmer
1886 - 1983
Arnold Heim
1882 - 1965
Rosa Bloch-Bollag
1880 - 1922
Robert Faesi
1883 - 1972
Paul Johner
1887 - 1938
Bernhard Diebold
1886 - 1945
Paul Scheuermeier
1888 - 1973
Oscar Geier
1882 - 1942
Ottmar Bühler
1884 - 1965
Walterio Meyer Rusca
1882 - 1969
Karl Bickel
1886 - 1982
Walter Schoeller
1889 - 1979
Olga Meyer
1889 - 1972
Ernst Gagliardi
1882 - 1940
Rose Woldstedt-Lauth
1889 - 1966
Charles-Gustave Kuhn
1889 - 1952
Walter Streule
Born 1882
Willy Fries (Maler, 1881)
1881 - 1965
Max Terpis
1889 - 1958
Eduard Korrodi
1885 - 1955
Roman Boos
1889 - 1952
Hermann Huber (Maler)
1888 - 1967
Wilhelm Gimmi
1886 - 1965
Hermann von Glenck
1883 - 1952
Regina Kägi-Fuchsmann
1889 - 1972
Max Geilinger
1884 - 1948
Rudolf Brun (Mediziner)
1885 - 1969
Anton Higi
1885 - 1951
Richard Calini
1882 - 1943
Adolf Fehr (Maler)
1889 - 1964
Adolf Maurer
1883 - 1976
Karl Dürr
1888 - 1979
Albert Hurter
1883 - 1942
Heinrich Johann Hersche
1889 - 1971
Stefan Markus
1884 - 1957
Wilhelm Stein (Kunsthistoriker)
1886 - 1970
Armand Weiser
1887 - 1933
Willy Friedrich Burger
1882 - 1964
Emil Mamelok
1882 - 1954
Hugo Laubi
1888 - 1959
Otto Streicher (Architekt)
1887 - 1968
Mina Tobler
1880 - 1967
Oskar Bloch
1881 - 1937
Else Haugk
1889 - 1973
Paul Arbenz
1880 - 1943
Hans Felix Pfenninger
1886 - 1969
Carl Fischer (Bildhauer)
1888 - 1987
Hans Frick (Offizier)
1888 - 1975
Ernst Karl Weber
1880 - 1973
Albert Maurer
1889 - 1935
Otto Wyss
1889 - 1960
Emil Dannecker
1883 - 1964
Walter Nägeli
1881 - 1965
Hans Töndury
1883 - 1938
Frieda Impekoven
1880 - 1965
Hans Mayenfisch
1882 - 1957
Max Zschokke
1886 - 1960
Eugen Aellen
1887 - 1945
Hans Häusle
1889 - 1944
Max Juen (Politiker, 1885)
1885 - 1935