Famous Germans a to z

In addition to his own label, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has been a major creative force behind such well-known brands as Tommy Hilfiger, Chanel, and Fendi.

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian pianist and composer of enormous influence and originality. He was renowned in Europe during the Romantic movement.

Theologian Martin Luther forever changed Christianity when he began the Protestant Reformation in 16th-century Europe.

German novelist, short-story and essay writer Thomas Mann won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. One of his best-known novels is Death in Venice.

German philosopher and revolutionary socialist Karl Marx published The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, anticapitalist works that form the basis of Marxism.

Maurice was duke and elector of Saxony (southeastern Germany) during the 16th century.

Maximilian I was the first king of Bavaria (1806–25), a member of the house of Wittelsbach.

Ornithologist Ernst Mayr demonstrated that the development of separate species in higher animals depends on the geographical isolation of precursor populations.

John McEnroe is a world champion tennis player famous for his temperamental outbursts. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999.

Josef Mengele was a Nazi doctor at Auschwitz extermination camp who selected prisoners for execution in gas chambers and led medical experiments on inmates.

Angela Merkel is a German politician best known as the first female chancellor of Germany and one of the architects of the European Union.

Silent film director F.W. Murnau created the first major vampire film with 1924's Nosferatu, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stroker.

Mike Nichols in an American theater and film director, best known for his 1967 classic, The Graduate. He's won an Academy Award, as well as multiple Tony and Emmy Awards.

John G. Nicolay served as secretary to President Abraham Lincoln, and later co-wrote a 10-volume biography on the president, Abraham Lincoln: A History.

19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche radically questioned widely held cultural beliefs and is best known for his "God is dead" concept.

German composer Johann Pachelbel was known for his works for organ, and was considered one of the great organ masters of the generation before J.S. Bach.

German serial killer Peter Kürten, known as the "Dusseldorf Vampire", murdered at least nine people before surrendering to police in 1931.

American author Robert Pirsig is best known for his philosophical novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974).

Ferdinand Porsche founded the Porsche car company in 1931. In the early 1920s, he oversaw the development of the Mercedes compressor car, and later developed the first designs of the Volkswagen car with his son, Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche.

Thanks to the model 356, created in 1948 by Ferdinand Anton Ernst "Ferry" Porsche, the Porsche car company became known worldwide as a producer of successful sports and racing cars. Several years earlier, in 1934, Porsche worked with father Ferdinand Porsche on the first designs of the Volkswagen car.

Terrorist. Born May 1, 1972 in the Yemini province of Hadhramaut. Binalshibh worked as a clerk for the International Bank of Yemen from 1987-1995. He moved to Hamburg, Germany, in 1997 where he met Mohamed Atta and joined the al Qaeda cell. Binalshibh

Johannes Rau was a member of the Social Democratic Party Executive and chair of the party state organization before serving as president of Germany (1999-2004).

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was one of German's most popular generals during World War II, and gained his enemies' respect with his victories as commander of the Afrika Korps. Implicated in a plot to overthrow Hitler, Rommel took his life in 1944.

Supermodel Claudia Schiffer starred in a campaign for Guess jeans, and appeared on the covers of more than 500 magazines, including Vogue and Rolling Stone.

Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher best known for his book The World as Will and Representation, and for his pessimistic views of human nature.

Max Schreck made film history with his creepy portrayal of a vampire in F.W. Murnau’s classic silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror (1922).

Charles Schulz was a cartoonist best known for creating the one of the world's most successful comic strips, Peanuts.

Levi Strauss started an enduring fashion empire, which he launched by making one of the world's most durable and popular clothing items--the blue jeans.

Julius Streicher was a Nazi demagogue and politician who gained infamy as one of the most virulent advocates of the persecution of Jews during the 1930s.

Chef Tell was one of the first culinary celebrities, giving cooking demonstrations on television beginning in the 1970s.

Rudolf Virchow was a German pathologist and statesman, widely credited for his advancements in public health, particularly with his cell theory.

Wernher von Braun was a German engineer who worked on rocket technology, first for Germany and then for the United States.

Richard Wagner is best known for creating several complex operas, including Tristan and Isolde and Ring Cycle, as well as for his anti-semitic writings.

After working in Europe for decades, actor Christoph Waltz caught the attention of American audiences with his role in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds.

Max Weber was a 19th century German sociologist and one of the founders of modern sociology. He wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1905.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer is one of the world's most recognized authorities on sex. She has delivered her advice on TV, radio and the web for decades and has written numerous books.

William I is best known for ruling Prussia as regent, and king, and later as German emperor.

Bruce Willis first made a splash on TV in Moonlighting, costarring Cybill Shepherd, but his fame really grew with films such as Die Hard, The Sixth Sense and The Expendables.