German inventor Johannes Gutenberg developed a method of movable type and used it to create one of the Western world's first major printed books, the “Forty-Two-Line” Bible. 

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).

Czech experimental physiologist Johannes Purkinje discovered the Purkinje effect, Purkinje cells and Purkinje fibers and first introduced the term protoplasm.

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist who wrote symphonies, concerti, chamber music, piano works, and choral compositions.

Dutch physicist Johannes Diederik van der Waals was winner of the 1910 Nobel Prize for Physics for his research on the gaseous and liquid states of matter.