Historical Figures from Germany

Physicist · 1879 – 1955

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize.

• Theory of relativity
• E=mc²

Diarist · 1929 – 1945

Anne Frank was a German-Dutch Jewish girl whose diary, written while hiding from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam, became one of the most widely read accounts of the Holocaust and a lasting testament to humanity amid persecution.

• The Diary of a Young Girl
• Voice of the Holocaust

Composer · 1685 – 1750

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque era whose mastery of counterpoint and harmony — in works like the Brandenburg Concertos and the Mass in B minor — made him one of the greatest composers in Western history.

• Brandenburg Concertos
• Mass in B minor

Writer · 1749 – 1832

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, poet, and statesman, widely regarded as the greatest figure in German literature and one of the towering minds of European culture.

• Faust
• The Sorrows of Young Werther

Physicist · 1901 – 1976

Werner Heisenberg was a German physicist who founded matrix mechanics and formulated the uncertainty principle, two of the cornerstones of quantum mechanics.

• Uncertainty principle
• Matrix mechanics