The Jewish presence in Germany, at over 1600 years old, predates that of Christianity. A "Golden Age" in the first millennium saw the emergence of the Ashkenazi Jews, while the persecution and expulsion that followed the Crusades led to the appearance of Yiddish and an overall move eastwards (though Jews never fully abandoned Germany). A change of status in the 17th century, combined with the Jewish Enlightenment – the Haskalah – meant that by the 1920s Germany had one of the most integrated Jewish populations in Europe, comprising over 500,000 people, and contributing prominently to German culture and society. The vast majority either left the country or were killed in the Holocaust, and the current German Jewish population consists primarily of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The following is a list of some prominent German Jews.
Historical figures
Politicians
- Kurt Eisner, Bavarian prime minister
- Gregor Gysi, communist politician
- Rudolf Hilferding, finance minister
- Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of State, Nobel Prize (1973)
- Ferdinand Lassalle, founder of first German worker's party
- Eduard Lasker, politician
- Eugen Levine, Bavarian prime minister
- Joseph Suss Oppenheimer, financial planner & court Jew
- Hugo Preuss, author of Weimar constitution
- Walter Rathenau, German Foreign Minister
- Gabriel Riesser, politician
- Helmut Schmidt, West German Chancellor 1974-1982 (Jewish grandfather)
- Markus Wolf, East German spymaster (Jewish father)
Activists
Military
- Erhard Milch, Air Marshal, and convicted war criminal (Jewish father)
Religious figures
Rabbis
Scholars
Other
Scientific figures
Physicists
- Hans Bethe, nuclear physics, Nobel Prize (1967) (Jewish mother)
- Max Born, quantum mechanics, Nobel Prize (1954)
- Albert Einstein, theoretical physics, Nobel Prize (1921)
- James Franck, quantum physics, Nobel Prize (1925)
- Walter Heitler, quantum mechanics
- William & Caroline Herschel, astronomers (father 'of Jewish descent')
- Heinrich Hertz, electromagnetic radiation (Jewish father)
- Ernst Ising, statistical mechanics
- Fritz London, quantum mechanics
- Leonard Mandel, quantum optics
- Albert Michelson, measured speed of light, Nobel Prize (1907)
- Rudolf Peierls, solid state theory
- Arno Penzias, co-discoverer of CMB, Nobel Prize (1978)
- Karl Schwarzschild, physicist & astronomer
- Jack Steinberger, particle physics, Nobel Prize (1988)
- Otto Stern, experimental physicist, Nobel Prize (1943)
Chemists
- Adolf von Baeyer, industrial chemist, Nobel Prize (1905) (Jewish mother)
- Heinrich Caro, industrial chemist
- Nikodem Caro, industrial chemist
- Arthur Eichengrün, possible inventor of aspirin
- Adolph Frank, industrial chemist
- Hans Goldschmidt, industrial chemist
- Fritz Haber, developed the Haber process, Nobel Prize (1918)
- Viktor Meyer, organic chemist
- Leonor Michaelis, biochemist
- Ludwig Mond, chemist & industrialist
- John Polanyi, chemist, Nobel Prize (1986) (Jewish father)
- Rudolf Schoenheimer, biochemist
- Otto Wallach, chemist, Nobel Prize (1910)
- Richard Willstätter, chemist, Nobel Prize (1915)
Biologists
- Konrad Bloch, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1964)
- Ernst Chain, developed penicillin, Nobel Prize (1945)
- Ferdinand Cohn, pioneer in microbiology
- Paul Ehrlich, developed magic bullet concept, Nobel Prize (1908)
- Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat, biochemist
- Ernst Gräfenberg, obstetrician, the G-Spot
- Henry Heimlich, inventor of the Heimlich maneuver
- Bernard Katz, biophysicist, Nobel Prize (1970)
- Hans Kosterlitz, discovered endorphins
- Hans Adolf Krebs, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1953)
- Jacques Loeb, physiologist
- Otto Loewi, pharmacologist, Nobel Prize (1936)
- Fritz Lipmann, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1953)
- Otto Meyerhof, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1922)
- Oskar Minkowski, physiologist
- Albert Schatz, biochemist, streptomycin
- Otto Warburg, physiologist, Nobel Prize (1931) (Jewish father)
- August Paul von Wassermann, developed the Wasserman test
Mathematicians
- Felix Bernstein, set theory
- Richard Brauer, modular representation theory
- Georg Cantor, set theory (Jewish father)
- Moritz Cantor, historian of mathematics
- Richard Courant, mathematical analysis & applied mathematics
- Max Dehn, topology
- Adolf Fraenkel, set theory
- Hans Freudenthal, algebraic topology
- Alexander Grothendieck, algebraic geometry, Fields Medal (1966) (Jewish father)
- Felix Hausdorff, topology
- Heinz Hopf, topology (Jewish father)
- Adolf Hurwitz, mathematician
- Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, analysis
- Leopold Kronecker, number theory
- Edmund Landau, number theory
- Rudolf Lipschitz, mathematician
- Hermann Minkowski, geometrical theory of numbers
- Emmy Noether, algebra & theoretical physics
- Richard Rado, combinatorics
- Abraham Robinson, nonstandard analysis
- Klaus Roth, diophantine approximation, Fields Medal (1958)
- Arthur Moritz Schönflies, mathematician
- Issai Schur, mathematician
- Otto Toeplitz, linear algebra & functional analysis
Computer scientists
Psychologists
- Karl Abraham, psychoanalyst
- Rudolf Arnheim, perception theorist
- Erik Erikson, developmental psychologist
- Erich Fromm, psychologist & humanistic philosopher
- Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, psychoanalyst
- Kurt Goldstein, Gestalt-influenced neurologist
- Magnus Hirschfeld, sexologist
- Kurt Koffka, Gestalt psychologist
- Kurt Lewin, social psychologist
- Hugo Münsterberg, industrial psychologist
- Ulric Neisser, cognitive psychologist (Jewish father)
- Erich Neumann, analytical psychologist
- Fritz Perls, psychotherapist
- William Stern, the Intelligence Quotient
- Max Wertheimer, Gestalt psychologist
Academic figures
Philosophers
- Ernst Bloch, philosopher
- Constantin Brunner, philosopher
- Ernst Cassirer, philosopher
- Hermann Cohen, philosopher
- Kurt Grelling, philosopher
- Max Horkheimer, philosopher & sociologist
- Edmund Husserl, philosopher
- Hans Jonas, philosopher
- Karl Löwith, philosopher
- Fritz Mauthner, author & philosopher
- Moses Mendelssohn, philosopher
- Georg Misch
- Leonard Nelson, philosopher
- Hans Reichenbach, philosopher (Jewish father)
- Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
- Max Scheler, philosopher (Jewish mother)
Social and political scientists
- Theodor Adorno, sociologist (Jewish father)
- Hannah Arendt, political theorist
- Reinhard Bendix, sociologist
- Eduard Bernstein, founder of evolutionary socialism
- Franz Boas, cultural anthropologist
- Lewis A. Coser, sociologist
- Norbert Elias, sociologist
- Amitai Etzioni, sociologist
- Ernst Fraenkel, political scientist
- Moses Hess, socialist
- Siegfried Kracauer, sociologist & film critic
- Ludwig Lachmann, economist
- Leo Löwenthal, critical theorist
- Karl Mannheim, sociologist
- Herbert Marcuse, sociologist, New Left figurehead
- Karl Marx, founder of communism
- Oskar Morgenstern, economist
- Franz Neumann, legal theorist
- Franz Oppenheimer, sociologist & economist
- Friedrich Pollock, economist & sociologist
- Reinhard Selten, economist, Nobel Prize (1994) (Jewish father)
- Georg Simmel, sociologist
- Hugo Sinzheimer
- Franz Weidenreich, physical anthropologist
- Louis Wirth, sociologist
Linguists and literature critics
Cultural figures
Showbusiness
- Percy Adlon, director (half Jewish)
- Artur Brauner, film producer
- Lou Jacobs, clown
- Ted Koppel, TV journalist (German parents)
- Carl Laemmle, film producer
- Ernst Lubitsch, director
- Judith Malina, The Living Theatre
- Mike Nichols, director
- Lilli Palmer, actress
- Andrew Sachs, TV actor
- Robert Siodmak, director
- Jerry Springer, TV host (German parents)
- Ruth Westheimer, sex therapist
- Peter Zadek, theatre director
Musicians
- Wolf Biermann, singer/songwriter (Jewish father)
- Paul Dessau, composer
- Hanns Eisler, composer
- Carl Flesch, violinist
- Lukas Foss, composer & conductor
- Nina Hagen, singer (Jewish mother)
- Otto Klemperer, conductor
- Alfred Lions & Frank Wolff, founders of Blue Note Records
- Edmund Meisel, composer
- Felix Mendelssohn, composer
- Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, composer
- Giacomo Meyerbeer, composer
- Jacques Offenbach, composer
- Menahem Pressler, pianist
- André Previn, conductor
- Kurt Sanderling, conductor
- William Steinberg, conductor
- Bruno Walter, conductor
- Franz Waxman, film composer
- Kurt Weill, composer
- Stefan Wolpe, composer
Artists
- Dankmar Adler, architect
- Anni Albers, textile designer
- Frank Auerbach, painter
- Erwin Blumenfeld, photographer
- Alfred Eisenstaedt, photographer
- Lucian Freud, painter
- Eva Hesse, sculptor
- Max Liebermann, painter
- Herbert List, photographer ('part-Jewish')
- Peter Max, pop artist
- Erich Mendelsohn, architect
- Helmut Newton, photographer
- Felix Nussbaum, painter
- Meret Oppenheim, surrealist
- Erwin Panofsky, art historian
- Hans Schleger, designer
- Erich Salomon, news photographer
Writers and poets
- Yehuda Amichai, poet
- Jurek Becker, writer
- Maxim Biller, writer
- Lion Feuchtwanger, novelist
- Hubert Fichte, author (Jewish father)
- Anne Frank, diarist
- Maximilian Harden , journalists
- Glückel of Hameln, 18th-century diarist
- Heinrich Heine, poet
- Stefan Heym, novelist, politician
- Paul Heyse, author, Nobel Prize (1910) (Jewish mother)
- Wolfgang Hildesheimer, writer
- Barbara Honigmann, writer
- Judith Kerr, children's writer
- Wladimir Kaminer, writer, dj
- Else Lasker-Schüler, writer, poet & artist
- Henning Pawel, child-book author, writer. See German article
- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, author & screenwriter
- H.A. & Margret Rey, children's writers
- Nelly Sachs, poet, Nobel Prize (1966)
- Anna Seghers, novelist
- Kurt Tucholsky, poet
- Samuel Ullman, poet
- Jakob Wassermann, novelist
- Peter Weiss, dramatist & writer
- Carl Zuckmayer, playwright
- Arnold Zweig, writer
Business
Inventors
Entrepreneurs
- Albert Ballin, cruise ship inventor
- Ernest Oppenheimer, diamond tycoon
- Emil Rathenau, founder of AEG
- Paul Reuter, founder of Reuters
- Mayer Amschel Rothschild and family, financiers & bankers
- Joseph Seligman, banker & US civil war financier
- Jacob Schiff, railroad financier
- Levi Strauss, clothing manufacturer
- Isidor Straus owner of Macy's department store & RMS Titanic victim
- Leonard, Oscar & Hermann Tietz, founders of Kauhof, Hertie & KaDeWe department stores
- Siegmund Warburg, banker
Sports
- Gretel Bergmann, high jumper
- Hans Berliner, world postal chess champion
- Barney Dreyfuss, co-founder of the World Series
- Gottfried Fuchs, soccer player
- Ludwig Guttmann, founder of the Paralympics
- Bernhard Horwitz, chess player
- Emanuel Lasker, world chess champion
- Helene Mayer, fencer (Jewish father)
- Sarah Poewe, swimmer
- Daniel Prenn, tennis player
- Siegbert Tarrasch, chess player
See also
