51 Most Incredible German Scientists and Innovators of All Times
Science is the emblematic feature of the country of Germany. Countless German scientists, scholars, academics pursued their dream for discovering the hidden truths about the world and space, making the most important discoveries for the world and human history.
Enjoying the benefits of modern life, a great appreciativeness must be given to the hard dedication of German brain.
As you will discover through the following facts, Germany holds the merits for generating important theories, explanations and inventions that led to the development of technologies, treatments, structures and models that made human life easier and cheerier.
Let us look on the most eminent scientists of Germany and see their priceless scientific contribution given to the world we live (sorted alphabetically):
1. Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt (1903 – 1995)
Adolf Butenandt holds the merits for increasing the knowledge on gender hormones. He explored and recognized androsterone – male gender hormone and progesterone hormone – which supports females’ reproduction. Indications of his exploration shown that gender hormones are greatly related with steroids. His research helped the manufacture of birth control tablets.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939. He initially rejected the award in accordance with government policy, but accepted it in 1949.
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2. Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus (1876 – 1959
Adolf Windaus became an emblematic figure in the field of chemistry through his research for examining the relation between sterols and their vitamins, with a special focus on vitamin D3. He discovered the 7-dehydrocholesterol, explaining that is a chemical precursor of vitamin D3 showing that it is a steroid, which transforms into the vitamin D3 once one of its chemical bonds gets broken, as a reaction of with the sunlight.
He was the doctoral advisor of Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt
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3. Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
Albert Einstein is portrayed as the father to special relativity and general relativity theories, mass-energy similarity and photoelectric effect in physics, formulating the most influential conceptions of all ages. Through the famous equation E = mc² the definite relation between light speed (c2) and mass (m) which move the matter explained, helping the reshape science and technology.
In 1921 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his “services to theoretical physics”, in particular his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, a pivotal step in the evolution of quantum theory.
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4. Albert Schweitzer (1875 – 1965)
Albert Schweitzer distinguished himself through his great dedication on building “the Brotherhood of nations” and for promoting vegetarianism as an ideal form of nutrition for the human, by devoting himself to only eating veggie.
He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of “Reverence for Life”,[2] expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, now in Gabon, west central Africa (then French Equatorial Africa).
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5. Carl Bosch (1874 – 1940)
Carl Bosch was a German chemist and engineer and Nobel laureate in chemistry.
Car Bosch is a well-known individual due to this work on growing the process of Haber ammonia process by synthesizing the ammonia, hydrogen and nitrogen. He is also recognized for formulating methods of chemical high-pressure.
He received the Siemens-Ring in 1924 for his contributions to applied research and his support of basic research. In 1931 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Friedrich Bergius for the introduction of high pressure chemistry.
Today the Haber–Bosch process produces 100 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer every year.
6. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (1942)
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard became an important figure of science as she and her counterparts Eric F. Wieschaus and Edward B. Lewis for investigating the mechanisms that lead to an early development of embryo.
She won the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1991 and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995, together with Eric Wieschaus and Edward B. Lewis, for their research on the genetic control of embryonic development.
The experiments that earned Nüsslein-Volhard and Wieschaus their Nobel prize aimed to identify genes involved in the development of Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) embryos.
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7. Eduard Buchner (1860 – 1917)
Eduard Buchner is the main contributor for researching the fermentation process of glucose. His research outcomes shown that by removing an enzyme called zymase from yeast cells of glucose, the glucose-sugar fragments into alcohol and carbon dioxide. His discovery led the development of the alcoholic industry.
In 1907 he was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on fermentation.
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8. Ernst August Friedrich Ruska (1906 – 1988)
Ernst Ruska is known as the person who has invented the widely used instrument, especially in chemistry and medicine the electron microscope. This microscope can bring a high-resolution image of the object using an electron ray.
In 1986 he was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in electron optics, including the design of the first electron microscope.
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9. Erwin Neher (1944)
Erwin Neher is respected for formulating with Bert Sakmann the technique called patch-clamp, a laboratory procedure for detecting tiny electrical streams that ions release through the cell membrane.
For significant contribution in the field, in 1991 he was awarded, along with Bert Sakmann, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for “their discoveries concerning the function of single ion channels in cells”.
In 1986, he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University together with Bert Sakmann. In 1987, he received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, which is the highest honour awarded in German research.
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10. Friedrich Bergius (1884 – 1949)
Friedrich Bergius and Carl Bosch have special merits for growing the hydrogenation method, essential for transforming coal dust and hydrogen, without using any middle products, straight into gasoline and lubricating oils.
He and Carl Bosch won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1931 in recognition of their contributions to the invention and development of chemical high-pressure methods. In 1937, he was awarded the Wilhelm Exner Medal.
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11. Fritz Albert Lipmann (1899 – 1986)
Fritz Albert Lipmann holds the merits for detecting for the first time the coenzyme A (CoA) which catalyzes the glycerol and fatty acids decomposition, when oxygen is lacking. CoA is very important for the metabolic process as it produces body energy consuming steroids, amino acids, fatty acids and hemoglobin.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1953 (shared with Hans Adolf Krebs).
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12. Fritz Haber (1868 – 1934)
Fritz Haber holds the merits for his notable work on analyzing the combining process of nitrogen and hydrogen forming ammonia. His discovery since then applied for producing fertilized and weaponries.
He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber-Bosch process
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13. Georges Jean Franz Köhler (1946 – 1995)
Georges Jean Franz Köhler was the inventor of the monoclonal antibodies producing technique. Monoclonal antibodies are unique protein molecules through which diseases can be diagnosed and cured. Through this study, he gave the science the tool for immune system protection.
In 1984, together with César Milstein and Niels Kaj Jerne, Köhler won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
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14. Gerhard Domagk(1895-1964)
Gerhard Domagk contributed to the scientific development by discovering the antibiotic Sulfonamidochrysoidine (KI-730) found in pharmacies under the name Prontosil – for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1939.
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15. Gerhard Ertl (1936)
Gerhard Ertl is a respected scientist as he established the new subdicipline of physical chemistry known as surface chemistry, a subdicipline that experienced a quick growth.
In 2007 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces.
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16. Hans Fischer (1881-1945)
Hans Fischer got recognition for his interesting work as a biochemist into constitution of hemin, the red blood pigment and chlorophyll or the green color pigment found in plants, carotene or the yellow pigment – the found of vitamin A, as well as porphyrins- secreted by humans when they suffer specific illnesses.
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17. Hans Georg Dehmelt (1922)
Hans Georg Dehmelt is another emblematic figure of German science having developed the Penning trap, an electromagnetic instrument that can keep ions and electrons trapped until their structure can be defined completely.
In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
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18. Harald zur Hausen (1936)
Harald zur Hausen gets the merits for detecting the human papilloma virus (HPV), also explaining his relation to the cervical cancer. He also created HPV vaccine, as a vaccine cutting the risk for cervical cancer development – known as a wide spread cancer amongst women.
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19. Herbert Kroemer (1928)
Herbert Kroemer became a known scientist for his distinguished work jointly with Zhores Alferov and Jack S. Kilby that led to the establishment of modern computers, microchips and the IT.
Heterostructure devices invented by him, lead to the development of fibre-optic communications – widely used in computers and video-players.
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20. Hermann Staudinger (1881 – 1965)
Hermann Staudinger dedicated his life in proving the long-chain molecular structure of polymers. This discovery found a wide application in plastic industry since the 20th Century.
Moreover, his work also affected the development of molecular biology – a discipline for exploring structures of proteins and macromolecules of organisms.
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21. J. Hans D. Jensen (1907 – 1973)
J. Hans D. Jensen is an eminent figure as he was engaged in the Uranium Club, a Nuclear Project of Germany where he reached to separate uranium isotopes.
He jointly with Maria Goeppert Mayer won Nobel Prize as a reward for their great work on proposing shell nuclear model.
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22. James Franck (1882 – 1964)
James Franck is known for his demanding inquiries about the excitation and ionization of atoms by the electron attack, which resulted to confirm that the energy transfer has a quantized nature. His work contributed additionally to the establishment of the atomic bomb.
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23. Karl Ferdinand Braun (1850 –1918)
Braun is a distinguished figure in the history of media. He holds the merits for discoveries in the field of the wireless telegraphy, enabling distance transmission of information thru coded signals. His discovery found a wide application in the development of radio, television and technology.
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24. Karl Ziegler (1898 – 1973)
Karl Waldemar Ziegler is a great contributor as regards of industry of plastic. Through his dedicated research with organometallic compounds, he made possible for the first-class industrial propylene to be produced.
One of many awards Ziegler received was the Werner von Siemens Ring in 1960 jointly with Otto Bayer and Walter Reppe, for expanding the scientific knowledge of and the technical development of new synthetic materials.
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25. Konrad Emil Bloch (1912 – 2000)
Bloch gave his priceless contribution on discovering the synthesis process of cholesterol and fatty acids. Since then, mechanisms and forms of regulating cholesterol and fatty acids were revealed. Bloch received the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1964 (joint with Feodor Lynen).
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26. Kurt Alder (1902 – 1958)
Alder will remain a great figure in chemistry as he grew jointly with Otto Diels the reaction known as Diels-Alder reaction, which found a wide application in synthesizing cyclic organic compounds that led to the development of plastics.
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27. Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1906 – 1972)
Maria Goeppert-Mayer was the second female Nobel Prize Winner for proposing nuclear shell model of nuclear atomic nucleus.
As for her co-theory of shells, they proposed a model where nucleus has several shells “orbital levels”, where protons and neutrons are allocated amongst these shells in a distinguishing level of stability.
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28. Max Delbrück (1906 – 1981)
Max Delbrück became known for his discovery of viruses called bacteriophages that infect bacteria. His discovery shown that bacteriophages reproduce fast in an hour period; multiplying into hundred thousand.
Delbrück along with Salvador Luria and Alfred Hershey, shared the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses”.
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29. Max Planck (1858 – 1947)
Planck is the originator of the quantum theory, a theory that increased the understanding on the aspects of atomic and subatomic processes. Through his discoveries, he explained the crystalline structure of matter, which latter led to the creation of the atomic structure used for nuclear weapons.
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30. Max Von Laue (1879 – 1960)
Laue remains an exemplifying figure of the physics for his dedication to the discovery of X-rays diversion into crystals. His work led to the establishment of solid-state physics, a field that derived into a modern electronics.
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31. Otto Fritz Meyerhof (1884 – 1951)
Otto Fritz Meyerhof revealed through his research the hidden truths about the biochemical reactions that occur in the metabolic system of muscles, through the analysis of glycogen-lactic cycle. Therefore, he remains the main contributor on understanding the causes of muscle reactions.
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32. Otto Hahn (1879 – 1968)
Otto Hahn gets the merits for inventing the nuclear fission. He also isolated protactinium-231, an isotope of protactinium.
As a contributor to the development of atomic bomb, he became very affected by the news of atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima (1945).
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33. Otto Stern (1888 – 1969)
Otto Stern is recognized for his dedicated work in evolving molecular beam, which helps on analyzing molecules characteristics and size during the magnetic moment of proton.
He was forced to leave Germany upon the Nazi regime empowerment, migrating in United States – latter to become research professor of physics in an American renowned research institute.
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34. Paul Ehrlich (1854 –1915)
Ehrlich is historically distinguished for his dedicated exploration in hematology, immunology and chemotherapy and especially for launching the treatment formula for the disease of syphilis.
He was known also for promoting magic bullet concept that helped to the invention of antiserum for battling diphtheria as well as for standardizing therapeutic serums.
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35. Peter Grünberg (1939)
Grünberg became a recognized figure in science of physics for his great co-detection of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect.
His discovery, as explaining that by changing magnetization direction the resistance can be reduced or enlarged, found a wide application in the dimensions of magnetic storage devices (i.e. hard drives of computers).
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36. Philipp Lenard (1862 – 1947)
Holding the merits for advancing the research of cathode rays, photoelectric effect and atomic theory, he remains a much-respected figure even nowadays. Cathode tubes are found even in the modern technology such as in television and computer displays, electron microscope and further.
Philipp Lenard was focused also on studying ultraviolet light, electrical conductivity of flames and phosphorescence.
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37. Reinhard Selten (1930)
Selten keeps the merits jointly with John F. Nash and John C. Harsanyi for establishing a special theory widely used in mathematics and economy known as the Game theory. This game is used for identifying the competition advantage, within the market, with varied interests of different competitors. A movie produced under the name “Beautiful Mind” has been produced in honor of the priceless work of this group of scientists.
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38. Robert Heinrich Herman Koch (1843 –1910)
Founding the modern bacteriology, discovering causes of tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax Koch made possible the discovery of various medications that helped people defeat these terrible diseases.
An interesting fact is that Albert Einstein used his well-defined effect of gamma rays to latter discover theory of relativity and for further research.
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39. Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer (1929 – 2011)
Mössbauer holds the merits for inventing the so-called “Mössbauer effect” or recoil-free gamma-ray resonance absorption. This nuclear process enables gamma rays’ radiation absorption. This has been a very valuable tool for discovering different scientific phenomena.
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40. Sir Bernard Katz (1911 – 2003)
Katz has merits for studying the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, a substance that transmits impulses from nerve to muscle fibre and among nerves.
His research work also lead to the latter studies of organophosphates and organochlorines – a post-war study done on nerve agents and pesticides, where he concluded definition of complex enzyme cycle defining that it can certainly disrupt.
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41. Sir Ernst Boris Chain (1906 – 1979)
Chain succeeded to isolate and purify one of the most prescribed antibiotics penicillin. He even reached to do the first experiment with penicillin for medical reasons.
As a gratifying matter of his distinguished scientific work, the Imperial College London is still today named after him, as well as the road in Castlebar.
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42. Stefan Walter Hell (1962)
Stefan Walter Hell became a known scientist for overpassing the inherent resolution limit of optical microscopy through fluorescence. Fluorescence is an electromagnetic radiation production through the excitation of atoms, causing a direct reemitting.
Through his invention that leads to the Stimulated Emission Depletion microscopy and relating, he helped the world of microscopy shape. He proved that the resolving of fluorescence can be increased, as previously was limited to half of wavelength of 200 nanometers.
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43. Theodor Wolfgang Hänsch (1941)
Theodor Wolfgang Hänsch holds the merits with his counterpart John L. Hall for establishing laser spectroscopy, highly used for spectroscopic studies. This enabled the identification of light frequency released by molecules and atoms.
Together with John L. Hall and Roy J. Glauber, he received one fourth of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics,
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44. Thomas Christian Südhof (1955)
Südhof has the merits for explaining components and mechanisms of neurons’ chemical signals. These studies led to a better explanation the essential mechanisms of special neurological conditions such as schizophrenia, autism and Alzheimer.
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45.Walther Hermann Nernst (1864 -1941)
Nernst was the originator of modern physical chemistry, establishing the third law of thermodynamics on temperature. This theory describes that the total energy inside the crystal becomes absolute zero Kelvin degree temperature.
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46. Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe (1891 – 1957)
Bothe holds the merits with Max Born for originating a new method for identification of subatomic particles. He also built the first cyclotron, an instrument that quickens stimulating atomic or subatomic particles in constant magnetic field. His “coincidence method” has been widely used in atomic, comic-ray and nuclear physics for further discoveries.
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47. Werner Forssmann (1904 – 1979)
Werner Forssmann is a respected figure for giving his priceless support to the medicine through development of cardiac catheterization. This method implicates putting a tube into hart through the elbow, carried to diagnose or treat heart diseases.
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48. Werner Karl Heisenberg (1901 – 1976)
Heisenberg was the man who used matrices to communicate quantum mechanics. He holds the merits for establishing of the so-known Heisenberg uncertainty principle. His commitment was shown also for discovering hydrodynamics of turbulent flows, atomic nucleus, ferromagnetism, cosmic rays, and subatomic particles. He contributed also in building German’s nuclear reactors.
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49. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845 – 1923)
Röntgen embodies an illustrious figure of physics,evolving the theory of electromagnetic radiation that led to the detection of Röntgen rays or X-rays. Through his invention the life of human and the medicine were about to change forever. Due to his discovery the X-ray machine produced afterwards, could envision the inner side of the human body for diagnosing different hidden diseases.
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50. Wolfgang Ketterle (1957)
Ketterle reached jointly with Eric A. Cornell and Carl E. Wieman to establish the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC), a state of atom/matter in almost absolute zero degree. It is named after the name of Albert Einstein since he predicted this theory in 1924.
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51. Wolfgang Paul (1913 – 1993)
Paul has the merits for the establishment of an instrument that captures ions- atoms, molecules with electrical charge, keeping them until their structure can be defined, called the Paul trap, or ions trap. This instrument is used as an element of mass spectrometer or a trapped ion quantum computer.
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