List of German inventors and discoverers

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This is a list of German inventors and discoverers. The following list comprises people from Germany or German-speaking Europe, and also people of predominantly German heritage, in alphabetical order of the surname.

For the list containing items and ideas invented and/or discovered by Germans, see list of German inventions and discoveries.

Existing: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z See also Notes References External links

A

Ernst Abbe: Invented the first refractometer, and many other devices. Donated his shares in the company Carl Zeiss to form Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung, still in existence today. Franz Carl Achard: Developed a process to produce sugar from sugar beet. Built the first factory for the process in 1802. Robert Adler: Invented a better television remote control. Konrad Adenauer: Invented soya sausage (1916; "Kölner Wurst") and, together with Jean and Josef Oebel, [coarse] wholemeal bread (1917; Kölner Brot). Georgius Agricola: Named "the father of mineralogy". Wilhelm Albert: Invented the wire rope 1834. Kurt Alder: Discovery of the Diels–Alder reaction, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1950. Richard Altmann: Discovery of the Mitochondrion Alois Alzheimer: Psychiatrist who discovered Alzheimer's disease, a degeneration of the brain in old age. Momme Andresen (1857–1951): industrial research chemist who made inventions relating to photography Ottomar Anschütz: in 1883 he patented a camera with an internal roller blind shutter mechanism, just in front of the photographic plate. Thus the focal-plane shutter in modern recognizable form was born. Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe: Invented the gyrocompass in 1907. Manfred von Ardenne: Self-taught researcher, applied physicist, and inventor. 600 patents in fields including television and radio, electron microscopy, medical technology, nuclear technology, and plasma physics. Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander: cataloged all stars brighter than approximately magnitude 9.5 and north of -2 degrees in the Bonner Durchmusterung, the first large-scale modern star catalog. Leo Arons: Mercury-vapor lamp together with Peter Cooper Hewitt. Leopold Auerbach: Discovery of Plexus myentericus Auerbachi, or Auerbach's plexus. Max Abraham: Physicist. Worked as Max Planck's assistant for three years. Developed theories on electrons.

B

Walter Baade: astronomer. With Fritz Zwicky, he identified supernovae as a new category of astronomical objects Karl Ernst von Baer: discovered mammal ovum. Ralph Baer: Inventor of the first home video game console. Adolf von Baeyer: Chemist. Synthesized indigo, discovered the phthalein dyes, and investigated polyacetylenes, oxonium salts, nitroso compounds (1869) and uric acid derivatives (1860 and onwards) including the discovery of barbituric acid (1864). Nobel laureate 1905. Otto Bayer: Chemist. Invented polyurethane. Albert Ballin: Father of modern cruise ship travel Heinrich Band: Developed a musical instrument and called it bandoneón in 1846. It is still used in most tango orchestras. Heinrich Barkhausen: Discovered what is now called the Barkhausen effect, to describe the phenomenon, which is caused by rapid changes of size of magnetic domains in 1919, and Barkhausen stability criterion. Oskar Barnack: The father of the first mass marketed 35mm camera and Leica. Heinrich Anton de Bary: Father of Phytopathology, the science of plant diseases and modern Mycology. Coined the word symbiosis in 1879. Karl Adolph von Basedow: Discovery and description of Graves-Basedow disease Andreas Friedrich Bauer: first functional steam-powered printing press with his colleague Friedrich Koenig Wilhelm Bauer: Inventor and engineer, who built several hand-powered submarines. Eugen Baumann: He was one of the first people to create polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and, together with Carl Schotten, he discovered the Schotten-Baumann reaction. Hans Beck: Inventor of the toy Playmobil. Georg Bednorz: Physicist, discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramics, shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics. Martin Behaim: Inventor of the first globe of the world (Erdapfel) between 1491 and 1493. Alexander Behm: Inventor of echo sounding. The patent was granted in 1913. Emil Adolf von Behring: physiologist. Discovered the diphtheria antitoxin. It was the world's first cure for a disease (1891).John M. Barry, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (New York: Penguin Books, 2005) 70. He was awarded history's first Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine in 1901. Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen: Navigator and explorer. Discovered the land mass of Antarctica on January 28, 1820. Melitta Bentz: entrepreneur. She is an inventor of the coffee filter, 1908. Bertha Benz: invented brake lining. Karl Benz: industrialist. Father and inventor of the gasoline-powered automobile, 1885 (Benz Patent-Motorwagen), and pioneering founder of automobile manufacturing. Albrecht Berblinger: engineer. Inventor of the spring prosthesis and hang-glider (1811).Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger (1770-1829), known as the "Flying Tailor of Ulm", started with flight experiments in Ulm, Germany, in the early 19th century. He gained experience in downhill gliding with a maneuverable airworthy semi-rigid hang-glider and then attempted to cross the Danube River at Ulm's Eagle's Bastion on 31 May 1811. The tricky local winds caused him to crash and he was rescued by fishermen, making him the first survivor of a water immersion accident of a heavier-than-air manned "flight machine". Though he failed in his attempt to be the first man to fly, Berblinger can be regarded as one of the significant aviation pioneers who applied the "heavier than air" principle and paved the way for the more effective glide-flights of Otto Lilienthal (1891) and the Wright Brothers (1902). Less known are Berblinger's significant contributions to the construction of artificial limbs for medical use, as well as the spring-application in aviation. His invention of a special mechanical joint was also used for the juncture of the wings of his "flying machine". Because of his worthwhile contributions to medicine and flight, in 1993 the German Academy of Aviation Medicine named an annual award for young scientists in the field of aerospace medicine in his honor. Hans Berger: a German neurologist, best known as the inventor of electroencephalography (EEG) (the recording of "brain waves") in 1924, coining the name, and the discoverer of the alpha wave rhythm known as "Berger's wave" Emil Berliner: He is best known for developing the microphone and disc recording gramophone. Friedrich Bessel: astronomer; he is credited with being the first to use parallax in calculating the distance to a star. Hans Bethe: Nuclear physicist and Nobel laureate in physics 1967. During World War II, he was head of the Theoretical Division at the secret Los Alamos laboratory which developed the first atomic bombs. Albert Betz: physicist. Betz's law, 1913 Heinz Billing: Computer scientist. He invented the magnetic drum memory and built prototype laser interferometric gravitational wave detector in Garching, Munich. Gerd Binnig: Physicist. Design of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) with Heinrich Rohrer. Nobel laureate 1986. Otto von Bismarck: Under his reign, the German Empire (1871–1918) became the first modern welfare state in the world, when he e.g. innovatively implemented the following: health insurance (1883), accident insurance (1884), pension insurance (1889). Ludwig Blattner: developed the Blattnerphone, the first magnetic tape recorder (using steel tape) whilst working in Britain in the late 1920s."Blattnerphone", Orbem.co.uk, retrieved 07 February 2014 Günter Blobel: biologist, discovered signal peptides. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1999. Walter Bock: chemist, Styrene-butadiene Max Bockmühl: chemist, he developed Methadone together with German Gustav Ehrhart in 1937 in Germany, working for I.G. Farbenindustrie AG at the Farbwerke Hoechst Johann Elert Bode: astronomer, Discovered the Titus-Bode Law Ludwig Bölkow: Aeronautical pioneer. Was instrumental in the development of the Me 262, developed a new rotorhead concept for helicopters. Max Born: Physicist and mathematician. Groundbreaking work in quantum mechanics. Nobel laureate 1954 with Walther Bothe. His Ph.D. student Delbrück, and six of his assistants (Fermi, Heisenberg, Goeppert-Mayer, Herzberg, Pauli, Wigner) went on to win Nobel Prizes. His Ph.D. student J. Robert Oppenheimer led the project to develop the atomic bomb. Manfred Börner: Physicist. Developed the first working fiber-optical data transmission system in 1965. Received a patent for an "electro-optical transmission system utilizing lasers". Carl Bosch: Chemist and Nobel laureate, discovered the processes of industrial high-pressure chemistry. Robert Bosch: industrialist, engineer. He invented, engineered and launched various innovations for the motor vehicle. Walther Bothe: Nuclear physicist, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954 with Max Born. Johann Friedrich Böttger: alchemist. He was generally acknowledged as the inventor of European porcelain although more recent sources ascribe this to Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. Böttger is still credited with developing the manufacture of porcelain in Europe. Theodor Boveri: biologist, described Centrosome. Karlheinz Brandenburg: Inventor and audio engineer; father of audio compression format MPEG Audio Layer 3, more commonly known as MP3. Karl Ferdinand Braun: Inventor of the CRT oscilloscope in 1897. Braun contributed significantly to the development of radio and television technology: he shared with Guglielmo Marconi the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics. Wernher von Braun: The preeminent rocket engineer of the 20th century. Developed the V-2 rocket for Germany. Built Saturn V rocket in USA which put man on the moon. Adolf Brix: developed the unit for specific gravity of liquids, degree Brix (°Bx). Korbinian Brodmann: neurologist, Brodmann area in brain Walter Bruch: PAL, colour encoding system for analogue television Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Bruhn: Inventor of Taximeter Ernst Büchner: Chemist and inventor of Büchner flask and Büchner funnel. Robert Bunsen: Chemist who developed the Bunsen burner, and with Gustav Kirchhoff he invented the spectrometer (1859) and discovered caesium (1860) and rubidium (1861). Wilhelm Busch: Caricaturist, painter and poet; father of comics. Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann: musical instrument maker. Pioneer and promoter of the harmonica. Adolf Busemann: aerospace engineer. Discovered the effect of swept wing for modern aircraft in 1935. Adolf Butenandt: biochemist. Discovered primary female sex hormones. Shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Leopold Ruzicka in 1939. Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes: Founder of synoptic meteorology. As an astronomer, he was noted for demonstrating that meteors occur in the upper atmosphere and thus not really a meteorological phenomenon. Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer: German chemist, who, together with Paul Harteck, discovered the spin isomers of hydrogen, orthohydrogen and parahydrogen in 1929.

C

Georg Cantor: Mathematician, discoverer of the set theory (1870s), which has become a fundamental theory in mathematics. Ernst Boris Chain: biochemist, co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on penicillin (together with Fleming). Carl von Clausewitz: The father of modern military theory. Rudolf Clausius: Mathematician and physicist known for the Second law of thermodynamics. Justus Claproth: Jurist and inventor of recyclable paper and deinking. Nicolaus Copernicus: Astronomer, formulated a heliocentric model of the universe which placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the centre.